The Empty Set

The Empty Set
Saturday 9th March 7.30pm
Glasgow University Concert Hall.
Free entry

Marjolaine Charbin - piano
Dimitra Lazaridou Chatzigoga - zither
Neil Davidson - guitar
Rhodri Davies - harp
Mariam Rezaei - turntables

First concert by The Empty Set performing improvisation and compositions by members of the group. The Empty Set was originally put together to record music by Mieko Shiomi, James Saunders, Sam Sfirri and Sarah Hughes for the Another Timbre label in 2012, with several of their recordings featured on the critically acclaimed Wandelweiser und so weiter box set. The concert is co-produced by Never Come Ashore and Music in the University, and funded by the University's Chancellor's Fund. Free entry. Mariam Rezaei will also be giving a workshop on experimental turntable use at Ladyfest Glasgow. Details here.

Trondheim

Norwegian poet Arild Vange has been working with improvisers for several years. With his book annerledes enn he worked to integrate forms of listening into his writing. In October 2010 he and Neil Davidson embarked on a tour of high schools in the Trøndelag area of Norway as part of the Kulturelle Skolesekken (cultural schoolbag) initiative. This concert was recorded at the end of the tour.

Arild Vange - voice / poems
Michael Duch - double bass
Kyrre Laastad - percussion
Neil Davidson - acoustic guitar

Alac
Aac

Other Islands

other islands by Nick Fells

"other islands is an ensemble piece involving 4 players, for piano, violin, sax and computer. There is some manipulation of the performed sound by the computer player, and there is also a fixed soundtrack that creates an environment for the performed sounds.

It grew from an earlier collaboration with violinist Barbara Lueneburg on another piece (CoS). We’d spent time at STEIM in Amsterdam honing a particular way of playing very simple materials, developing a style of playing hand in hand with what we considered to be an appropriate sonic and technological environment. With intense focus from both sides, the making process itself took on a particular mood. It goes without saying that personal predispositions and musical histories bear massively on this kind of thing.

other islands is a little different to CoS in that we didn’t spend much time collaborating on the composition. It grew more from a consideration of how ensemble situations per se seem to distil the interplay of memory, identity, and desire into a sort of group ‘affect’. Thinking about these things while walking around the streets in Glasgow made me reflect on how the improvised making and breaking of tiny-scale short-term relationships in everyday life simply continues into ensemble playing of any kind.

As well, Barbara had invited me to come and work with ensemble Intégrales in Hamburg to make a piece for a concert they were doing called utopia. The island state seemed to be an appropriate metaphor for the interplay of isolation and integration taking place in ensemble playing."

The piece was performed by ensemble Intégrales at the Operastabile in Hamburg in December 2009, and recorded and broadcast by Deutschlandfunk for Konzertdokument der Woche on Sunday 24th January 2010.

Violin – Barbara Lueneburg
Sax – Burkhardt Friedrich
Piano – Ninon Gloger
Computer – Nick Fells
Concert sound projection – Marko Ciciliani
Recording & Production - Deutschlandfunk

Recording used with kind permission of Deutschlandfunk and ensemble
Intégrales.

Mp3

Flac

Score

hinwandeln (zwischen himmel und erd)

Rhodri Davies - pedal harp, Michael Francis Duch - double bass, John Tilbury - organ

hinwandeln (zwischen himmel und erd) composed by Michael Pisaro

Recorded 10th of March 2011 in the University of Glasgow chapel as art of the trio's performance at the exhibition and concert series 'Every Day is a Good Day' featuring the work of John Cage. The concert featured music by Cornelius Cardew, Michael Pisaro, John Cage, Christian Wolff and Morton Feldman.

WAV
MP3

Contemporary Music Ensemble Glasgow University 2007

Sustained C, 7 Minutes mp3

Sustained C & minutes flac

Instructions: Play a unison c for 1 minute. For the next five minutes make tiny adjustments to the intonation of the c. Play a unison c for the final minute.

CME 2007/2008:
Flute - Liene Rozite
Flute - Laura Harkins
Flute - Natalia Franklin Pearce
Flute - Graham Brooks
Trumpet - Jacob Clue
Violin - Francis Direen
Guitar - Alan Govan
Alto Saxophone - Sarah Rennie

Insects - Armin Sturm / Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra

INSECTS by Armin Sturm
Performed by the Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra at Glasgow Jazz Festival June 2010.

flac
mp3
documents

This piece is not really about insects but about development in improvisation. It examines some aspects of musical form and the development of musical material with the aid of biological metaphors. The players work autonomously within periods of activity that are mapped onto the developmental cycles of insects. There are two cycles: Development 1 for moth type insects and Development 2 for grasshopper type insects.  In the concert the orchestra performed both versions, Insects 1 and Insects 2. An annual development cycle was taken to last 9 minutes with each player dividing up their time into three three minute seasons. In each piece the orchestra plays through two annual cycles.

Christopher Barclay – trombone, Stuart Brown - drums, George Burt - guitar, Aileen Campbell - voice Neil Davidson – guitar, Chris Heinrich - violin, Robert Henderson - trumpet, George Lyle - double bass, Nicola MacDonald - melodica / voice, Raymond MacDonald - saxophones, Una MacGlone - double Bass, George Murray – trombone, Peter Nicholson - cello, Emma Roche - flute, Liene Rozite – flute, Michael Shearer - clarinet, Armin Sturm - double bass, Fritz Welch - drums and percussion

Recorded, mixed and mastered by Jim McEwan. Insect drawing by Nadfly.