Squidco: Epstein, Nomi: Shades

Epstein, Nomi

Shades

(Another Timbre

- UK)

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Influenced by New York School composers, Fluxus, Oliveros Sonic Meditations, and Wandelweiser, Boston-based composer Nomi Epstein's fascinating scores take unique and experimental approaches to composition, heard here in three chamber works, two recorded by London's Apartment House, and a live recording from a 2019 concert in Berlin, "sounds for Berlin".

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Personnel:

Anton Lukoszevieze-cello

Bridget Carey-viola

Amalia Young-violin

Mira Benjamin-violin

Michiko Ogowa-clarinet

Joseph Houston-piano, whistle

Miako Klein-violin

Christian Kesten-voice, whistle

Raymond Brien-conductor

Nancy Ruffer-flute

Ben Smith-piano

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Label: Another Timbre
Catalog ID: at222
Squidco Product Code: 34561

Format: CD
Condition: New
Released: 2024
Country: UK
Packaging: Cardboard Gatefold
Tracks 1 and 3 recorded at Goldsmiths College, in London, UK, on July 1st and 2nd, 2023, by Simon Reynell.

Track 2 recorded at KM28, in Berlin, Germany, on June 27th, 2019, by Sam Dunscombe

Descriptions, Reviews, &c.

Another Timbre Interview with Nomi Epstein

Can you tell us about your background, and how you came to experimental music?

As a child, new music was a regular part of the sound world of my house, since my father's new music ensemble rehearsed in our basement. Early on in my studies I was drawn to the New York School composers. Over the years, at festivals like Ostrava Days, I worked with a lot of composers who fostered the notational, indeterminate, and aesthetic inquiries I was interested in. When I arrived at Northwestern for my grad program, I'd heard that I had just missed studying with a few experimental music faculty who'd recently left, and my classmates and I found a shared interest in these kinds of works, ideas, types of listening. In the years after my grad program, I started performing, discussing, curating, and working with a lot of these text scores, some Fluxus, some Oliveros Sonic Meditations, and some Wandelweiser scores. In 2010, I founded the a•pe•ri•od•ic ensemble, initially with the intention of focusing the programming on Wandelweiser works. But as it continued it broadened out and became more about a commitment to a particular listening and ensemble performance practice that I was enamoured with, and that really feeds my soul. Working with oblique text scores of varying levels of indeterminacy allowed me to find these egalitarian performance realisation spaces devoted to a sense of spaciousness, appreciation for subtleties of sound/silence/colour, and the group's creation of these shared moments of sonic fragility.

I know that you teach as well as perform. Do you feel that that assists your work as a composer, or does it sometimes get in the way?

At the moment in my current professorship, teaching doesn't quite communicate with my artistic practice, but in past positions there has certainly been more connection or relationship between these parts of my work. Over the last few years, I've been able to channel and focus my Deep Listening work into becoming a certified practitioner and this sort of "teaching" (leading workshops) - although we use the term "facilitating" - fosters a more reciprocal relationship with my artistic practice, so it's been very meaningful for me.

Tell us about the Berlin 'sounds' piece on the CD. How did that come about?

Back in 2019, I was invited by Rebecca Lane and Heather Frasch to be a guest composer for their fantastic portrait series, Vibrant Matter in Berlin. For this, I wrote one new work, 'sounds for Berlin' for the ensemble they'd put together for me (which was such a complete joy to work with)- Christian Kesten Joseph Houston, Michiko Ogawa, and Miako Klein, and we rehearsed daily in preparation for the KM28 concert. It was truly wonderful to get to work with this particular group of players, thinkers, humans, and such an anomaly to have so much concentrated rehearsal time - several hours each day for a week. So, this was quite a special experience in that, not only was I working with these really fine players who worked together so well and easily, but we could get far beyond the interpretive point you can usually reach with short rehearsal periods. The depth of entry into the work, sitting with the sounds, ideas, notation was much more comprehensive, and having spent so much time making this piece together, with each other, the sounds carefully emerged from a uniquely connected experience (in concert and rehearsal). I'm very grateful to this group, and to Heather and Bec.

And what about 'Sextet', the oldest piece on the disc, who was that written for, and when was it first performed?

