The Squid's Ear Magazine

Juxtavoices

Warning: May Contain Notes

Juxtavoices: Warning: May Contain Notes (Discus)

Juxtavoices is an anti-choir of 30 voices whose repertoire includes original compositions and arrangements of classic modernist poems and found texts, here in a CD/DVD release with a reinterpretation of early an Cabaret Voltaire recordings and a terrifying ascent into hell.
 

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product information:

Personnel:



Julie Archer

Martin Archer

Jon Ashe

David Bartholomew

Ian Baxter

Mick Beck

Nathan Bettany

Geoff Bright

Chris Bywater

Clinton Chaloner

Julie Cole

Laura Cole

Emma Cooper

Paul Coupe

Edward Eggleston

Kat Fletcher

Sharon Gill

Alan Halsey

Matt Harling

Lyn Hodnett

Christine Kennedy

Bo Meson

Tamar Millen

Geraldine Monk

Rick Moran

Liam Murphy

Tim Plant

Marion Rout

Liz Searle

Wolfgang Seel

Walt Shaw

frostlake (Jan Todd)

Jane Tormey

Caroline Veal

Peter Veal

Linda Lee Welch

Gillian Whiteley


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




UPC: 5051078952123

Label: Discus
Catalog ID: 58CD/DVD
Squidco Product Code: 23373

Format: CD & DVD
Condition: New
Released: 2016
Country: UK
Packaging: Cardboard Gatefold 3 Panels
Recorded in various locations.

Descriptions, Reviews, &c.

"Third collection of works by the mighty antichoir Juxtavoices collects all the pieces we performed in the period 2012-2015 plus a disc of DVD interpretations created in collaboration with Bo Meson. Four group members contribute compositions to this collection which includes troubled seascapes, exploding islands, futurist wars, curious wordplay on the subject of ageing disreputably, a reinterpretation of early Cabaret Voltaire recordings and a terrifying ascent to the very jaws of hell. These recordings were made over the course of a couple of years at various concert and rehearsal locations, following which the group took a 12 month sabbatical to recover from a regime of fortnightly rehearsals and 40 or so gigs over the previous 5 years. Juxtavoices returns refreshed to the stage in 2017!"-Discus



"Juxtavoices is an anti-choir of 30 mostly untrained voices whose repertoire includes members' own compositions and arrangements of classic modernist poems and found texts. The scores provide structure but freedom of pitch allows improvisation to shape the detail so that no two performances are ever the same. Audiences are unfailingly surprised by the Juxtavoices sound. Some try to name-check composers in the avant-garde tradition but none quite fit. Some shudder at the dark theatricality, some hear the humour, some are outraged while others feel an irresistible urge to join the ranks. This is singing on the edge of not-singing or vice versa, a music only previously heard in a sound-poet's dreams. The group enjoys unusual acoustic spaces - furnace floor or bear pit or library stairwell - as well as churches and more conventional concert venues. It hopes to create a chord which will startle the ghost of Thomas Tallis. Directed by Martin Archer and Alan Halsey Juxtavoices uniquely combines the outer reaches of improvised music and innovative poetry."-Juxatvoices Facebook page


Artist Biographies

"Martin Archer was born in Sheffield, England, in 1957. He started playing saxophone at age 15 and first got active on the Sheffield improvisational scene in 1973. In the early '80s, he recorded an LP with Bass Tone Trap, his first group. In 1983 he formed the saxophone quartet Hornweb, which, in ten years of existence, released three albums. It is during that time that Archer released his first solo album, Wild Pathway Favourites (1988) and founded the Discus label on which he since releases all his music.

In 1993, he disbanded Hornweb and turned to synthesizers and sequencers while shifting his activities from stage to studio. He developed a compositional approach in which he records improvisers soloing, then manipulates this raw material, combining it with electronics and structuring it into a whole new piece. This technique is illustrated on Wild Pathway Favourites, Ghost Lily Cascade (1996), and Pure Water Construction (with bassist Simon H. Fell, released in 1999). Later works such as Winter Pilgrim Arriving (2000) moved toward more constructed and less abstract pieces, even making room for melodies and rhythm tracks at times.

Apart from his solo work, Archer is also involved in Ask, a duo with guitarist John Jasnoch, and Transient v Resident, an ambient electronics project with Chris Bywater."-All Music, François Couture



"Martin Archer is a composer / improviser who is equally at home on stage or in the studio. His own distinctive saxophone playing is rooted in AACM jazz. Through his use of keyboards and electronics, and as a studio producer, he extends this interest into extended song form and leftfield rock music. He is also co-director of the uncategorisably avant choir Juxtavoices.

