The Squid's Ear Magazine


Davies, Angharad / Tisha Mukarji: Ffansion | Fancies (Another Timbre)

The title reflecting violinist Angharad Davies' Welsh Roots, this duo with inside pianist Tisha Mukarji furthers the collaborations of these improvisers, recording in St Catherine's Church in South London, using the acoustics of the space to shape the form of their music.
 

Price: $15.95


Quantity:

Out of Stock

Quantity in Basket: None

Log In to use our Wish List
Shipping Weight: 2.00 units

Sample The Album:





product information:

Personnel:



Angharad Davies-violin

Tisha Mukarji-piano


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




Label: Another Timbre
Catalog ID: at99
Squidco Product Code: 22327

Format: CD
Condition: New
Released: 2016
Country: UK
Packaging: Cardboard Gatefold
Recorded at St. Catherine's Church, Gatcham on February 5th and 6th, 2016 by Simon Reynell.

Descriptions, Reviews, &c.

"Two of Europe's finest improvising musicians came together in February 2016 to produce a raw but delicate music whose form, detail and energy is largely shaped by the acoustic of the space where they recorded, St Catherine's Church on Telegraph Hill in South London. John Eyles writes "This is as good as anything the two have done, together or separately. An album to return to, time after time, year after year."-Another Timbre



"It is fitting that the duo of violinist Angharad Davies and inside pianist Tisha Mukarji is included in this series. While this album bears catalogue number at99, the duo's previous release on the label was the excellent Endspace (2007), bearing number at5, in the infancy of Another Timbre. Since then they have been stalwarts of the label, appearing together in a trio with zither player Dimitra Lazaridou-Chatzigoga on Outwash (2012) and separately on many more Another Timbre releases. So it is a pleasure to welcome another duo album by the pair, Ffansïon / Fancies, its bilingual Welsh-English title acknowledging Davies's Welsh roots.

Recorded in January 2016, the album consists of seven tracks, five entitled "Ffansïon / Fancies i-v" and the other two "For Lucio i & ii." The Another Timbre website describes this as "a disc of improvisations and composed pieces" but the actual music effectively blurs the boundaries to the extent that it is impossible to tell composition from improvisation. Comparisons between similarly titled pieces do not provide any definite answers. No matter. Davies and Mukarji are both such confident, sure-footed improvisers, and so secure in each other's company, that their music could be entirely improvised, entirely annotated, or anywhere on the spectrum in between.

Aside from that, the salient qualities of their music are the distinctive ways they each play their instruments, the understanding and empathy they display, and the logic and economy of their music, which carries the listener along with them. This album is as good as anything the two have done together or separately. An album to return to time after time, year after year."-John Eyles, All About Jazz



Interview with Angharad Davies

When did you first play with Tisha and how often have you played together in the ensuing years?

I first heard Tisha playing a solo set at the Bridewell Theatre in 2005. It was the LMC's 14th Festival of Experimental Music. I was instantly struck by Tisha's sense of poise, her ability to give sounds breathing space and her powerful palette. Her sense of timing and supersonic attentiveness contributes to a cohesiveness in structure that is impossible to ignore and makes for a luxurious position to build or destroy. I have a real sense that the music is continually unfolding even when it seemingly comes to a dead end.

Having heard Tisha in 2005, I didn't get to play with her again until May 2007 at Music Fields Companion at the Sage Gateshead organised by Barry Esson. This was a trio with Andrea Neumann. We recorded endspace in July 2007 and I've played with Tisha about eight times since then spread over 2008, 2010, 2011, 2012, plus a recording in a trio with Dimitra Lazaridou Chatzigoga in 2011, and a residency at Q-02, Brussels in 2013.

So, the very first track on ffansïon/fancies is the first time we've played together since 2013.

Is it easy to maintain a musical relationship when you don't see each other for long periods?

I feel that some musical relationships are similar to very good friendships where there is mutual respect for personal growth but you can equally just pick up where you left off. This duo for me is very much like this.

In many ways the new duo disc ffansïon/fancies is quite different from your earlier CD endspace. How would you describe the difference and do you feel that your practice as musicians have developed along parallel paths?

I'm glad you think the music is quite different from endspace and personally I am in a very different place musically to where I was almost 10 years ago. These days it's all about finding a way to be more comfortable, and things that I found challenging then, thankfully, don't take up so much of my thinking time any more.

I was really struck by how much the building where ffansïon/fancies was recorded shaped and became part of the music. Though neither of you nor Tisha had been there before, it felt that the church's acoustic marked the music in many ways. Do you think that is right?