'Sextet' was written for Ensemble SurPlus, who premiered it at Schloss Solitude (Stuttgart) back in 2011. I started working on the piece while in an artist residency with David Behrman and some sound artists/composers who became regular collaborators, relationships that continue today. This was in the swampland of Florida in winter, and I began collecting these fallen acorns, examining their different colours, shapes, feel, weight, size, states of decomposition, etc. One acorn was my favourite, and I still have it in safe keeping today. I began meeting with each of the artists and asking each of them to hold and describe the acorn. I was interested in their observations and how they communicated these observations (what they were drawn to describing, in what order they discussed its features, the words they used to do so). This process somehow translated into a set of line drawings where I'd draw 3-7 short horizontal lines on top of one another quickly and slightly out of sync on the page with one another, so I'd end up with these sets of short, thick line formations. I endlessly repeated this and have pages and pages of these images. I recorded the sound of myself making them, pencil on manuscript paper, though I didn't end up using this in the piece. However, what I took from this process of line drawing and the pages filled with images was the repetitive nature of creating an image which was always a bit different. This led to my conceiving of each image as a "super-pitch," a note which I understood as thick due to the band of microtonal increments in its makeup, and this, in turn, became the concept behind the entire piece. Each super-pitch moves through several different images of itself. Initially 'Sextet' was written as a 45-60 minute piece, which has yet to be performed. The abridged 20-25 minute version that is on the CD is what's been performed over the years.

You wrote the string quartet 'shades' specifically for this recording project. How was it working with Apartment House for the first time?

First I want to say a bit about how this project came about, as it emerged almost dreamlike in my life, and I'll forever feel incredibly connected with it because of this. One night over the pandemic quarantine, I was, as many were, feeling particularly empty, unsure, uninspired, and worried about the future. I was feeling quite lonely musically, no concerts to attend, perform, curate, no rehearsing with my ensemble, sitting even in silence with others, and as I went to sleep that night, I came up with a project I would propose the next morning. I had decided I'd propose a portrait album with Apartment House and Another Timbre. In the middle of the night, I woke up and, as habit, checked my email, and lo and behold an email sat in my inbox from you, asking if I would be interested in putting together a portrait album with Another Timbre/Apartment House. I was in disbelief. Somehow this project had completely materialised without any doing on my part except for merely having the thought of proposing it. (I've been unsuccessful in repeating this sort of materialisation in my life).

'shades' plays around with some of the structural openness that I'd explored in a few other recent pieces like my 'portals' where individual performers have options of how and when to enter into/exit sections, and these entries usher the rest of the ensemble into a section requiring everyone to listen closely for it possibly beginning. This was combined with my obsessive love of glissando, especially on string instruments, as well as this pull for performers between time duration notation and working through material whose playing may contradict this time.

I'd worked with a few musicians from the ensemble over the years on different projects, but getting to work with Apartment House as ensemble was new to me, an occasion I was quite excited about. Their sensitivity and respect for sound, if that makes sense, was palpable in the recording studio. I left the 'shades' session completely moved, transported by their work.

More generally I'm completely indebted to all of the musicians who play on this album, the beauty they've brought to my ears and heart. I hold this project very close to my heart. It feels very personal, as if it holds something of great meaning in my life because of the circumstances in which it came about, and the intimate sounds that were shared.

This album has been reviewed on our magazine:

The Squid's Ear!