His principle music work is the Discus Music label, the imprint for his various releases, notably by the groups described below.

His current jazz based projects include Engine Room Favourites (current a 4 drummer, 14 piece big band), Story Tellers (6 piece group including shaman instruments alongside the conventional instruments), plus various ad hoc smaller groups. All of these are strongly aligned with AACM tradition and teaching.

Archer has a long running duo with veteran vocalist Julie Tippetts. Each of their highly acclaimed CD releases deliberately explores song from a different perspective - the duo aims to be truly progressive, and takes in elements from jazz, rock, soul and pure abstraction.

Archer's main live performance vehicle is the trio Inclusion Principle with Herve Perez and Peter Fairclough. The group operates in a space between electronics, nu-jazz, contemporary electroacoustic music and free improvisation. In performance you will hear pure jazz skill, electronic beats and areas of texture and abstraction all seamlessly woven into a fascinating and constantly shifting tapestry of sound.

The sprawling Orchestra Of The Upper Atmosphere was formed by Archer as an improvising rock group with shades of Terry Riley, Magma, Alice Coltrane and Sun Ra, very much in the progressive / krautrock tradition, and noted for its large scale string, horn and vocal arrangements.

Also in rock music, Archer is a member of the USA based heavier than plutonium prog / sludge / zeuhl group Combat Astronomy under the direction of Jamie Huggett.

Surprising, delighting and occasionally alarming audiences for a number of years now, Juxtavoices is a 30 piece choir for mainly untrained voices co directed by Archer with Alan Halsey which has racked up dozens of performances and issued three CDs.

This eclectic combination of sources and highly individual applications makes Archer a unique inhabitant of the school of English maverick composer / improvisers. "-Discus

-All Music, Discus Records (http://www.allmusic.com/artist/martin-archer-mn0000146946)
3/13/2024

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

"On the free scene since 1980, as an improvising big band leader to solo performer, Mick is known for his energy and originality: his playing covers the full emotional gamut from heartbreaking to mischievous, and from abstracts to compelling swing.

His improvising big band Feet Packets was unique in the UK and influential in the late 1980s. In the 1990s he led many small groups including the powerful free jazz trio Something Else with Paul Hession and Simon Fell, which released two acclaimed CDs. Since the millennium, Beck's ground-breaking work with the mysterious and humorous bassoon, supplemented by his use of other wind instruments add many new sounds and moods. In 2005, Beck formed another big band, Gated Community, a 15-piece group, which revisited the boundaries between total musical freedom and novel compositions. Some videos remain of the band's performances, which included two engagements with Damo Suzuki as guest artist.

Beck's technical innovations and musical ideas are often a source of inspiration to his collaborators on stage, and hehe works with many of free music's best-known exponents covering a wide age range. He is based in Sheffield , plays regularly in London and elsewhere in the UK and from time to time in Spain, Germany, Austria, France, Canada and Australia .

He has worked with many great musicians such ass saxists J.D. Parran to Alan Wilkinson, guitarists Derek Bailey to Hugh Metcalfe, percussionists Tony Buck to Steve Noble and Paul Hession, bassists Marcio Mattos to Simon Fell, pianists Chris Burn to Stephen Grew and Pat Thomas.

In the 1990s through to 2004, he was one of the lead organisers of Sheffield 's Other Music, a bastion of the UK 's free music scene for 22 years from 1982 to 2004.

He has worked with many great musicians such ass saxists J.D. Parran to Alan Wilkinson, guitarists Derek Bailey to Hugh Metcalfe, percussionists Tony Buck to Steve Noble and Paul Hession, bassists Marcio Mattos to Simon Fell, pianists Chris Burn to Stephen Grew and Pat Thomas.

In the 1990s through to 2004, he was one of the lead organisers of Sheffield 's Other Music, a bastion of the UK 's free music scenefor 22 years."

-Mick Beck Website (http://mickbeck.com/)
3/13/2024

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

Nathan Bettany is a UK oboist, known for the bands Juxtavoices, The Cambridge Free Improvisation Society, and Martin Archer's Anthropology Band.

-Squidco 3/13/2024

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

"Laura Cole is a jazz composer/pianist who lives in Leeds but whose band (Metamorphic) is based in London. Metamorphic features, Kerry Andrew (vocals), Chris Williams (alto),John Martin (tenor/soprano), Paul Sandy (bass), Tom Greenhalgh (drums).

Metamorphic will play in Jazz in the Round at the Cockpit Theatre on Monday January 28th. They also have a gig at the Vortex on the 24th February with Frank Byng's (Slowfoot Records) quintet, Snorkel.

