Adrian Knight's "Obsessions"

by Ted Gordon on March 1, 2016, 10:15 a.m.

Adrian Knight's music is not afraid of dwelling. Knight composes music that stays, explores, and perhaps expands the associations that music previously had into new ways of being in the world. Not afraid of long-form, iterative compositions, Knight has composed sonic meditations for a vareity of instruments—including string quartet, piano and electronics, and the guitar-percussion duo The Living Earth Show. 

The pianist R. Andrew Lee was perhaps a natural fit for Knight's interest in long-form, evolving treatments of sonic space. Lee's recent commissioning project seeks to expand the repertoire for solo piano of compositions that are 45 minutes or longer—a rarity in a musical landscape dominated by short, easily digestible new pieces of music. Instead, Lee's commissions seek to dominate a concert program, or serve as the basis for single recording projects.

Knight's piece for Lee, Obsessions, has recently been released by Irritable Hedgehog recordings, and is freely available for streaming at I CARE IF YOU LISTEN. In the liner notes to the album, William Robin writes, 

“Obsessions” is at once abstract and deeply felt. The compulsive repetitions of the music sound, at times, less peaceful than indignant, irritated, regretful. As Knight remarked, “It’s probably my most personal piece, because, like life, its trajectory wasn’t predetermined. All I knew was that it would have to end.” 

Lee will perform Obsessions on March 2nd in Brooklyn at Roulette, and on March 4th in Boston at the Goethe-Institut. 

Marilyn Nonken Debuts Richard Carrick's "la touche sonore sous l'eau"

by Ted Gordon on Feb. 4, 2016, 1:14 p.m.

Debussy's solo piano works and Korean pansori singing might not be the most related styles of music. But in the hands of Richard Carrick, the melodic nuances of these two styles come into a stark symmetry, with the addition of Carrick's own signature compositional voice.

Carrick's newly commissioned work for pianist Marilyn Nonken, la touche sonore sous l'eau, is the first movement of a projected suite, and was premiered at the University of Pennsylvania on January 27th. Nonken will tour the work around the country, with performances at le poisson rouge, Tufts University, the University of Pennsylvania, and more. Carrick conceptualizes "la touche sonore" [sonorous touch] on the piano, leading to new possibilities in the dynamic of melody and harmony. The work is based on "a harmonic/melodic reduction and re-understanding of Claude Debussy's compositional lightness," specifically Debussy's Jeux. 

On May 19th (at Tufts University) and 23rd (at Brooklyn's Roulette), Nonken will debut a new solo work by Carrick, in memoriam of Gerard Grisey. The performances will take place alongside Gerard Grisey's Vortex Temporum, performed by Sound Icon.

Carrick's recent work for solo violin, Seongeum, translates another aspect of physicality into music. This work is inspired by pansori singing, a Korean folk style that is intertwined with storytelling and drumming. Carrick writes,

I hear the violin as a similarly expressive instrument, where the sonic nuances of bow articulations and finger techniques (glissandi, trill, etc) are the primary sources of its expressivity, with notes a distant second. Therefore, I was interested in translating Pansori vocalizations to the violin.

Carrick's work joins Ken Ueno'si screamed at the sea... as the second work on PNSY inspired by pansori. Violinist Lauren Cauley debuts Seongeum on February 18 at GK Arts Center in Brookyln, NY as part of a collaboration with choreographer Miro Magliore. 

Kate Soper Closes 2015's Resonant Bodies Festival with Members of Wet Ink

by Ted Gordon on Sept. 11, 2015, 11:43 a.m.

Since its founding in 2013, The Resonant Bodies Festival has been the premiere venue for the performance of new vocal works in New York. Tonight at Roulette, the festival concludes with a trio of vocalists performing repertoire from around the world, and across the spectrum of contemporary compositional styles. Our very own PSNY composer Kate Soper is featured in tonight's performance, closing out the festival with selections from Ipsa-Dixit (2010-2015), a musical theater piece that "explores the treachery of language". Accompanied by members of the Wet Ink Ensemble—Erin Lesser, flute; Josh Modney, violin; Ian Antonio, percussion—Soper's work uses texts from sources as varied as Plato, Lydia Davis, Wittgenstein, and Freud. Two sections from Ipsa-Dixit are available from PSNY, both duets between voice and another instrument: Cipher, for voice and violin, and Only the Words Themselves Mean What They Say, for voice and flute. 

For a preview of tonight's festival-closer, check out Soper performing Only the Words Themselves Mean What They Say with Erin Lesser at EMPAC: 

Kate Soper: Only the Words Themselves Mean What They Say from Kate Soper on Vimeo.