Artist Biographies

• Show Bio for Anton Lukoszevieze

"Cellist Anton Lukoszevieze (born 1965 in the UK) is one of the most diverse performers of his generation and is notable for his performances of avant-garde, experimental and improvised music. Anton has given many performances at numerous international festivals throughout Europe and the USA (Maerzmusik, Donaueschingen, Wien Modern, GAS, Transart, Ultima, etc.etc.). He has also made frequent programmes and broadcasts for BBC Radio 3, Danish Radio, SR2, Sweden, Deutschland Rundfunk, WDR, Germany and ORT, Austria. Deutschlandfunk, Berlin produced a radio portrait of him in September, 2003. Anton has also performed concerti with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra at the 2001 Aldeburgh festival and the Netherlands Radio Symphony Orchestra. He has collaborated with many composers and performers including David Behrman, Alvin Lucier, Amnon Wolman, Pierre Strauch, Rytis Mazulis, Karlheinz Essl, Helmut Oehring, Christopher Fox, Philip Corner, Alvin Curran, Phill Niblock and Laurence Crane, He is unique in the UK through his use of the curved bow (BACH-Bogen), which he is using to develop new repertoire for the cello. From 2005-7 he was New Music Fellow at Kings College, Cambridge and Kettles Yard Gallery. Anton is the subject of four films (FoxFire Eins) by the renowned artist-filmmaker Jayne Parker. A new film Trilogy with compositions by Sylvano Bussotti, George Aperghis and Laurence Crane premieres at The London Film Festival, October 2008. In November will premiere a new hour long work by Christopher Fox for cello and the vocal ensemble Exaudi commissioned by the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival and will also present new solo works for cello and live electronics. Anton is also active as an artist, his work has been shown in Holland (Lux Nijmegen), CAC, Vilnius, Duisburg (EarPort), Austria, (Sammlung Essl), Wien Modern, The Slade School of Art, Kettles Yard Gallery, Cambridge Film Festival and Rational Rec. London. His work has been published in Musiktexte, Cologne, design Magazine and the book SoundVisions (Pfau-Verlag, Saarbrucken, 2005). Anton Lukoszevieze is founder and director of the ensemble Apartment House, a member of the radical noise group Zeitkratzer and recently made his contemporary dance debut with the Vincent Dance Company in Broken Chords, Dusseldorf."

-Kalvos Damian (http://www.kalvos.org/lukosze.html)
10/30/2024

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• Show Bio for Bridget Carey

"Bridget Carey studied jointly at the Royal Academy of Music and London University and has pursued a varied freelance career based in London, and has developed a particular reputation in the field of new music.

For 15 years she premiered new chamber opera for the Almeida, whilst working in dance scores with Siobhan Davies and Rambert companies, classical contemporary with Opus 20 and Music Projects/London and new complexity with Ensemble Expose. From 1995-2005 she was viola player with the Kreutzer string quartet. More recently, her chamber music interests include Okeanos and the RPS award-winning experimental music group Apartment House, with whom she continues to add to her chamber music discography. She has been a member of Britten Sinfonia for the last 20 years, and is a regular guest with London Sinfonietta and BCMG, among others."

-Okeanos Website (http://okeanos.co.uk/wp/?page_id=1017)
10/30/2024

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• Show Bio for Amalia Young

"I am a London-based violinist, working in the fields of classical and experimental music. My research interests are in listening, embodiment, and contemporary performance practices. A bodily, meditative, and granular attention to sound and how we share it is at the heart of my practice.

As a recitalist and ensemble player, I have performed at St. Martin-in-the-Fields, the Holywell Music Room, Café OTO, the Ashmolean Museum, the Aldeburgh Festival, the RAM Piano Festival, the Athenaeum Club, London Fashion Week, the New England Conservatory, and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (Boston), amongst others. I particularly enjoy collaborative work with my ensembles the Kavinsky Trio (violin/sax/piano), and the Komuna Collective (string quartet/DJs/visual artists). I have also premiered works by Martin Butler, Jordan Hunt, and Ross Harris, amongst others, and enjoy interdisciplinary collaborations with composer and dancer friends. Also a choral singer, I worked as an alto at St James the Greater, Leicester from 2016-17, and St George Headstone, London from 2018-2021.

I am a graduate of the Royal Academy of Music, where I was also recipient of a scholarship and the Doris Faulkener Prize for Violin, and more recently the University of Oxford. I am currently reading for the MMus in Performance and Related Studies at Goldsmiths, University of London."

-Amalia Young Website (https://www.amaliayoung.com/about)
10/30/2024

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• Show Bio for Mira Benjamin

"Mira Benjamin is a Canadian violinist, researcher and new-music instigator.

She performs new and experimental music, with a special interest in microtonality & tuning practice. She actively commissions music from composers at all stages of their careers, and develops each new work through multiple performances. Current collaborations include new works by Anna Höstman, Scott McLaughlin, Amber Priestley, Taylor Brook and James Weeks.

