The Squid's Ear Magazine


Spaces Unfolding + Pierre Alexandre Tremblay: Shadow Figures (Bead)

Performing together as Spaces Unfolding since 2021, the trio of Neil Metcalfe on flute, Philipp Wachsmann on violin, and Emil Karlsen on drums expands their initial focus on acoustic exploration, as heard on this debut album, with the addition of Pierre Alexandre Tremblay on electronics, blending acoustic and electronic elements to reflect on the evolving influence of technology in their sound.
 

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product information:

Personnel:



Neil Metcalfe-flute

Philipp Wachsmann-violin

Emil Karlsen-drums

Pierre Alexandre Tremblay-electronics


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UPC: 5904224873899

Label: Bead
Catalog ID: 50
Squidco Product Code: 35509

Format: CD
Condition: New
Released: 2024
Country: UK
Packaging: Digipack - 3 panel
Recorded at Huddersfield University, in the UK, on December 21st, 2023, by Pierre Alexandre Tremblay.

Descriptions, Reviews, &c.

"The trio of Neil Metcalfe, Philipp Wachsmann and Emil Karlsen has been working together as Spaces Unfolding since 2021. Created initially as a vehicle for acoustic exploration, the trio's debut album 'The Way We Speak' was recorded in the acoustics of London's St Mary's Old Church. This time the trio is joined by Pierre Alexandre Tremblay (electronics), a practitioner offering multiple dialogues between instruments and electronics. Expanding on the initial idea of acoustic influence, the trio is now situated within an electronic environment in what is a reflection on our relationship with technology."-BEAD


Artist Biographies

Neil Metcalfe is a UK flutist who has been a member of groups Evan Parker Octet, Garage, London Improvisers Orchestra, Paul Rogers Freedom Orchestra, The Dedication Orchestra, The Intuitive Art Ensemble, The Runcible Quintet, Transatlantic Art Ensemble, Trio F O, and Unlaunched Orchestra.

-Discogs (https://www.discogs.com/artist/316930-Neil-Metcalfe)
12/3/2024

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

"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)
12/3/2024

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

"Emil Karlsen is a Norwegian improvising drummer currently based in the UK. Described as a "significant addition to the UK free jazz scene" and an "exceptional improv drummer", he's establishing himself on the improvised music circuit working the span from free improvisation to free jazz. Occupied with the exploring timbral possibilities of the drum kit, he performs with Philipp Wachsmann, Matthew Bourne, Phil Durrant, Maggie Nicols, Ed Jones, and the London Improvisers Orchestra to mention some."

-Emil Karlsen Website (https://emilkarlsen.com/)
12/3/2024

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

"Pierre Alexandre Tremblay was born in 1975 in Montréal, Québec. He studied classical guitar and music theory from an early age, and as a teenager discovered bass guitar with Jean-Guy Larin, Sylvain Bolduc and Michel Donato. He also studied composition with Michel Tétrault, Marcelle Deschênes and Jonty Harrison. He earned his BA in music at the Université de Montréal in 1998 and his doctorate at the University of Birmingham in 2005. Since then, he has been teaching composition at the University of Huddersfield, in England.

In 1993, he explored improvised music with Facteur X, which led to the formation of the contemporary jazz ensemble [iks] in 1996. He directed this ensemble for 11 years, recording seven albums, touring Europe and North America and spending three months in Senegal for a cultural exchange with traditional West African musicians. This journey was chronicled in Étienne Deslières�s documentary film Le journal de sable.

He is currently collaborating on a variety of projects, playing bass guitar and manipulating sound on a laptop. He is a member of the contemporary jazz trio ars circa musicæ with Nicolas Stephan (saxophone) and Sébastien Brun (drums and machines), and the duet de type inconnu with Sylvain Pohu (guitar and laptop). He also works on pop music projects in studio as producer and bass guitar.

Tremblay is now working on hybridizing his aesthetic approaches, which he feels complete each other, into a single, coherent poetic language. He composes fixed media, instrumental and mixed music, sometimes integrating video, improvisation and real-time processing.

As a composer, he is fascinated by the listener�s experience rather than the process of creation. He considers the perception of form extremely important, and gives ample room to the emotional content, the poetic impact of the music.

He also programs sound processing software, mostly using Max/MSP, and freelances as artistic and technical director for contemporary music projects. He devotes the rest of his time (sic) to reading, photography and his family. Founder of the no-tv collective, he does not own a functioning television set."

-Pierre Alexandre Tremblay Website (https://www.pierrealexandretremblay.com/detailedbio.html)
12/3/2024

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


Track Listing:



1. Shadow Figures Pt. 1 10:21

2. Shadow Figures Pt. 2 10:37

3. In Praise of Shadows Pt. 1 5:28

4. Refractions Pt. 1 7:16

5. Refractions Pt. 2 10:01

6. Echoes of Being Pt. 1 5:33

7. Echoes of Being Pt. 2 2:16

8. In Praise of Shadows Pt. 2 5:07

9. Reflect / Reflex Pt. 1 2:28

10. Reflect / Reflex Pt. 2 9:20

11. Track 11 7:39

Related Categories of Interest:


Improvised Music
Free Improvisation
Electro-Acoustic
Electro-Acoustic Improv
London & UK Improv & Related Scenes
European Improvisation, Composition and Experimental Forms
Quartet Recordings
New in Improvised Music
Recent Releases and Best Sellers

Search for other titles on the label:
Bead.


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