music for saxophone, piano and electronics
Damien Royannais - saxophones
Paul Jackson - piano
1. The Colour of Sadness (Andrew Lovett) 15.02 - (price: 50p)
2. Medieval Lamentation (arranged by Paul Jackson) 5.38 - (price: 50p)
3. Baryptychos (Paul Jackson) 5.09 - (price: 50p)
4. Composition No. 62c: Gruppen Modulor 3 (Simon H. Fell)
5. Damned (Olivier Pasquet)
6. Noronquí (Julio d’Escriván) 11.09 - (price: 50p)
Editing: Gareth Stuart
Further Editing and Mastering: Julio d’Escriván
Editing and Mastering of Gruppen Modulor : Simon Fell
Electronics by Andrew Lovett (Colour of Sadness) and Julio d’Escriván (Noronquí and Armenian Folksong)
Produced by Julio d’Escriván
Executive Producer: Kevin Flanagan
The Colour of Sadness - Andrew Lovett
The title is from a woodcut (The Colour of Sadness), which is part of a suite, Roaming Far from Home (1953) by the Japanese artist, Shiko Munakata. What particularly fascinated me was the paradoxical suggestion of both restless movement and melancholy stillness in the image. The piece uses extensive microtonal tuning in both the saxophone and pre-recorded material. It lasts for sixteen minutes.
Andrew Lovett specialises in electroacoustic composition, particularly combined with small groups of instruments or soloists. His work has been performed in Germany, France, Switzerland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Japan, Canada, Cuba, the USA and throughout the UK. Andrew Lovett studied music at Cambridge University and composition at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, London. He gained a doctorate from City University, London in 1987.
Medieval Lamentation - Arranged by Paul Jackson
Transcribed by Paul Jackson, remixed and edited by Julio d’Escriván This piece began life as a transcription from soprano saxophone of a traditional Armenian lamentation, ‘mourning of the mother of the commander Vardan’, originally performed on two duduks by Gevork Dabagyan and Grigor Tagushyan. The original recording, by Damien Royannais, has been remixed to produce a new piece in keeping with the spirit of the other compositions presented on this recording.
Baryptychos - Paul Jackson
A reworking of sections of an earlier instrumental test piece (Triptych), Baryptychos employs repeated note gestures and fluctuating semi-tonal motifs alongside internal resonances from the piano and inharmonic sounds from the saxophone. Two types of musical material are presented and then combined to form the final section.
Paul Jackson (b.1962) is an academic, performer, conductor and some-time composer living and working in Cambridge. His musical interests encompass composition, improvisation, electro-acoustic music and the music of Luciano Berio and Percy Grainger.
Composition No. 62c: Gruppen Modulor 3 - Simon H. Fell
Gruppen Modulor 3 has its origins in my on-going composition project Compilation IV. As part of the preparation for this large-scale work, early in 2002 I composed a series of 24 melodies which would form the thematic basis for both the main work and a series of satellite pieces which might grow out of it. The melodies themselves were constructed – both in terms of pitch and rhythm relationships - using schemes influenced by the writings of several thinkers regarding proportion and relationship; these included Stockhausen, George Russell, Le Corbusier and Kandinsky.
Simon Fell is a composer and double bassist active in free improvisation, contemporary jazz and chamber music. He has worked with Peter Brötzmann, John Zorn, Derek Bailey and Evan Parker among others; regular performing units include SFQ, IST, The London Improvisers Orchestra and Hession/Wilkinson/Fell.
Sonata For Baritone Saxophone and Piano - Latif Friedman
This piece in two movements shares a sonic heritage with the Manchester School. It explores the rich sonority of the baritone saxophone as it shares the musical material with the piano. Friedman’s varied compositions were often inspired by the musicians with whom he came into contact, thus the Sonata for Baritone Saxophone was inspired and first performed by Damien Royannais and Paul Jackson.
(Hermann) Latif Friedman (1929 -99) grew up in Manchester. After war service he attended the Royal Manchester College of Music (today the Royal Northern College of Music) where he won many prizes for composition and was contemporary with, among others, Peter Maxwell Davies and Harrison Birtwistle.
Damned - Olivier Pasquet
Damned is dedicated to Damien Royannais. It is based on a system of relations between mechanical repetitions and short aleatoric accidents. There is no sound transformation but just repetitions of the saxophone line. The result is a playful echoing in time of the instrumentalist and live electronics which plays upon the listener’s expectations. 'Accidents' are intended to happen in the music but also as a result of the sonic imagery created by repetition.
Olivier Pasquet is a composer and an electro-musical designer. He worked as a musical assistant in the production department at IRCAM from 1999 to 2004.
Noronquí - Julio d’Escriván
Working in an impressionistic language, the composer attempts to recreate an underwater meeting of sounds from the Venezuelan coast and the echoes of nineteenth century Europe, as a shipwreck of music and sonic art.
Noronquí means 'Northern Key' in pidgin English from the Venezuelan archipelago of Los Roques. It explores the sound of Claude Debussy’s L’isle Joyeaux both in processing the pitch material and the sound of the piece itself, previously recorded.
Julio d’Escriván (b.1960) is a Venezuelan composer who lives and works in England, His music has won various prizes both for acoustic and electroacoustic works, as well as having been broadcast and performed in Europe and The Americas.
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