The Squid's Ear Magazine


Moons (Berkson / Cetilia / Porter / Tavolacci): Moons (Editions Verde)

Moons' debut album features long-time collaborators Judith Berkson, Laura Cetilia, Katie Porter, and Christine Tavolacci, each contributing a composition blending accordion, voice, cello, clarinets, and flutes, with works exploring memory through tunings, divine visions, impermanent graphic scores, and micro-intervals to create dynamic, shifting sonorities and felt-time improvisation.
 

Price: $9.95



Quantity:

In Stock

Quantity in Basket: None

Log In to use our Wish List
Shipping Weight: 3.00 units

Sample The Album:





product information:

Personnel:



Judith Berkson-accordion, voice

Laura Cetilia-cello

Katie Porter-clarinet, bass clarinet

Christine Tavolacci-flutes


Click an artist name above to see in-stock items for that artist.




UPC: 198595521205

Label: Editions Verde
Catalog ID: EV016
Squidco Product Code: 35518

Format: CD
Condition: New
Released: 2024
Country: USA
Packaging: Cardboard Gatefold
Recorded at Westminster Performing Arts Center at Westminster University, in Salt Lake City, Utah, on May 26th and 27th, 2023, by Tim Xu.

Descriptions, Reviews, &c.

"In Judith Berkson's natural:neutral tuning is used as a gateway for memory, attention. and perception. Scordatura tuning in the cello creates a neutral third with the clarinet, a harmonic interval that sounds somewhere in between a major and a minor third. The slightly out of tune intervals within the ensemble sound familiar but are simultaneously not. These changes in the tuning reframe the intervals and pitch relationships we may recognize or

"Moons is a quartet of composer/performers Judith Berkson (accordion/voice), Laura Cetilia (cello), Katie Porter (clarinet/bass clarinet), and Christine Tavolacci (flutes). Having performed experimental music for years in various configurations, the quartet seeks to create works for themselves that they have always wanted to hear. This debut 4-track album was recorded at an artist residency at Westminster University in Salt Lake City, Utah, on May 26-27, 2023.

In Judith Berkson's "natural", tuning is used as a gateway for memory, attention, and perception. Scordatura tuning in the cello creates a neutral third with the clarinet, a harmonic interval that sounds somewhere in between a major and a minor third. The slightly out-of-tune intervals within the ensemble sound familiar but are simultaneously not. These changes in tuning reframe the intervals and pitch relationships we may recognize or deeply remember, where a slight shift of pitch can alter the experience within us-a kind of listening between the present and the past.

Christine Tavolacci's "breath in order to be completed" is a collection of writings, illustrations, and musical compositions based on a series of 26 divine visions that Hildegard experienced throughout adulthood. Fear, insecurity, and the confines of a patriarchal religion created extreme hesitation around sharing these visions, and it was not until she suffered a major illness that she gained the strength to freely share these works in her early forties and create.

Inspired by impermanence, Katie Porter's "18 Flowers in a Row" is a collection of very minimal graphic scores in a notebook, with just a few notes, gestures, texts, and hand-drawn flowers, written specifically for the beautiful playing of Laura, Judith, and Christine. As a place for us to exist together, each flower can last any length of time but often exists in just the same amount of time as a pop song; these are in song-form, moment-form, and will never be the same twice. Meditating on systems that collapse and expand upon themselves, the piece uses our own texts about abstract change in our lives and how we cannot always see what is right in front of us.

Throughout "inside seconds", Laura Cetilia makes use of the smallest intervals in Western music theory, the minor and major second. At times, this interval is suspended by one or two players while another slowly slides from one note to the other with her singing voice. This gesture is done very quietly, almost imperceptibly, so that one just senses a slight shift in tonality. There is a sort of shimmering harmony where the dissonance within these seconds is treated as a delicate timbre, negating traditional resolution. The title also references the measurement of time; there is no unifying pulse or meter in this piece. Instead, the players rely on their own felt-time, entering and exiting at their own pace.-Editions Verde