Absolutely. The building and its surroundings are integral to any improvisation and becomes the 3rd, 4th, 5th etc voice. I was very much affected by the church's gigantic proportions, its acoustics, the possibility of not finding the off switch for the droned pitched heating, the roadworks outside, the car alarm, the wind on the second day of recording.......the list is actually endless but all plays a part in shaping the direction of the music.

Yes, I felt that the space led you towards certain pitches that were particularly resonant in the church, and some of the pieces are built around these. Also I think it encouraged you to play louder than you might have otherwise in order to take advantage of the church's acoustic.

Everything sounded so good in there so, of course we were going to find ways of attempting to fill the space and make the building sing.

I was also struck by the way you and Tisha re-worked material across the two days. We hadn't originally planned to record over two days, but circumstances meant that we had to, and you really used the fact. Several of the pieces are developments of ideas which emerged in improvisations on the first day but which you then took further, or tried to explore more precisely on the second day. It struck me that this is a particularly fruitful way of using improvisation.

This is the first time we've worked like this and it focused the second day of recording but we still fucked up!



This album has been reviewed on our magazine:

The Squid
The Squid's Ear!

Artist Biographies

"Angharad Davies is a violinist, one at ease in both improvising and composition, with a wide discography as part of varied range of ensembles and groups. She's a specialist in the art of 'preparing' her violin, adding objects or materials to it to extend its sound making properties. Her sensitivity to the sonic possibilities of musical situations and attentiveness to their shape and direction make her one of contemporary music's most fascinating figures. 2015 has seen her being commissioned for a new work at the Counterflows Festival, Glasgow and premiering Eliane Radigue's new solo for violin, Occam XXI at the El Nicho Festival, Mexico.

She's performed at, the Queen Elizabeth Hall, BBC Proms, Music We'd Like to Hear's concert series, is an associate artist at Cafe Oto, is a member of Apartment House, Cranc and Common Objects, been artist in residence at Q-02, and played live with Tony Conrad in the Turbine Room at the Tate Modern. Other collaborations have featured the likes of John Butcher, Daniela Cascella, Rhodri Davies, Julia Eckhardt , Kazuko Hohki, Roberta Jean, Lina Lapelyte, Dominic Lash, Tisha Mukarji, Andrea Neumann, Rie Nakajima, Tim Parkinson, J.G.Thirlwell, Stefan Thut, Paul Whitty, Manfred Werder, Birgit Ulher, Taku Unami and she's released records on Absinth Records, Another Timbre, Potlatch and Confrontrecords."

-Angharad Davies Website (http://www.angharaddavies.com/biog.html)
3/13/2024

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

"Tisha Mukarji (born 1979) is a pianist, composer, and artist who holds an MFA from the Master's Program in Fine Arts at Malmö Art Academy, Malmö. She has performed and recorded her work extensively in Europe. She is the author of Auscultation (2010) and released the CDs Outwash (2012), Endspace, (2008), and D is for Din (2006). Mukarji lives and works in Berlin. [Last updated 2013]"

-Former West (http://www.formerwest.org/Contributors/TishaMukarji)
3/13/2024

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


Track Listing:



1. Ffansi | Fancy I 8:25

2. For Lucio I 2:27

3. Ffansi | Fancy II 8:58

4. Ffansi | Fancy III 7:03

5. Ffansi | Fancy IV 13:57

6. For Lucio II 2:37

7. Ffansi | Fancy V 9:20

Related Categories of Interest:


Improvised Music
Free Improvisation
Piano & Keyboards
Stringed Instruments
Duo Recordings
London & UK Improv & Related Scenes
New in Compositional Music

Search for other titles on the label:
Another Timbre.