Since 2011, Mira has co-directed NU:NORD - a project-based music and performance network which instigates artistic exchanges and encourages community building between music creators from Canada, Norway & the UK. To date NU:NORD has engaged 79 artists and commissioned 62 new works. Through this initiative, Mira hopes to offer a foundation from which Canadian artists can reach out to artistic communities overseas, and provide a conduit through which UK & Norwegian artists can access Canada's rich art culture.

Originally from Vancouver, British Columbia, Mira lived for ten years in Montréal, where she was a member of Quatuor Bozzini. Since 2014 she has resided in London (UK), where she regularly performs with ensembles such as Apartment House, Decibel, and the London Contemporary Orchestra Soloists, and is currently the Duncan Druce Scholar in Music Performance at the University of Huddersfield.

Mira is the recipient of the 2016 Virginia Parker Prize from the Canada Council for the Arts. The prize is awarded annually to a Canadian musician in recognition of their contribution to the artistic life in Canada and internationally."

-St. Martin in the Field Website (http://mirabenjamin.com/about/)
10/30/2024

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• Show Bio for Michiko Ogowa

Michiko Ogowa is a Berlin clarinetist performing contemporary music. She has recorded with Samuel Dunscombe, Lucy Railton, and Taku Sugimoto.-Bandcamp (https://michikoogawa.bandcamp.com/)
10/30/2024

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• Show Bio for Joseph Houston

"Joseph Houston is a British pianist active in the fields of contemporary and experimental music. Based in Berlin, Joseph performs regularly in festivals and venues across Europe both as a soloist and with other artists. He particularly enjoys projects which involve collaborating closely with composers and other performers, including recently with: Christian Wolff, Lore Lixenberg, Louis D'Heudieres, Rolf Hind, Nomi Epstein, Mark Barden, Stephen Crowe, Catherine Lamb, and Christian Mason. He is principal pianist with the Octandre Ensemble, a London-based new music group focusing on music written since 1945.

Joseph aims to curate unique and immersive programmes that combine works from various musical genres, generating a whole that is bigger than the sum of its parts, while involving himself as much as possible in the compositional process of new commissions. He believes music is fundamentally collaborative and is particularly interested in works that challenge the traditional composer-performer-listener triangle; new or unusual notation practices; and pieces that intensely explore the sonic possibilities of the instrument. He works on a project-by-project basis, building programmes that explore these ideas.

After undergraduate studies at the University of York - receiving a first-class BA in Music and the Wilfrid Mellers Prize for outstanding academic achievement - Joseph attended the Royal College of Music, London, where he was awarded the Frank Merrick Prize, 2nd Prize in the Beethoven Piano Competition, and an MMus in Advanced Performance with distinction.

Soon after leaving the RCM he was selected for Making Music's Philip and Dorothy Green Award for young concert artists; received 2nd Prize in the British Contemporary Piano Competition; won a Help Musicians UK 'Emerging Excellence' award; and gained a place on City Music Foundation's young artist scheme. He was also chosen as a Park Lane Group Young Artist in 2013, which led to his debut solo recitals at the Purcell Room and Wigmore Hall, performing works by Scriabin, Michael Zev Gordon, Beethoven, Thomas Simaku, Charlotte Bray, Colin Matthews, and Debussy. Joseph has performed as a soloist with various orchestras, playing music ranging from Brahms' 1st Piano Concerto and Tchaikovsky's 1st Piano Concerto, to Messiaen's 'Turangalîla-Symphonie' and John Cage's 'Concert for Piano and Orchestra'. In recent years he has performed all over Europe at venues and festivals such as the Akademie der Künste (Berlin), Ухо Festival (Kiev, Ukraine), the BBC Proms, Summartónar Festival (Faroe Islands), and Lilles Piano(s) Festival. His playing has been broadcast on BBC Radio 3, 4, and 6 Music, Radio Cemat Rome, France Musique, SWR2, and SRF Radio.