The group have one album out (The Rock Between, 2011, F-IRECD43 - reviewed by Chris Parker), and release their follow up (Coalescence, also on F-IRE) later this year (2013).

Laura also has a blog which discusses the issues that women face in music and holds a First Class Honours Degree in Jazz from Middlesex University."

-London Jazz News (http://www.londonjazznews.com/2013/01/artist-profile-laura-cole.html)
3/13/2024

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

Lyn Hodnett is an artist and Musician based in Sheffield. She has had numerous exhibitions and sound performances, and is a member of Juxtavoices.

-Squidco 3/13/2024

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

"Walt Shaw is a freelance musician and artist from near Derby in the Midlands. He has been involved in a host of arts projects for the last 28 years. Prior to becoming a freelance musician and artist he was, for 14 years, Head of Biology in a large Comprehensive near Burton-on-Trent. This was after teaching in Lincoln and northern Nigeria (VSO). His projects have ranged from exhibitions of paintings and sculpture, both solo and group, to installations, to cross-disciplinary collaborations with dancers and physical performers. In these latter projects his experimental percussion and low-tech electronics have always played a significant role.

In 1989, Walt, along with the artist Kevin Burnley, co-founded the artist group BET4. They exhibited widely in the Midlands and in Germany and Paris. By 1993, the group widened in scope, becoming increasingly involved with not just exhibitions but installations, live art and cross-disciplinary projects. These usually integrated elements of contemporary dance, live sound and physical performance along with a strong visual aesthetic. This gave Walt opportunities for experimenting with percussion in unusual contexts as well as the creativity of that visual aesthetic. Performances took place throughout England as well as Scotland, Paris and Germany. The work of BET4 had a profound influence on all the subsequent solo and collaborative projects Walt has been involved with.

Walt has enjoyed 3 major Arts Council England awards for projects. These were for 'Polarities', 'Timepoints' and 'Entropic'. Along with the artist Simon Piasecki he also carried out the A.C.E. project 'Mendel's Garden'. He has been a collaborative artist in many other A.C.E. projects. Details of all these can be seen in the 'Live Art / Cross-disciplinary' section.

Education has played a significant part in Walt's work, even after 1989.

He has carried out many workshops in both art and percussion in Primary, Secondary, F.E. and H.E. in the Midlands and the North. He has been an artist-in- residence at Melton Brooksby College in 2005 and Abbot Beyne School, Burton-on-Trent in 2009. Walt ran Creative Percussion Discussion in Derby from 2004 through to 2005, working with youngsters under the auspices of Derby Jazz. In 2006, Walt was a tutor in a Clore Duffield Foundation project working with teenagers in Belper, using an old car as a source for art, percussion and performance. 2006 saw a project alongside the inspiring musician Orphy Robinson, working in schools to make instruments from scrap objects and improvise with them. This was a Creative Partnerships project.

Walt has played with many leading improvising musicians from the U.K. and abroad and is presently playing in several bands (see 'Music') whilst still producing visual art ( see 'Visual Art'). It is fair to say he has an unease about specialism and arbitrary categorizations. His creative development over the years has always been very difficult to pigeonhole. His creative process is the same whatever the medium though, involving searching, experimentation, expression, pushing the boundaries and refining."

-Walt Shaw Website (http://www.waltshaw.co.uk/about.php)
3/13/2024

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

"frostlake is a solo songstress/ instrumentalist performer with songs featuring Terry Todd-bass (The Box, Comsat Angels) Andy Peake-piano (Comsat Angels) Steve Dinsdale-drums (R.M.I., Earth's Tilted Axis) Nigel Manning-flute (sax player ex Hornweb) Charlie Collins- percussionist extraordinaire and Mick Somerset Ward- bass recorder, bass flute, bass clarinet."

-Reverb Nation (https://www.reverbnation.com/frostlake)
3/13/2024

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


Track Listing:



DVD



1. An Imp Unity Of Dyads

2. Ascent

3. RMMV Asturias

4. Drawn From No Well

5. Helvetica

6. Western Works

CD



1. Ascent 9:14

2. RMMV Asturias 13:49

3. An Imp Unity Of Dyads 10:07

4. Helvetica 15:35

5. To You & Me Krakatoa 11:28

6. Atavistic Ennui 10:29

Related Categories of Interest:


Compositional Forms
Improvised Music
Unusual Vocal Forms
Large Ensembles
London & UK Improv & Related Scenes
DVD
New in Compositional Music
Last Copy of Items that will not be restocked...

Search for other titles on the label:
Discus.


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