The Squid's Ear Magazine


Parkins, Zeena (Parkins / Parkins / Parkins / Cochrane / Mori / Shea): Ursa's Door (Les Disques Victo)

"On her debut album for Victo, the former Michigander and downtown New York music stalwart enlisted the skills of three of her four sisters, producer David Shea, electronic percussion maestro Ikue Mori, and guitar hero Chris Cochrane. T...
 

Price: $15.95



Quantity:

In Stock

Quantity in Basket: None

Log In to use our Wish List
Shipping Weight: 4.00 units

Sample The Album:




product information:

Personnel:



Zeena Parkins-harp [electric], keyboards, percussion, tape, piano

Margaret Parkins-violoncello, voice

Chris Cochrane-electric guitar

Ikue Mori-electronic drums, drums

Sara Parkins-violin, voice

David Shea-voice, percussion


Click an artist name above to see in-stock items for that artist.




Label: Les Disques Victo
Catalog ID: VICCD018
Squidco Product Code: 1084

Format: CD
Condition: New
Released: 1992
Country: Canada
Recorded at Baby Monster Studios, New York, in June 1991 and January 1992.

Descriptions, Reviews, &c.

"On her debut album for Victo, the former Michigander and downtown New York music stalwart enlisted the skills of three of her four sisters, producer David Shea, electronic percussion maestro Ikue Mori, and guitar hero Chris Cochrane. Truly an avant-garde chamber work, "Ursa's Door" employs strings, electric harp, voices, found sound, piano, and electric guitar to realize the complex methodologies of group improvisation in a tightly structured context. While there is no "melodic" framework per se in Parkins' work, the various harmonic intervals suggest one or two. And while there are no "movements" proper, this is a symphonette, full of dynamic shifts, contrapuntal assignations, and the dramatic mechanics suggested by the appearance of a "conductor" in David Shea. It's fun, this work; its dissonances and atonal slashes and burns are more than soothed by the warmth, humor, and technical virtuosity of the players. A second and much shorter work, "Flush," explores a microtonaluniverse governed by mode and polyrhythmic changes in harmonic and physical characteristics. This is music as physical and psychical universe, related phrase by phrase through an ever-shifting continuum of silences and dynamic restraint. It's as if the work has no body, but creates one through the interplay and layering of strings. Only Mori's percussion suggests an alien presence in the work. Zeena Parkins has been recognized as a composer of merit and substance for her Tzadik and Avant recordings; this one should be included in her canon as a pair of works worthy of note."-Thom Jurek, All music


Artist Biographies

"Multi-instrumentalist/composer/improviser, Zeena Parkins, pioneer of contemporary harp practice and performance, reimagines the instrument as a "sound machine of limitless capacity." Parkins has built three versions of her one-of-a-kind electric harp and has extended the language of the acoustic harp with the inventive use of unusual playing techniques, preparations, and layers of electronic processing.

Inspired and connected to visual arts, dance, film, and history, Zeena follows a unique path in creating her compositional works. Through blending and morphing of both real and imagined instruments, crafting, recombining, and layering mangled, sliced, massaged or possibly disengaged sounds, drawing from extra-musical sources for unusual scoring and formal constructions as well as utilizing multi-speaker environments, Zeena remains in process with sound as material and music, engaged in translations of sonic states in the concert hall, the black box theater, the dance studio, the recording studio, the classroom, the cinema, the skyscraper, the ocean and the gallery. Zeena has a particularly strong commitment to making scores for dance and continues to re-evaluate the nature and issues of the body's imprint on sound and sound/music's imprint on movement.

Parkins's compositions have been commissioned by NeXtWorks Ensemble, Merce Cunningham Dance Company, Roulette Intermedium, The Eclipse Quartet, William Winant, Bang on a Can, The Whitney Museum, The Tate Modern, Montalvo Arts Center, The Donaueschinger Musiktage and Sudwestrundfunk/SWR.