Recent performances include Cat Lamb's 'Prisma Interius VIII' at the Berlin Biennale, duos with Sarah Saviet (violin) at Radialsystem as part of Sasha Waltz's ZUHÖREN, and solo performances at Donaueschinger Musiktage 2019. Future projects include a CD of Thomas Simaku's chamber music with Quartor Diotima, to be released on BIS; a portrait CD of composer Mark Barden, to be released on WERGO; and performances throughout 2020 of Feldman's 'Patterns in a Chromatic Field' with Lucy Railton in Berlin, Paris, Copenhagen, and London."

-Joseph Houston Website (https://www.josephhouston.co.uk/about)
10/30/2024

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• Show Bio for Miako Klein

"Miako Klein, Berlin-based musician, performer and improviser, has a greatly varied musical background. Classically educated on the recorder and violin, she has extensive experiences in performing contemporary music, as well as in Early and improvised music. Miako constantly questions and challenges the conventional ways of music performance by pushing boundaries between styles and genres, by experiment, and by interdisciplinary collaborations. She performs as a soloist and chamber musician and often collaborates with composers who have written works for her.

Her recent projects as a performer include the production of "The Past" with Constanza Macras | Dorky Park, the premiere of the opera "Thanks to My Eyes" by Oscar Bianchi / Joel Pommerat with Ensemble Modern and further performances throughout 2012 in Brussels, Paris, Lisbon and Strasbourg, the interdisciplinary project "Synecdochism" composed by Chikage Imai, which is based on the synthesis of Japanese Performance art with contemporary Western music, as well as being part of the creation as composer and performer of dance production "INFLUX" by Hybride Cie (Paris/ Avignon).Miako has played with Ensemble Modern, ICE International Contemporary Ensemble, Quartet New Generation, and she regularly performs with trumpet player Sava Stoianov (member of Ensemble Modern), trumpeter Brad Henkel, her band Pain Perdu (with Mathis Mayr and Sebastian Flaig), trio KAZE and the Early music ensemble "apparatus musicus berlin". She was former member of the Renaissance Recorder Consort "The Royal Wind Music" and the "Espiga String Quartet". As an improviser she performed with Brad Henkel (Brooklyn), Audrey Chen (Berlin), Jasper Stadhouders (Amsterdam), Harald Austbø (Amsterdam) a.o.Throughout 2010/11, she worked as musician at the Cirque du Soleil Show ZAiA in Macau. She won fellowships as Artist in Residency at Kunstmeile Krems in 2014 and Akademie Schloss Solitude 2014-15.She has performed at the Ultraschall Festival Berlin, MATA-Festival NYC, Festival Musica Strasbourg, Early Music Festival Barcelona, Emergences Festival Avignon, Festival Aix-en-Provence, Boulevard Festival s'Hertogenbosch, DeSuite-Muziekweek Amsterdam and Klangwerktage Hamburg. Miako's live-recordings have been broadcast on German radio stations including HR/DLF, WDR3 and Concertzender.At young age Miako won prizes in numerous competitions including first prize at the "International Recorder Competition of Engelskirchen" and the "SONBU" International Recorder Competition of Utrecht/NL. She was awarded first prize at Germany's National Youth Competition, "Bundeswettbewerb Jugend musiziert", on multiple occasions. Miako also won the "Prize of the City Erlangen for the Best Interpretation of Contemporary Music", the special award for outstanding ensemble performance by "Stadtsparkasse Köln", and the IRINO-Foundation Tokyo award for contemporary music.The daughter of a classical pianist, Miako received her first musical lessons as a young child. At the Westfalian music school she was then taught the recorder by Gudula Rosa and the violin by Tor-Song Tan. Miako studied the recorder with Paul Leenhouts at the Amsterdam Conservatory, and graduated with distinction. She also studied violin as a second major with Lex Korff de Gidts. Miako received additional private recorder lessons from Winfried Michel and Walter van Hauwe, and violin lessons from Martin Dehning and Vesselin Paraschkevov. She undertook chamber music lessons at the Dutch String Quartet Academy and participated in masterclasses conducted by Eberhard Feltz (Berlin), Isabel Charisius (Alban Berg Quartett), Stefan Metz (Amsterdam) and the Auryn-Quartett.

Miako is currently studying at the UdK Berlin as a Master soloist for Early music with Prof. Christoph Huntgeburth."

