Tickmayer, Stevan Kovacs

Cold Peace Counterpoints

Label: Recommended Records Country: USA

"A suite of fiendishly complex compositions for mixed real and virtual resources. The real are Bob Drake, Djorge Delibasic, Pegja Milosavljevic and Chris Cutler who, between them, cover electric guitar, bass, drums and virtuoso violin, but it's mainly Stevan here, who plays all kinds of keyboards, strings, double bass and zither, on top of samples and software. In this collection of highly concentrated compositions we are presented with three thoroughly through-composed and finely articulated pieces: "Concerto Grosso (for keyboards, string instruments and CPU)", "The Cold Peace Counterpoints", and "Five Bagatelles for a Polyhistor".

Those familiar with Tickmayer's earlier recordings, or with the Science Group, will have some idea of what to expect - a rare commingling of high European art music (Tickmayer studied with both György Kurtàg and Louis Andriessen), various East European folk musics, experimental rock, post rock and computer assisted electronic composition. These are intense, emotionally and philosophically driven pieces that demand attention - and reward it when given.

BIOGRAPHICAL:

Composer, multi-instrumentalist, improviser and essayist Stevan Kovacs Tickmayer was born in Novi Sad, Vojvodina (ex-) Yugoslavia in 1963 as a member of a Hungarian national minority. Since the civil war in his native country (1991) he has lived and worked in France.

He began his music studies on piano & double bass, graduating in composition at the Academy Of Arts, Novi Sad under Rudolf Brucci. He completed his studies with Louis Andriessen & Diderick Wagenaar at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague (Netherlands) and at the Rotterdam Conservatory where he attended the lectures of Witlod Lutoslawsk.

Tickmayer's compositions have been performed by Gidon Kremer, Martha Argerich, Kremerata Baltica, Keller Quartet, David Geringas, Tatiana Vassilieva, Alexei Ogrintchouk, The Netherlands Wind Ensemble, De Volharding, Seattle Chamber Players and many others and, as an improviser and non-classical player, he has collaborated on a range of projects with many musicians, including, Chris Cutler, Fred Frith, Robert Drake, Valentin Clastrier, Peter Kowald, Szabados György, Paul Termos, Grencso Istvan, Dresch Mihaly and the America group Thinking Plague; He co founded and composed the music for The Science Group and has written numerous arrangements for Iva Bittova, Kremerata Baltica and The Netherlands Wind Ensemble."-Recommended Records