deeply remember, where a slight shift of pitch can alter the experience within us; a kind of listening between the present and the past. Christine Tavolacci's breath in order to be completed is a collection of writings, illustrations and musical compositions based on a series of 26 divine visions that Hildegard experienced throughout adulthood. Fear, insecurity, and the confines of a patriarchal religion created extreme hesitation around sharing these visions, and it was not until she suffered a major illness that she gained the strength to freely share these works in her early forties and create . Inspired by impermanence, Katie Porter's 18 Flowers in a Row is a collection of very minimal graphic scores in a notebook, with just a few notes, gestures, texts, and hand drawn flowers, written specifically for the beautiful playing of Laura, Judith, and Christine. As a place for us exist in together, each flower can last any length of time, but often exist in just the same amount of time as a pop song, so these are in song-form, moment-form, and will never be the same twice. Meditating on systems that collapse and expand upon themselves, the piece uses our own texts about abstract change in our lives, and how we cannot always see what is right in front of us. Throughout inside seconds, Laura Cetilia make use of the smallest intervals in Western music theory, the minor and major second. At times this interval is suspended by one or two players while another slowly slides from one note to the other with her singing voice. this gesture is done very quietly, almost imperceptibly, so that one just senses a slight shift in tonality. There is a sort of shimmering harmony where the dissonance within these seconds is treated as a delicate timbre, negating traditional resolution. the title also references the measurement of time. there is no unifying pulse or meter in this piece. Instead the players rely on their own felt-time, entering and exiting at their own pace.'-Editions Verde


Artist Biographies

"Judith Berkson is a soprano, pianist and composer living in Brooklyn, New York.

She studied voice with Lucy Shelton and composition with Joe Maneri at the New England Conservatory.

She has collaborated with Kronos Quartet, Wet Ink, Yarn/Wire and City Opera and has presented work at Picasso Museum Malaga, Roulette, Le Poisson Rouge, Joe's Pub, The Stone, Barbès and the 92 Street Y. She has received a Six Points Fellowship, a Jerome Foundation grant, Meet The Composer grant and support from the New York Foundation for the Arts. Her solo album "Oylam" (ECM Records) was called "Standards and Schubert and liturgical music, swing and chilly silences, a beautiful Satie-like piece to open and close the record" by Ben Ratliff of the New York Times."

-Judith Berkson Website (http://judithberkson.info/bio)
11/20/2024

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.

"Cellist and electronic musician Laura Cetilia is a performer, composer, educator, and presenter. A daughter of mixed heritage, she is at home with in-betweeness. As a composer, her music has been described as "unorthodox loveliness" by the Boston Globe and and her debut solo album was hailed as "alternately penetrating and atmospheric" in Sequenza 21. The Grove Dictionary of American Music describes her electroacoustic duo Mem1 as a "complex cybernetic entity" that "understands its music as a feedback loop between the past and present." Mem1 has held artist residencies and toured extensively throughout the U.S. and Europe. In her viola/cello duo, Suna No Onna, she has worked closely with and premiered works by composers André Cormier, Jürg Frey and Antoine Beuger, among others. As a product of the now-dwindling public school music program, Laura believes in the right to accessible music education and is a Resident Musician at Community MusicWorks, a non-profit organization that provides free after-school music education programs for children in urban neighborhoods of Providence, RI. There she teaches cello, is co-director of the media lab and the curator of the Ars Subtilior experimental music series. She is also a proud mother of one."

-Laura Cetilia Website (http://laura.cetilia.org/about/)
11/20/2024

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.

"Katie Porter plays clarinet, bass clarinet, sings, writes songs and curates performances. She exists mainly in the experimental realm, but can sometimes be found elsewhere."

-Katie Porter Website (https://fromkp.wordpress.com/about/)
11/20/2024

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.

"Christine Tavolacci is a Los Angeles based flutist and educator specializing in contemporary and experimental music, yet equally well versed and passionate about traditional repertoire. She has traveled across the United States and Europe to study and perform and has had the pleasure of working in close contact with many celebrated 20th and 21st century composers, such as Christian Wolff, James Tenney, Larry Polansky, Clarence Barlow and Jurg Frey. Christine has been involved in the premieres of many new works, including those by Alvin Lucier, James Saunders, Laura Steenberge, Michael Pisaro, Carolyn Chen and Catherine Lamb.