-Miako Klein Website (http://www.miakoklein.com/about)
10/30/2024

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• Show Bio for Christian Kesten

"Christian Kesten is a composer, director, sound and intermedia artist, vocalist and performer.

His artistic interest lies in the "in-between", the transitory, the spaces between music and action, music and language, music and sculpture. His work explores the interpenetration of sound and silence, of sound and space, with a focus on the physical activity of creating the sound, and the physicality of the sound itself. His compositions include instrumental, vocal, site-specific works and composed theatre. Kesten is a specialist in vocal experimentation and the performativity of music. He works with an expanded notion of music that integrates elements from performance art, conceptual art and contemporary dance.

Kesten received commissions by ensembles like Marinate Fish Impro Committee Beijing, Solistenensemble Kaleidoskop, Maulwerker, Konzert Minimal, Rue du Nord Lausanne, Ensemble Cercles Schweiz, Object Collection New York, AuditivVokal Dresden, Chorakademie Dortmund, WeSpoke London.

He realised full-length pieces in spaces like Radialsystem V Berlin, Schauspielhaus Wuppertal, Théâtre 2.21 Lausanne, Witte de With Center for Contemporary Arts, Gropius Bau Berlin, at festivals like MaerzMusik, MINU_festival for expanded music Kopenhagen, Labor Sonor Translating Spaces, MIKROTON Berne, Kunstfest Weimar, Ontological Experimental Series New York, Operadagen Rotterdam. He also created site-specific works for train stations, basements, and the three elevators of Museum for Modern Art MUMOK Vienna. Kesten delivered solo performances for voice, body, objects, video and audio/field recordings in Europe, North America, China and Japan.

He received awards and grants by the Berlin Cultural Senate, Ernst-von-Siemens-Musikstiftung, International Society of New Music, Kuenstlerhaus Lukas Ahrenshoop, Villa Aurora Los Angeles, Civitella Ranieri Italy, a.o.

His stage directions of new music theatre (Kagel, Schnebel, Cage, Tom Johnson, Makiko Nishikaze, Jacques Demierre, Steven Takasugi and others) have been presented at Akademie der Künste Berlin, Kleines Schauspielhaus Dresden, Theater Bielefeld, Podewil Berlin, Konzerthaus Berlin, Megaron Moussiki Athens, Festspielhaus Hellerau, Kings Place London, at the festivals MaerzMusik Berliner Festspiele, Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, Les Amplitudes Switzerland, Tage Théâtre Musical Zurich, Festival des Jardins Musicaux Switzerland and others.

He is a member of the ensemble Maulwerker and conceives the series maulwerker performing music, which investigates aspects of musical performativity as a consequence of an expanded notion of music: the compositional material is extended to the body, the space, the situation.

Since 2006 he has been co-curator of the Berlin series Labor Sonor for experimental music, film and performance, co-editor of the book "echtzeitmusik berlin. self-defining a scene" (2011) and artistic co-director of the Labor Sonor festivals "Translating Music" (2015), "Moving Music" (2016) and "Choreographing Sound" (2018).

Teaching assignments and guest lectures in Europe, Israel, China, North and South America."

-Christian Kesten Website (http://www.christiankesten.de/biography_e.htm)
10/30/2024

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• Show Bio for Raymond Brien

Raymond Brien is a clarinetist, Composer and Artistic Director of the Thinking Minds Project.

-Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/RaymondBrienClarinet/about/?ref=page_internal)
10/30/2024

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• Show Bio for Nancy Ruffer

"Nancy Ruffer was born in Detroit and received a Master of Music degree from The University of Michigan. She received a Fullbright-Kays Scolarship in 1976 to study at the Royal Academy of Music, London, and she has remained in London working as a freelance flautist specialising in contemporary music. Composers who have written for her include Michael Finnissy, Chris Dench, John White, Christopher Fox, Ian Wilson and Graham Fitkin. In 1984 she was awarded the Kranichsteiner Prize for Performance at Darmstadt and she was elected an Associate of the R.A.M. Nancy Ruffer is principal flute of the ensembles MusicProjects/London, Matrix, Almeida Ensemble and Topologies as well as performing with ensembles of the Royal National Theatre.