Recommended & Related Releases:
Other Recommended Releases:
Davies, Angharad / Rie Nakajima / Alice Purton
Dethick
(Another Timbre)
Three free improvising women--Angharad Davies, Rie Nakajima, and Alice Purton--met in the church in the tiny hamlet of Dethick, near Matlock, Derbyshire, over the course of two days developing the ten pieces of this album using an impressive set of stringed and percussive instruments, objects, and mysterious sources to create these fascinating sonic evocations.
Taylor, Mark R.
Aftermaths
(Another Timbre)
Works for solo piano by Mark R Taylor, beautifully played by Teodora Stepancic, the first CD release by a remarkable but neglected English composer whose piano works present a metrically rhythmicized exploration of a generative spectrum, here featuring works dating between 1979 and 2018 and performed by Serbian pianist Teodora Stepancic.
d'incise / Cristian Alvear
Appalachian Anatolia (14th Century)
(Another Timbre)
A composition for solo 'modified guitar' from Swiss composer d'incise peformed by guitarist Cristian Alvear, music "at the confluence of sound, melody and rhythm. Something quiet but somehow driven by a pulse, existing somewhere between the electroacoustic and the tonal conceptions of music."
Harrison, Bryn
Receiving the Approaching Memory
(Another Timbre)
Bryn Harrison's highly acclaimed, labyrinthine composition for violin & piano from 2014, expertly realised by violinist Aisha Orazbayeva and pianist Mark Knoop, for whom this 5-part work of beautiful repetitions reflecting tapestries of sound was written.
Davies, Angharad / Rhodri Davies / Michael Duch / Lina Lapelyte / John Lely & John Tilbury
Goldsmiths
(Another Timbre)
An extended group improvisation and compositions by Lely, Sarah Hughes, and Jurg Frey, subtle and beautiful performances by Angharad Davies (violin), Rhodri Davies (electric harp), Michael Duch (bass), Lina Lapelyte (violin), John Lely (objects & electronics) & John Tilbury (piano).
Schall Und Rausch (Mukarji / Arrias / Dorner / Fagaschinski)
Vapour
(Confront)
Meaning "sound and smoke", the quartet of trumpeter Axel Dorner, pianist Tisha Mukarji, and reedist Johan Arrias & Kai Fagaschinski are caught live at Ausland in Berlin for a set of tonal improvisations based on compositions, creating outstanding textural environments.
Chang / Davies / Drouin / Durrant / Patterson / Tilbury
Variable Formations
(Another Timbre)
A live recording at Cafe Oto in 2013 from this sextet in an extended and dynamic piece in which the musicians develop material they had presented in small groups in the first half of the concert, mixing improvised and prepared elements.
Dahl, Anders & Skogen
Rows
(Another Timbre)
Sweden's Skogen returns with a beautiful work for chamber ensemble with Magnus Granberg, Angharad Davies, Toshimaru Nakamura, Ko Ishikawa, Anna Lindal, Henrik Olsson, Petter wastberg and Erik Carlsson, interpreting a piece by Anders Dahl using a 12 tone system.
Chabala / Jones / Martin / Mukarji / Nakamura
Unbalanced In (Unbalanced Out)
(Another Timbre)
Six musicians from around the world (Chabala / Jones / Martin / Mukarji / Nakamura) created this 50-minute track over the course of a year by collaborating and file-sharing online.
Davies, Angharad / Axel Dorner
A.D.
(Another Timbre)
Incredible, understated improvisation from two masters of the form - Axel Dorner on trumpet and Angharad Davies on violin - in three commanding tracks of atmospheric momentum.
Davies, Angharad / Tisha Mukarji
Endspace
(Another Timbre)
Violinist Andharad Davies, with releases on Absinth, Creative Sources, & Emanem, and inside pianist Tisha Mukarji in delicate yet intensely beautiful improvisations.



Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought:
Locals, The (Thomas, Ward / Thomas / Lash / Hasson-Davis)
The Locals Play The Music Of Anthony Braxton
(Discus)
An upbeat and energetic performance at the Konfrontation Festival, Ulrichsberg in 2006, featuring six early compositions by Anthony Braxton, arranged by pianist Pat Thomas and performed by the quintet of superb improvisers and interpreters Alex Ward on clarinet, Evan Thomas on electric guitar, Dominic Lash on electric bass, and Darren Hasson-Davis on drums.
Beuger, Antoine / Apartment House
Jankelevitch Sextets
(Another Timbre)
The 4th album on Another Timbre from a series of pieces by composer Antoine Beuger, each acknowledging a cultural or intellectual figure, here titled for philosopher, musicologist, educator and one-time member of the French Resistance, Vladimir Jankélévitch, represented by Beuger in a large dramatic work performed by the Apartment House sextet.
Granberg, Magnus / Skogen
Nun, es wird nicht weit mehr gehn
(Another Timbre)
Composer Magnus Granberg took influences from Schubert's song cycle "Die Winterreise", extracting tonal material, which he merged with rhythmic influences from medieval English folk music and a song by Dowland, merging them into a temporal framework for this large and subtle composition, executed by a setpet including Angharad Davies, Erik Carlsson, Henrik Olsson, d'incise, &c.
Eastman, Julius / Apartment House
Femenine
(Another Timbre)
A live recording of Julius Eastman's 1974 work "Femenine" performed by Apartment House led by cellist Anton Lukoszevieze, with Simon Limbrick on vibraphone, Kerry Yong on piano, Mark Knoop on keyboard, Mira Benjamin on violin, and Gavin Morrison and Emma Williams on flute, an ecstatic and intricate work using a repeating figure contrasted with both asynchronous and complementing backgrounds.
Fages, Ferran
Un lloc entre dos records
(Another Timbre)
Submerging the listener into the immediacy of pure perception through the economy of materials and atemporality, Catalan guitarist Ferran Fages presents the 3rd piece of his trilogy for guitar and sinteones, referencing Feldman, Lucier and Szlavnics as he specifies tunings for the guitar accompanied by pure resonating sinetones used as memory vehicles or shadows.
Smith, Linda Catlin
Wanderer
(Another Timbre)
Eight sophisticated chamber pieces composed by Linda Catlin Smith and realized by the Canadian Apartment House ensemble, including a solo piano performed by Philip Thomas, a piano duo with Thomas and Mark Knoop, and works for percussion & cello, 2 quintet pieces for strings, percussion and winds, and two 7-piece conducted works with two percussionists, strings and brass.
Granberg, Magnus
Es Schwindelt Mir, Es Brennt Mein Eingweide
(Another Timbre)
An hour-long work for an ensemble of six musicians by Swedish composer Magnus Granberg performed by Anna Lindal on baroque violin, d incise on vibraphonen electronics, Cyril Bondi on percussion, Anna Kaisa Meklin on viola da gamba, Christoph Schiller on spinet, and Magnus Granberg himself on prepared piano, transforming material from a song by Franz Schubert.
Cage, John
Winter Music
(Another Timbre)
John Cage's 1957 composition in a visceral realisation for four pianos, played by John Tilbury, Philip Thomas, Mark Knoop and Catherine Laws, using chance procedures to assign each of the pianist's five of the twenty pages of the score, the pianists agreeing on an overall duration of 40 minutes and preparing their parts independently, performed without rehearsal.
Insub Meta Orchestra
13 & 27
(Another Timbre)
Coordinated and composed by d'incise and Cyril Bondi, this incredible Swiss-based collective of 30 to 40 experimental musicians was founded in 2010 and has presented concerts and recordings since; this CD presents two works, "13 unissons" splitting the orchestra into 13 subgroups; and "27 times" where each musician plays 27 times in 30 minutes; phenomenal.
Frey, Jurg
Collection Gustave Roud [2 CDs]
(Another Timbre)
A double CD with five beautiful pieces that engage with the work of the extraordinary French-Swiss poet Gustave Roud, with performers including Dante Boon, Stefan Thut, Andrew McIntosh and Jurg Frey himself, 10 compositions that Frey wrote in the manner that Roud would, roaming with a sketchbook and developing the pieces based on impressions of his surroundings.
Feldman, Morton
Piano, Violin, Viola, Cello
(Another Timbre)
Morton Feldman's final composition, originally premiered in 1987, here performed by pianist Mark Knoop, violinist Aisha Orazbayeva, violist Bridget Carey, and cellist Anton Lukoszevieze, recording a year after their successful performance at London's Cafe Oto, maintaining focus and concentration on this large, unhurried work of micro-variations.
Szlavnics, Chiyoko
During a Lifetime
(Another Timbre)
Three works from Canadian composer Chiyoko Szlavnics, two electroacoustic compositions incorporating sinewaves, one with a saxophone quartet and the other with two accordions, two flutes and two percussionists; and a string trio of long sustained tones and slow glissandi.
Brousseloux, Augustin / Jean-Marc Foussat / Quentin Rollet
Qui A Vu Ce Mystere...
(Improvising Beings)
Two large works of improvisation using electric guitar, synth and alto saxophone from the trio of Augustin Brousseloux, Jean-Marc Foussat, and Quentin Rollet, complex and evolving works with a psychedelic edge, blending experimental, rock and jazz into something truly unique.
Nuova Camerata
Chant
(Improvising Beings)
Lisbon's Nuova Camerata brings together a mix of improvisers and contemporary classical players--Carlos Zingaro, Joao Camoes, Ulrich Mitzlaff, Miguel Leiria on string with Pedro Carneiro on marimba--for a set of improvisations bridging both disciplines in passionate and unexpected ways.
Gama, Joana / Luis Fernandes / Ricardo Jacinto
Harmonies
(Shhpuma)
The duo of Joana Gama on piano and Luis Fernandes on electronics is expanded with Ricardo Jacinto on cello to create rich, mysterious works inspired by Erik Satie's score for the ballet "Relache", graced with the image of the double cross he used when he founded his 1-member church in 1892.



The Squid's Ear Magazine

The Squid's Ear Magazine

© 2002-, Squidco LLC