Christine is active as a soloist, improviser, curator and chamber musician both in California and internationally. She is CEO,​co-founder and co-­director of the acclaimed experimental music ensemble Southland Ensemble, member and board member of the Dog Star Orchestra annual festival of experimental music, and featured flutist and composer in the 2015, 2016, 2017 & 2018 Listen/Space Commissions. She is a frequent performer in the Monday Evening Concerts contemporary music series in Los Angeles, and has also performed with The Industry, Ojai Festival, LA Phil Noon to Midnight, the Vinny Golia Large Ensemble, and Microfest. She is also the principal flutist in the avant jazz large ensemble Gurrisonic, who was featured at the 2016 Angel City Jazz Festival. Her playing has been released on Orenda Records, Slub Music(Japan) and Tzadik.

A passionate educator, Christine currently maintains a flute studio comprised of students of all ages. She has been a guest lecturer at UCLA, University of Redlands and CalArts, an associate instructor at UC San Diego, and has taught several workshops on contemporary music to middle and high school and college age students. Christine holds a BFA from California Institute of the Arts, a Diplôme de Specialisation with mention très bien from the Conservatoire National de Region Strasbourg in Strasbourg, France, and a Doctorate of Musical Arts in Contemporary Flute Performance from UC San Diego."

-Christine Tavolacci Website (https://www.christinetavolacci.com/about.html)
11/20/2024

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.


Track Listing:



1. natural : neutral 8:19

2. breath in order to be completed 10:55

3. 18 flowers in a row 17:44

4. inside seconds 8:33

Related Categories of Interest:


Compositional Forms
Improvised Music
Chamber Rock
Quartet Recordings
Unusual Vocal Forms
New in Compositional Music
New in Improvised Music
Recent Releases and Best Sellers

Search for other titles on the label:
Editions Verde.


