Dick, Robert & Thomas Buckner

Flutes & Voices

Label: Mutable Country: USA

"Flutes & Voices is utterly brilliant improvisation, finding two longtime musicians in top form. Thomas Buckner and Robert Dick have somewhat parallel musical histories. For well over three decades, both Buckner and Dick have redefined what is acoustically possible on their instruments. Both have a profound interest in the development of a highly individual sound language and in free improvisation. Their activities have helped shape the downtown scene in New York, and affected the course of new music worldwide. About four years ago, they began to very occasionally meet to start and continue a musical dialog. In June, 2009, they recorded together. The CD Flutes and Voices, a collection of dynamic improvisations, is the result.

Robert Dick is a creative virtuoso in the tradition of Paganini and Hendrix, artists who not only mastered their instruments; they redefined them. Composer, improvisor, author, teacher and inventor, he is known worldwide for creating revolutionary visions of the flute's musical roles. Dick holds a B.A. from Yale University and an M.M. in composition from the Yale School of Music. He has received numerous fellowships and commissions including those from the Koussevitzky and Guggenheim Foundations and two Composer Fellowships from the NEA. Dick's many pedagogical works, including the book The Other Flute: A Performance Manual of Contemporary Techniques, are the standard bearers in their field. Robert Dick teaches at New York University (NYU) and the City University of New York Graduate Center.

For more than 30 years, baritone Thomas Buckner has dedicated himself to the world of new and improvised music. As a performer, producer, and promoter, Buckner has enabled the creation of an extensive body of new works by some of the world¹s leading, most exciting and most challenging composers. Currently, Buckner works regularly with composers Robert Ashley, Roscoe Mitchell, Alvin Lucier, Annea Lockwood, Bun-Ching Lam, Jerome Cooper, David Wessel, Tom Hamilton, Leroy Jenkins, Phill Niblock, Wadada Leo Smith, among others."-Mutable