Mincek, Alex (Wet Ink Ensemble / Jack Quartet / Michael Ibrahim / Eric Poland)

lift-tift-filter-split

Label: Carrier Records Country: USA

"lift - tilt - flter - split is the first full-length recording dedicated solely to Mincek's concert music. The works presented here demonstrate Mincek's ability to work with radically diverse collections of sound-from fragile timbres teetering on the brink of inaudibility to triumphantly raucous outbursts. In fact, for much of the recording contrasts are made to coincide within meticulously constructed musical textures. These works also highlight Mincek's penchant for alternating between austere forms of mechanical-like repetition and sinuous continuity. It is music that is at once both raw and highly refined-smoothly organic and yet filled with sputtering glitches."-Carrier Records

"Alex Mincek (born 1975) is a New York-based composer and performer. His music is typically characterized by unique timbres, dynamic textures, and complex repetitions. In addition to composing notated music he is also deeply committed to the art of improvisation, and has been influenced greatly by his participation in various forms of jazz, punk rock, and electronic music. He studied composition with Tristan Murail and Fred Lerdahl at Columbia University and with Nils Vigeland at the Manhattan School of Music, where he received a Master of Arts. As a performer, he studied saxophone with Richard Oatts at Manhattan School of Music (Bachelor of Arts) and with Bunky Green at the University of North Florida.

Mincek's music has been performed frequently at major music festivals, including the Festival Présences of Radio France, Voix Nouvelles at the Abbaye de Royaumont, Festival des Musiques Démesurées, the Internationales Musikinstitut Darmstadt (IMD), the Contempuls Festival in Prague, and the Ostrava New Music Days. Mincek has collaborated with groups including the Les Percussions de Strasbourg, Ensemble Cairn, Orchestra of the SEM Ensemble, the Janacek Philharmonic, Talea Ensemble, the Kenners, and the JACK Quartet. Mincek's music has also been recognized through commissions and grants from the New Mendelssohn Chamber Orchestra-Leipzig, Ensemble XXI in Dijon, Present Music, MATA, the French Ministry of Culture, Meet The Composer, the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts, Due East, ASCAP, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

From 2001-2005 Mincek was a member of the experimental ensemble Zs, with whom he performed his own music, the music of others, and improvisations. Mincek currently serves as the saxophonist, bass clarinetist, and artistic director of the Wet Ink Ensemble, a group dedicated to contemporary music, which he founded in 1998."-Alex Mincek website

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