Parkins has released four solo records featuring her electric and acoustic harp playing and has released her compositions and band projects on six Tzadik recordings, with a new Tzadik CD with Ikue Mori and Phantom Orchard Orchestra, Trouble in Paradise, to be released in November 2012. As a sought-after collaborator Zeena has worked with: Fred Frith, Björk, Ikue Mori, Dame Evelyn Glennie, Maja Ratkje, Hild Sofie Tafjord, John Zorn, Butch Morris, Chris Cutler, Elliott Sharp, Nels Cline, Alex Cline, William Winant, Anthony Braxton, Pauline Oliveros, Yoko Ono, Christian Marclay, Matmos, Yasunao Tone, So Percussion, Bobby Previte, Carla Kilhstedt, Tin Hat, James Fei, Kim Gordon, Lee Renaldo and Thurston Moore.

Awards: The Foundation for Contemporary Arts Fellowship, NYFA Music Fellowship, Meet the Composer Commission, NYSCA Composer Commission, Multi-Arts Production Fund Grant, American Music Center, BAFTA award for best interactive media with visual artist Mandy McIntosh and sound artist Kaffe Matthews, Peter S. Reed Fellowship, Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust Commissions, Arts International, Prix Ars Electronica Honorary Mention for Phantom Orchard in the Digital Music category.

Curatorial: Guest curator for The Music Unlimited Festival in Wels, Austria, co-curator of the Movement Research Festival: Sidewinder, in NYC and curator for a month + a week of shows at The Stone in NYC

Residencies: Civitella Ranieri Foundation Fellowship, Oxford University, Harvestworks, Steim, Paf: Performing Arts Forum, Wooda Arts Residency, Montalvo Arts Center, RPI/iEAR and The Watermill Center.

Teaching: Zeena has given lectures at Oxford and Princeton Universities and has taught at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Bard and Mills College. Currently, Zeena is a Distinguished Visiting Professor, at Mills College Graduate Music Department."

-Zeena Parkins Website (http://www.zeenaparkins.com/about.html)
3/25/2024

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

"Chris Cochrane is a songwriter and guitarist who has been playing in New York since the 1980s.

Chris has played with Thurston Moore, Zeena Parkins, John Zorn, Marc Ribot, Billy Martin, Eszter Balint, Mike Patton, Henry Kaiser, Andrea Centazzo, Annie Gosfield, Tim Hodgkinson, Miguel Frasconi, Richard Buckner, Davey Williams, Ladonna Smith and Jim Pugliese. He has composed music for Dennis Cooper, John Jasperse, Neil Greenberg, Nayland Blake, Ishmael Houston-Jones, Jennifer Monson and Circus Amok. He was in the bands No Safety and Curlew, and is currently in Collapsible Shoulder with Brian Chase, Kato Hideki and Kevin Bud Jones and Bee Line with Billy Martin and Kato Hideki. He will be touring this summer with Marc Ribot's Young Philadelphians."

-Chris Cochrane Website (http://thechriscochrane.com/bio/)
3/25/2024

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

"Ikue Mori moved from her native city of Tokyo to New York in 1977. She started playing drums and soon formed the seminal NO WAVE band DNA, with fellow noise pioneers Arto Lindsay and Tim Wright. DNA enjoyed legendary cult status, while creating a new brand of radical rhythms and dissonant sounds; forever altering the face of rock music.

In the mid 80's Ikue started in employ drum machines in the unlikely context of improvised music. While limited to the standard technology provided by the drum machine, she has never the less forged her own highly sensitive signature style. Through out in 90's She has subsequently collaborated with numerous improvisors throughout the US, Europe, and Asia, while continuing to produce and record her own music. 1998, She was invited to perform with Ensemble Modern as the soloist along with Zeena Parkins, and composer Fred Frith, also "One hundred Aspects of the Moon" commissioned by Roulette/Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust. Ikue won the Distinctive Award for Prix Ars Electronics Digital Music category in 99.

In 2000 Ikue started using the laptop computer to expand on her already signature sound, thus broadening her scope of musical expression. 2000 commissioned by the KITCHEN ensemble, wrote and premired the piece "Aphorism" also awarded Civitella Ranieri Foundation Fellowship. 2003 commissioned by RELACHE Ensemble to write a piece for film In the Street and premired in Philadelphia. Started working with visual played by the music since 2004. In 2005 Awarded Alphert/Ucross Residency.

