The Squid's Ear Magazine


Wachsmann, Philipp / Lawrence Casserley: Garuda (Bead)

Both members of Evan Parker's Electro Acoustic-Ensemble and Colourscape, the ea-improv duo of Philipp Wachsmann on violin & viola and Lawrence Casserley using a signal processing instrument and percussion, are heard in these 2012 studio recordings in Buckinghamshire in 9 wide-ranging dialogs exploring permutations of playing, processing and transforming their instruments.
 

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product information:

Personnel:



Philipp Wachsmann-violin, viola

Lawrence Casserley-signal processing instrument, percussion


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Label: Bead
Catalog ID: Bead CD12 SP
Squidco Product Code: 32535

Format: CDR
Condition: New
Released: 2016
Country: UK
Packaging: Digipack
Recorded at Chiltern Cottage, Buckinghamshire 14 & 26 March & 3 April, 2012

Descriptions, Reviews, &c.

"Phil and Lawrence have worked together a lot over the years, principally in Evan Parker's Electro Acoustic-Ensemble and in Colourscape. For a long time they have admired each other's work and have thought of exploring a duo together. One way and another life got in the way, until in 2012 they spent three days at Lawrence's studio in Buckinghamshire.

On the first day they kept to their core practice; Phil on violin and viola, Lawrence transforming Phil's sounds with his Signal Processing Instrument. On the second day they explored Lawrence transforming his own percussion and Phil either acoustic or processing his own sound. ON the third day Lawrence continued playing percussion, while transforming Phil's sound as well as his own. Material from all three days has found its way onto this CD, which explored a rich range of the potential of their collaboration.

The Garuda is a bird-like creature in Hindi and Buddhist mythology; In Hindu mythology it is usually the mount (vahana) of Visnu, the god who goes through myriad transformations in the cyclical journey of life. There are many representations of Garuda. Maybe our imaginary birds are some of them. Cranes are another iconic symbol. Their beauty and their spectacular mating dances have made them highly symbolic birds in many cultures dating back to ancient times. In Mecca in pre-islamic South Arabia the three chief goddesses were called the "three exalted Cranes"."-Bead


Artist Biographies

"Philipp Wachsmann. Born Uganda, 1944; violin, viola and electronics.

In the CD booklet to Gushwachs, John Corbett notes that Phillip Wachsmann came to free improvisation from a predominantly classical background, particularly via the contemporary experiments of "indeterminacy, graphic and prose-based scores, conceptualism and electroacoustics, listening to Webern, Partch, Ives, Berio and Varèse, reading 'Die Reihe' and interrogating the rhythmic, harmonic and melodic preoccupations of Western art music. Starting in 1969, Wachsmann was a member of Yggdrasil, an ensemble performing works by Cage, Cardew, Feldman, Ashley and others and in this group he used contact mikes on the violin and made his own electronic instruments, ring modulators and routing devices. Ironically, his studies with Nadia Boulanger in Paris (1969-1970) pushed him hard in the direction of free music. He recalls: 'Despite her neoclassical orientation, her insistence that composition is about the imagination of performance and its realisation, the live moment, and her stunning ability to make this happen was a powerful influence on me, steering towards 'performance' and therefore 'improvisation'.'"

Wachsmann moved from Yggdrasil to Chamberpot - recorded on Bead 2 - and shortly thereafter appeared on Tony Oxley's influential February papers, forward looking in the virtual 'industrial' orientation of some of the tracks, years before this became an accepted genre; the two musicians have continued to work together, in various groupings but notably in the percussionist's Celebration Orchestra. Philipp Wachsmann has also performed and/or recorded with: Derek Bailey's Company, e.g. on the recording Epiphanies; Georg Graewe; Barry Guy; Iskra 1903; King Übü Orchestrü; London Jazz Composers' Orchestra; Evan Parker, particularly as part of the Evan Parker Electronic Project; Quintet Moderne; Fred Van Hove's ML DD 4; Rüdiger Carl's COWWS (now CPWWS) Quintet; and Lines, with Martin Blume, Jim Denley, Axel Dörner and Marcio Mattos. He also plays as a solo musician.

Phillip Wachsmann also administers Bead Records."

-EFI: European Free Improv (http://www.efi.group.shef.ac.uk/mwachs.html)
12/9/2024

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

"Lawrence Casserley (born UK, 1941) has devoted his professional career, as composer, conductor and performer, to real time electroacoustic music. In 1967 he became one of the first students of Electronic Music at the Royal College of Music, London, UK, on the new course taught by Tristram Cary. Later he became Professor-in-Charge of Studios and Adviser for Electroacoustic Music at the RCM, before taking early retirement in 1995.

He is best known for his work in free improvised music, particularly real-time processing of other musicians' sound, and he has devised a special computer processing instrument for this work (picture above). He has worked with many of the finest improvisers, particularly Evan Parker, with whom he works frequently as a duo partner, in various larger groupings and in the Evan Parker Electro-Acoustic Ensemble. He also works as a soloist, processing sounds from voice, percussion and home-made instruments. CDs have been released by ECM, Konnex, Leo Records, Psi, Sargasso and Touch.

Much of Casserley's work has involved collaboration with other art forms, including poets, eg Bob Cobbing, and visual artists, including Colourscape artist Peter Jones. He is a Director of the Colourscape Music Festivals, presenting contemporary music in the unique environment of the Colourscape walk-in sculpture. He also collaborates with Peter Jones on sound/light installations.

Casserley's "instrumental" approach to live computer sound processing is the hallmark of his work; the Signal Processing Instrument allows him to use physical gestures to control the processing and to direct the morphology of the sounds. This is the culmination of forty years of experience in the performance of live electronic work; his earliest live electronic pieces were performed in 1969, and he has performed many of the live electronic "classics" of the 20th century; he has also collaborated with other composers to realise their electronic performance ideas. He is noted for the breadth and variety of his collaborations, which cross styles and generations."

-Lawrence Casserley Website (http://www.lcasserley.co.uk/biography.shtml)
12/9/2024

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


Track Listing:



1. Whirling Dervish 1 7:08

2. Golden Godwit 2:14

3. Wounded Cranes 13:34

4. Purple Plumed Plover 3:54

5. Garuda 12:51

6. Weeping Cranes 8:27

7. Marron Meadowlark 1:52

8. Silver Shrike 2:11

9. Whirling Dervish 2 9:58

Related Categories of Interest:


Improvised Music
Free Improvisation
Electro-Acoustic
Electro-Acoustic Improv
Stringed Instruments
Electronic Forms
Duo Recordings
New in Improvised Music
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