Yarn/Wire Records David Franzson for WERGO

by Ted Gordon on May 16, 2014, 4 p.m.

WERGO Records, one of the foremost international record labels for new music, has just released a new album of works by PSNY composer David Brynjar Franzson, performed by the New York-based ensemble Yarn/Wire. Recorded at the state-of-the-art Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center at the Renssalaer Polytechnic Institute, this album features three related compositions by Franzson under the title The Negotiation of Context. All three of the works of this series - parts A, B and C - are available through PSNY. These three independent works examine the topographies of musical contexts: the histories of instruments, the social dynamic between performers, and the negotiation of contextual meaning between performers and their audience. 

The CD also includes a performance video of Yarn/Wire in the process of recording—a document that adds to the contextual fabric of Franzson's meta-exploration.  

Check out an excerpt from The Negotiation of Context (A) here:

Beyond Cage: Kate Soper, Alex Mincek, Morton Feldman, and More!

by Ted Gordon on Oct. 27, 2012, 1:49 p.m.

John Cage's name is plastered all over New York City right now, as it should be: this year, he would have turned 100 years old. And what better way to celebrate Cage's pioneering work than premiering new boundary-pushing compositions alongside mid-century works that inspired them? The S.E.M. Ensemble, as a part of their massive Beyond Cage Festival, is doing just that in concerts in several venues around New York, including premieres of new works by PSNY Composers Kate Soper and Alex Mincek, and performances of works by Morton Feldman, Luigi Nono, and Karlheinz Stockhausen, among many others. 

On October 28th, The S.E.M. Ensemble, joined by Ian Antonio of Yarn/Wire and Kate Soper of Wet Ink, premiere Soper's The Crito. and Mincek's V, both composed in 2012. 

For an idea of what these works could sound like, check out an earlier work by Soper for voice and flute: 

Be sure to attend the concert of major orchestral works by Morton Feldman on November 5th at Alice Tully Hall, which will include the American Premieres of Flute and Orchestra and Violin and Orchestra, as well as Piano and Orchestra and Structures for Orchestra!