Ikue received a grant from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts in 2006. In 2007 the Tate Modern commissioned Ikue to create a live sound track for screenings of Maya Deren's silent films. In 2008 Ikue celebrated her 30th year in NY and performed at the Japan Society. Recent commissioners include the Montalvo Arts Center and SWR German radio program and Shajah Art foundation in UAE. Current working groups include MEPHISTA with Sylvie Courvoisier and Susie Ibarra, PHANTOM ORCHARD with Zeena Parkins, project with Koichi Makigami and various ensembles of John Zorn. New duo Twindrums project with YoshimiO  workshop/lecture in various schools include University of Gothenburg, Dartmouth Collage, New England Conservatory, Mills Collage, Stanford University, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago"

-Ikue Mori Website (http://www.ikuemori.com/bio.html)
3/25/2024

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

"David Shea Born December 8, 1965, Springfield, Massachusetts, currently living in Melbourne, Australia.

David Shea is a composer working with combinations of samplers and live musicians, centered on the possibilities of electronic and acoustic traditions. The focus is on the interconnections between styles, histories and mediums with single pieces containing multiple layering's of compositional methods, electronic and acoustic orchestrations - Drawing from experimental music and film music influences as well as traditional musics from both eastern and western cultures, many pieces are based on films, novels, mythology and visual sources."

-Discogs (https://www.discogs.com/artist/47578-David-Shea)
3/25/2024

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


Track Listing:



1. Ursa's Door 31:45

2. Flush 14:51

Related Categories of Interest:

May 2017
Victo
Improvised Music
Free Improvisation
Electro-Acoustic
Electro-Acoustic Improv
NY Downtown & Metropolitan Jazz/Improv
Parkins, Zeena
Mori, Ikue
Sextet Recordings

Search for other titles on the label:
Les Disques Victo.


