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.
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Sample The Album:
Judith Berkson-accordion, voice
Laura Cetilia-cello
Katie Porter-clarinet, bass clarinet
Christine Tavolacci-flutes
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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.
"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 VerdeArtist Biographies
• Show Bio for Judith Berkson "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." ^ Hide Bio for Judith Berkson • Show Bio for Laura Cetilia "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." ^ Hide Bio for Laura Cetilia • Show Bio for Katie Porter "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." ^ Hide Bio for Katie Porter • Show Bio for Christine Tavolacci "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." ^ Hide Bio for Christine Tavolacci
11/20/2024
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11/20/2024
Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.
11/20/2024
Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.
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
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