In addition she records regularly for the BBC and performs in festivals and concert halls throughout Britain and abroad. In 1999 she toured Canada performing works by, among others, Ferneyhough and Dillon, and in 2002 she toured Georgia and Tennessee with pianist Helen Crayford, performing works by British and American composers.

Ms Ruffer was awarded the Kranichsteiner Prize for Performance at Darmstadt in 1984 and was appointed an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music."

-Divine Art Records (https://divineartrecords.com/artist/nancy-ruffer/)
10/30/2024

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• Show Bio for Ben Smith

"Ben Smith is a London-based composer and performer specialising in contemporary music. He is interested in - amongst other things - phenomenological and semiotic approaches to musical analysis, and compositional encounters with silence and repetition. Ben was a Junior Fellow at Guildhall School of Music & Drama from 2020-2022, where he previously studied with Laurence Crane, Rolf Hind, and James Weeks. His recording of Evan Johnson's complete piano music was released on all that dust in November 2021."

-Ben Smith Website (https://www.bensmithmusic.co.uk/biography)
10/30/2024

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Track Listing:

1. Shades (For Apartment House) 20:36

2. Sounds (For Berlin) 20:55

3. Sextet 26:14

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A diverse set of compositions by London composer, performer and improviser John Lely performed by the UK ensemble Apartment House, demonstrating the spectrum of Lely's work across string quartets, solo piano works, a solo electronic piece, and a work for violin, two violas & cello; works of cohesive direction across a variety of approaches and interests.

	Reeder, Kory / Apartment House Codex Vivere (Another Timbre)
A beautifully unfolding story in connected works forming a codex from Texas composer and Wandelweiser artist Kory Reeder, a long form work performed by the UK Apartment House Ensemble in a septet of strings, winds and piano, each section creating a loose narrative ark through several notational strategies envisioned with characters, scenes, diversions, and digressions.

	Ellestad, Mark Discreet Angel (Another Timbre)
Three chamber works by Calgary, Canadian composer Mark Ellestad composed between 1988 and 1994 and recently retrieved by the composer, including the title track, a graceful solo guitar work performed by Christián Alvear; a meditative piece for pump organ & Hardanger fiddle performed by the composer; and a large work for violin and cello performed by Apartment House.

	Shim, Kunsu LUFT.INNERES (Another Timbre)
Six chamber works for strings by Korean composer and Fluxus performance artist Kunsu Shim, performed by the Luna String Quartet, "specialists in quiet music", along with six short pieces written for Kunsu by composer friends and collaborators, including Arnold Marinissen, Ammon Wolman, Alwynne Pritchard, Nicolaus A. Huber, Gerhard Stabler and Anton Lukoszeviez

	Feldman, Morton / Apartment House Piano and String Quartet (Another Timbre)
Inspired by the broadcast performance by The Apartment House ensemble of three works by Morton Feldman, Another Timbre requested that they record the exceptional late work of the minimalist composer, Piano and String Quartet, captured at Henry Wood Hall two months later in a stunning interpretation of this enigmatic work of sensually dissipating motion.

	Akama, Ryoko Songs For A Shed (Another Timbre)
Six beautiful, fragile and mysterious works for piano in combinations with other orchestral arrangements and solo, including pitch-based compositions and a graphic work directed by photographs, performed by members of Apartment House in duos, quintets & sextets; works initially commissioned by Another Timbre and Philip Thomas and here performed on piano by Siwan Rhys.

	Iddon, Martin Sapindales (Another Timbre)
Four clarinet-based works in trio, duo and solo from UK composer and musicologist Martin Iddon, performed by Heather Roche on bass and contrabass clarinets, Juliet Fraser on voice for "Muses", Anton Lukoszevieze on cello and James Opstad on double bass; music with intricate, interweaving lines, the title piece a mesmerising work for multi-tracked clarinets and field recordings.

	Feldman, Barbara Monk Verses (Another Timbre)
Known for her chamber and piano works, Canadian composer and widow of Morton Feldman presents five beautiful chamber works performed by the trio of George Barton on percussion, Siwan Rhys on piano and Mira Benjamin on violin, introspective and contemplative pieces of rich color & reflection that reveal the gravity between sound and silence.