Recommended & Related Releases:
Cutler, Chris
Compositions And Collaborations 1972-2022: In A Box [10 CD / DVD / BOOKLET BOX SET]
(Recommended Records)
An amazing collection and reflection on the work of percussionist, composer and connector Chris Cutler of Henry Cow fame and founder of the highly influential Recommended Records label and distribution service, through 10 CDs, 1 DVD and two books of documentation, artwork, photographs, published and unpublished texts in a sturdy box, with over five hours of unreleased materials.
Cochrane, Chris / John Thayer
Excavation [VINYL]
(Astral Editions)
The core duo of guitarist & bassist Chris Cochrane (No Safety) and drummer & electronics artist John Thayer dig deep into a bag of aural tricks in eight compelling tracks that blur rock, jazz and experimental approaches to upbeat rhythmic music, assisted on various pieces by an excellent cast including Zeena Parkins, Graham Haynes, Gelsey Bell, and Kato Hideki.
Skeleton Crew (Frith / Cora / Parkins)
Free Dirt (Live) [2 CDs]
(Klanggalerie)
One of the most intense and unusual of the 80s Downtown NY groups merging rock and improvisation with strong attitudes and incredible musical concepts, these live recordings, including songs never before released, are taken from American and European concerts by the trio of guitarist Fred Frith, cellist Tom Cora, and either electric harpist Zeena Parkins or reedist Dave Newhouse.
Sharp, Elliot: Tectonics
Field & Stream
(Knitting Factory)
Elliott Sharp's 1998 Knitting Factory album finds the saxophonist, guitarist & electronic artist in a solo setting of rhythmic works using MAX/MSP and DSP applications to create rhythmic and sonic environments over which he improvises, with assistanceÊon one track each from Zeena Parkin on "little green drone guitar" and Frank Rothkamm providing drums sequences.
Various Artists
State of the Union 2.001 [3 CD BOX SET]
(Electronic Music Foundation)
Originally released in 2001, Elliott Sharp's production of this 3-CD set collects 171 1-minute pieces from international artists over a vast field of musical approaches, with contributors including Christian Marclay, Eric Mingus, Fred Frith, Harry Smith, Henry Kaiser, Ikue Mori, Jack Womack, Jad Fair, Joey Baron, Marc Ribot, Merzbow, Phill Niblock, Zeena Parkins, &c. &c.
Sharp, Elliot / Orchestra Carbon
Radiolaria
(zOaR Records)
An algorithmic composition for Elliott Sharp's Orchestra Carbon modeled on biological paradigms of growth and reproduction, recorded at Tonic in 2001 with a large ensemble of instrumentalists including Ned Rothenberg, Steve Swell, Jim Pugliese, Andy Laster, &c. and programmers and sampler performers including David Weinstein, R. Luke Dubois, and Zeena Parkins.
Mayas', Magda Filamental (w / Davies / Caddy / Theriot / Davies / Parkins / Thieke / Abdelnour)
Confluence
(Relative Pitch)
Composed by pianist Magda Mayas for an octet of superb avant improvisers including Rhodri Davies, Zeena Parkins, Michael Thieke, Angharad Davies, &c. and performed live at the 2019 Music Unlimited 33, in Wels, Austria, this extended work uses a graphic score to interpret 12 photographs taken over an hour observing the merging waters of the Rhone and the Arve rivers.
Mori, Ikue / Satoko Fujii / Natsuki Tamura
Prickly Pear Cactus
(Libra)
Extending their previous collaborations during the time of pandemic, NY electronic improviser Ikue Mori and Japanese improvisers Natsuki Tamura on trumpet and Satoko Fujii on piano developed this extraordinary ea-improv album via file exchange, starting with Fujii's piano improvisations to which Mori & Tamura added their layers, with Mori mixing the final, startling results.
Laubrock, Ingrid
Dreamt Twice, Twice Dreamt (Music For Chamber Orchestra And Small Ensemble) [2 CDs]
(Intakt)
The 2nd orchestral album from saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock, two very different but complementary sets of compositions using electronics in mostly acoustic settings: the 1st with the larger EOS Chamber Orchestra and guests including Cory Smythe, Tom Rainey, & Sam Pluta; the 2nd a smaller group of Laubrock, Smythe & Pluta + guests Adam Motlock, Josh Modney, and Zeena Parkins.
Kaze (Fujii / Tamura / Pruvost / Orins) w/ Ikue Mori
Sand Storm
(Libra/ Circum-Disc)
The cooperative quartet Kaze of Satoko Fujii on piano, Peter Orins on drums, Christian Pruvost on trumpet, Natsuki Tamura on trumpet, joins with elextroacoustic improviser Ikue Mori for seven exploratory pieces recorded in the studio after a one-week tour in Austria, France, and Russia, their enthusiasm for their extraordinarily unique group sound clearly evident.
Frith, Fred
All Is Always Now (Live at the Stone) [3 CDs]
(Intakt)
Guitarist Fred Frith performed 80 concerts at NY's The Stone between 2006-2016, in diverse configurations of duos, trios, quartets and large ensembles with some of the planet's finest improvisers, of which 23 recordings, titled from NY Times headlines of each concert's day, are presented in this essential 3-CD package, which includes a 24 page booklet detailing the collection.
Mahobin (Fujii / Anker / Tamura / Mori)
Live at Big Apple in Kobe
(Libra)