Recommended & Related Releases:
Shepard, Craig
Broken Silence
(Music For Contemplation, Inc.)
The music to composer Craig Shepards performance work that presents listeners with text drawn from court testimony in the sex abuse scandal in the Catholic Church, here concentrating on the quiet long tones generated by wind instruments and ebow strings, where pure tones pass between the musicians to build a pulsating chord that then drops away tone by tone.
Liederkreis (Judith Berkson)
Liederkreis [VINYL]
(B. Walter Recordings)
NYC vocalist, composer and keyboardist Judith Berkson in the debut album for her one-woman band Liederkreis (translating to "song-cycle", a reference to Schumann), taking a sharp turn from previous work through experimental synth, voice and effects in unique and often aberrant ways.
Other Recommended Releases:
Wooley, Nate
Moths
(Editions Verde)
Nate Wooley's exquisite improvised composition begins with a musical gesture and four parameters of change from each player--harmonic motion, articulation, extension, & physicality--which directs their "flight" in its slowly evolving pace, creating a varying mosaic of sound, as beautifully rendered by Laura Cocks (flute), Madison Greenstone (clarinet) and Eric Wubbels (keys & voice).
Evans-Weiler, Morgan
Correspondences
(Editions Verde)
The third release in Editions Verde's series "Seeing the Forest in a Tree" are three iterations of interpretations realized by Joseph Clayton Mills, Fraufraulein, and the duo Sarah Hughes and Patrick Farmer, who were invited to interact with Morgan Evans-Weiler's score intended to be interpreted as both sound and sculpture, presented in three unique sets of recordings.
Dykstra, Jordan
14 Horse Bells
(Editions Verde)
Recorded in Brooklyn by Jordan Dykstra performing on viola, electronics, percussion & programming, this is the second release in his subharmonic series "Seeing the Forest in a Tree", exploring one conceptual idea with four radically different realizations through arrangements contrasting the acoustic sources of viola & bells with prepared speakers and sine-tones.
Pisaro-Liu, Michael / Julia Holter
Tombstones: Live in Brooklyn
(Editions Verde)
Six songs from Michael Pisaro's "Tombstones" project--experimental songs developed from recontextualized fragments of popular songs--heard in this 2012 Brooklyn recording directed by guitarist Jason Brogan, with Julia Holter (voice), Tucker Dulin (trombone), Andrew Lafkas (bass), Katie Porter (clarinet), Sam Sfirri (piano and melodica), and Ron Wiltrout (keyboard & percussion).
Dykstra, Jordan
Globes (Original Soundtrack Album)
(Editions Verde)
The original score composed by Brooklyn violist and multi-instrumental Jordan Dykstra for the documentary movie Globes directed by Nina de Vroome, exploring the relationship between bees and humans through their history and affect on the global economy and our cultures, realized in a diverse set of contemporary musical forms from orchestral to electronica.
Dykstra, Jordan / Brian McOmber
Blow the Man Down (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
(Editions Verde)
A powerful set of succint compositions, themes and sea shanties for the soundtrack for Danielle Krudy and Bridget Savage Cole's film Blow the Man Down , scored through the collaboration of composers Jordan Dykstra, who also performs on viola, piano, prepared piano, vibraphone & percussion, and Brian Mcomber, who also performs on keyboards and percussion.
Dykstra, Jordan
A Known Unknown [CDr w/ Score Booklet]
(Editions Verde)
A fascinating conceptual work on CD and printed score that attempts to sonically represent celestial events through guided improvisations, providing the performers an abstract of the main musical ideas and options on how to execute them, exploring microtonal sounds, harmonic interactions and sound as moments within physical boundaries, here in a studio realization in Zurich.
Dykstra, Jordan
Stressings
(Editions Verde)
Exploring diverse landscapes and moments of extreme behavior changes through a single acoustic viola, composed and performed by Jordan Dykstra, in four pieces that vary his approach to the instrument through overlapping tones, drones, extended techniques and rolling cycles, performed in California at the California Institute of the Arts and at the Cathedral of Saint Vibiana.
Lucier, Alvin
One Arm Bandits
(Important Records)
Using only their right arms and never fingering the strings with their left hand, this recording of Alvin Lucier's "One Arm Bandits" was recorded in Lucier's own dining room, the hour-long piece in four parts exploring the relationship between bow direction changes and shifts in phase, scored for four cellists and performed by Tyler J. Borden, Laura Cetilia, Charles Curtis and Judith Hamann.
Capece, Lucio / Katie Porter
Phase To Phase
(Ftarri)
Rich harmonics and interstitial interactions between two bass clarinets, as Utah-based Katie Porter and Berlin-based Lucio Capece exchanged recordings to develop two compositions, the first focusing on expression in the context of freedom in time, the 2nd using strict time to explore the effects of overlapping-phasing; reference The International Nothing.
Granberg, Magnus (w/ Miki Maruta / Ko Ishikawa / Toshimaru Nakamura)
Come Down to Earth Where Sorrow Dwelleth
(Meenna)
Stockholm composer Magnus Granberg's first visit to Japan was to perform at the 2019 Ftarri Festival, adapting his extended and subtle work "Come Down to Earth Where Sorrow Dwelleth", originally composed for the Boston ensemble Ordinary Affects, here reworked for sho, koto, prepared piano and electronics performed by Ko Ishikawa, Miki Maruta and Toshimaru Nakamura.
Shepard, Craig
Broken Silence
(Music For Contemplation, Inc.)
The music to composer Craig Shepards performance work that presents listeners with text drawn from court testimony in the sex abuse scandal in the Catholic Church, here concentrating on the quiet long tones generated by wind instruments and ebow strings, where pure tones pass between the musicians to build a pulsating chord that then drops away tone by tone.
Frey, Jurg
Fields, Traces, Clouds
(Edition Wandelweiser Records)
Three compositions from clarinetist and Wandelweiser peer Jurg Frey, performed by Luke Martin on electric guitar, Laura Cetilia on cello, J.P.A. Falzone on piano & vibraphone, Morgan Evans-Weiler on violin, and Jurg Frey himself on clarinet; beautifully reflective music indicating Frey's working method and his relationship with wide, quiet sound spaces.
Duplant, Bruno
Deux Songes (Les Jours Sont Faits Pour Expliquer Les Nuits)
(Meenna)
Two beautifully subtle works for an ensemble of strings and electric piano from French composer Bruno Duplant, realized by the Boston-based Ordinary Affects ensemble or Jordan Dykstra, Morgan Evans-Weiler, JPA Falzone, Luke Martin and Ashley Frith, the first a quintet and the second a string quartet, creating illusory affects of motion and space through abstraction.
Houben, Eva-Maria
Ensemble Works [2 CDS]
(Edition Wandelweiser Records)
Three detailed and fragile compositions from German minimalist composer Eva-Maria Houben reveal themselves over two CDs, performed by the Boston-based experimental music ensemble, Ensemble Ordinary Affects, with Houben herself on organ recording at Memorial Chapel, in Wesleyan University, CT: three movements from "echo fantasy"; "gesang XI"; and "unter anderen".



The Squid's Ear Magazine

The Squid's Ear Magazine

© 2002-, Squidco LLC