	O'Rourke, Jim / Apartment House Best That You Do This For Me (Another Timbre)
The UK ensemble Apartment House commissioned this work from composer & experimenter Jim O'Rourke based on their performance of other O'Rourke works, here interpreting a new graphic score designed like a sonic mobile, creating a minimal yet episodic piece of flexible interpretation as the performers whistle, hum and quietly sing in combination with bowed harmonics.

	Democ, Adrian / Apartment House Hlaholika (Another Timbre)
Commissioned by Another Timbre for the quarantine commissions series, Hlaholika was developed by composer Adrián Demoč for the Apartment House ensemble as a quintet of violin, double bass, clarinet, viola & piano, using the configurations for 3 other works performed here by Apartment House; plus a piece for an ensemble from the Janacek School of Music in the Czech Republic.

	Beuger, Antoine / Apartment House Jankelevitch Sextets (Another Timbre)
The 4th album on Another Timbre from a series of pieces by composer Antoine Beuger, each acknowledging a cultural or intellectual figure, here titled for philosopher, musicologist, educator and one-time member of the French Resistance, Vladimir Jankélévitch, represented by Beuger in a large dramatic work performed by the Apartment House sextet.

	Lamb, Catherine / Harmonic Space Orchestra Prisma Interius VII 7 VIII (Sacred Realism)
Two hauntingly beautiful works in microtonal composer and violist Catherine Lamb's "Prisma Interius" series, the first a duo with violinist Johnny Change and Xavier Lopez on the "secondary rainbow synthesizer", which channels the sound outside of the performance space as a generator of ambient sound; then a sextet of strings and winds with two secondary rainbow synthesizers.

	Livebatts! (ANTS Records)
Recorded in the mid-90s, Livebatts! was a project of John White (Cornelius Cardew, Scratch Orchestra) developed to exploit "toy" keyboards of the 80s--cheap battery-driven instruments that hold tremendous potential for "serious" music-making--used here in a playful quartet with vocalist MJ Coldiron, Andrea Rocca (guitar & samples) and Nancy Ruffer (electrified flute).

	Schlothauer, Burkhard Harmonies And Structures (Edition Wandelweiser Records)
When the Zeitkratzer Ensemble was asked to perform a late ensemble work by John Cage, director Reinhold Friedl turned to composer Burkhard Schlothauer, who reworked one of Cage's Number Pieces to create this rich piece using Cage's methods; plus a composition for the dance piece "Bewegte Bauhausbilder"; and an octet commissioned for the Klangzeit-Festival Time Is On My Side.

	Eastman, Julius / Apartment House Femenine (Another Timbre)
A live recording of Julius Eastman's 1974 work "Femenine" performed by Apartment House led by cellist Anton Lukoszevieze, with Simon Limbrick on vibraphone, Kerry Yong on piano, Mark Knoop on keyboard, Mira Benjamin on violin, and Gavin Morrison and Emma Williams on flute, an ecstatic and intricate work using a repeating figure contrasted with both asynchronous and complementing backgrounds.

	Warble & MDuo Ama (Creative Sources)
Two improvising duos that share one person and joined as a trio -- Berlin musician Miako Klein on recorders -- Warble being Klein and NY/Berlin trumpeter Brad Henkel, the two exploring their instruments through close amplification; Mduo is Klein & NY/Berlin percussionist Michael Weilacher using extended techniques and strange actions.

	Smith, Linda Catlin Dirt Road (Another Timbre)
Canadian composer Linda Catlin Smith's extended composition for violin and percussion in 15 parts, performed by percussionist Simon Limbrick and violinist Mira Benjamin, a unique orchestration that reveals a journey of steady pace, tension and beauty.

	Frey, Jurg Grizzana and other pieces 2009-2014 [2 CDs] (Another Timbre)
The Ensemble Grizzana (Ryoko Akama, Mira Benjamin, Richard Craig, Emma Richards, Philip Thomas and Seth Woods) performs a series of delicate and beautiful chamber pieces by Swiss composer and clarinetist Jurg Frey, who also performs on clarinet.