Continuing the celebration of pianist Satoko Fujii's 60th birtday by releasing one CD each month, this quartet brings an excellent set of electroacoustic improvisation to the collection in a quartet with trumpeter Natsuki Tamura, New York saxophonist Lotte Anker, and New York electronic artist and former DNA drummer Ikue Mori, performing live at Tokyo's Big Apple in 2018.
Sharp, Elliott / Zeena Parkins
>Blackburst<
(Les Disques Victo)
Parker, Evan ElectroAcoustic Septet
Seven
(Les Disques Victo)
UK multi-reed master Evan Parker brings an all-star electroacoustic septet to the 2014 Victoriaville Festival for the massive and wonderfully detailed two part composition "Seven", performed with Peter Evans, Okkyung Lee, George Lewis, Ikue Mori, Sam Pluta, and Ned Rothenberg.
Mori, Ikue & Steve Noble
Prediction and Warning
(Fataka)
Drummer Steve Noble assaults his drum kit in a way that excellently parallels Ikue Mori's electronics, producing an enthralling blend of acoustic and electronic music.
Musique Action #4 (Marclay / Jauniaux / Minton / Yoshihide / Parkins / Weston / Vatcher / Luc Ex)
Madame Luckerniddle - Tribute to Tom Cora
(Vand'Oeuvre)
The fourth of a collection dedicated to the French Musique Action Festival, here in a tribute to Tom Cora recorded in 1998 with Catherine Jauniaux, Phil Minton, Zeena Parkins, Christian Marclay, Otomo Yoshihide, Veryan Weston, &c. &c.
Lytton / Wooley + Ikue Mori and Ken Vandermark
The Nows [2 CDs]
(Clean Feed)
Nate Wooley and Paul Lytton continue their collaborations, extending their new duo recordings with live tracks from The Stone in NYC with Ikue Mori, and at Chicago's Hideout with Ken Vandermark.
Skeleton Crew
Learn to Talk and Country of Blinds [2 CDs]
(Recommended Records)
Frith, Fred
Stone, Brick, Glass, Wood, Wire (Graphic Scores 1986-96)(2CDs)
(Angelica)
RESTOCKED: Fred Frith's 1999 box set, presenting a large, flexible ensemble project using marked photographs and rules as scores while Frith directs and conducts as well as performing; permanent members are Ikue Mori and Zeena Parkins, otherwise the balance of the 44 strong ensemble changes; recordings here are taken from 5 concerts, including the first in 1992 at AngelicA.
Bruire (Michel F. Cote / Jean Derome / Robert Marcel Lepage / Rene Lussier / Ikue Mori / Claude St-Jean / Jerry Snell)
Les Fleurs De Leo
(Ambiances Magnetiques)
Thirteen new compositions by Michel F Cote that are tightly linked together by a poetic text, with Jean Derome, Diane Labrosse, Claude Lamothe, Robert Marcel Lepage, Rene Lussier, Ikue Mori, and Claude St-Jean.
Other Recommended Releases:
Laubrock, Ingrid (w/ Jon Irabagon / Zeena Parkins / Tom Rainey)
Monochromes
(Intakt)
Saxophonist & composer Ingrid Laubrock's quartet with Jon Irabagon on sopranino sax, Zeena Parkins on electric harp and Tom Rainey on drums, in a work of conventional and graphic notation with text instructions, accompanied by fixed media tape pieces (monochromes), from Nate Wooley, Adam Matlock, Tom Rainey, and by JD Allen, David Breskin & Ingrid Laubrock manipulating Harry Bertoia sculptures.
Glass Triangle (Zeena Parkins / Rasmussen / Sawyer)
Blue and Sun-lights
(Relative Pitch)
Recorded after a three-day series of concerts at New York City's venue The Stone, the trio of Zeena Parkins on electric harp & objects, Mette Rasmussen on saxophone, objects & voice and Ryan Sawyer on drums & objects brought their dynamic and far-ranging approach to collective free improv into Brooklyn's Figure 8 studio to capture these 10 extraordinary recordings.
Kaze with Satoko Fujii / Natsuki Tamura / Christian Pruvost / Peter Orins & Ikue Mori
Crustal Movement
(Circum-Libra)
The cooperative Japanese/French quartet Kaze of pianist Satoko Fujii, trumpeter Natsuki Tamura, trumpeter Christian Pruvost and drummer Peter Orins are expanded for a second time with New York electronic artist Ikue Mori, embracing pandemic restrictions by creating this album through file exchange, adding complex layers of profound interaction to the virtual improvisations.
Parkins, Zeena
To Dusk (Black Cross Solo Sessions 8)
(Corbett vs. Dempsey)
Sidelined by the pandemic in June of 2020, Downtown New York electric harp improviser Zeena Parkins began daily recordings in her home studio exploring new approaches to solo electric harp performance using pedals, objects & percussions, selecting ten of the most interesting improvisations for her contribution to Corbett vs. Dempsey's Black Cross Solo Sessions.
Fujiyama, Yuko / Graham Haynes / Ikue Mori
Quiet Passion
(Intakt)
A beautiful trio album of compositions from pianist Yuko Fujiyama and presented in a mix of solo pieces and duets & trios with cornetist Graham Haynes and electronic improviser Ikue Mori, for a subtle set of elegant improvisations balancing spacious moments with responsively relaxed interplay rich with anticipation, punctuated with two poems by Shutaro Tankikawa.
I.P.Y. (Ikue Mori / Phew / YoshimiO)
IPY
(Tzadik)
Bringing together three Japanese avant experimenters and improvisers — Ikue Mori (DNA, Downtown NY mainstay), YoshimiO (Boredoms, Saicobab and OOIOO) and Phew (Aunt Sally) — for a live performance at U.F.O. Club, in Tokyo in 2019, blurring the edges of experimentation, improvisation, and rock, an exciting and powerful first meeting for this trio.



The Squid's Ear Magazine

The Squid's Ear Magazine

© 2002-, Squidco LLC