The Squid's Ear Magazine


Mitzlaff / Mira: cellos (Creative Sources)

The unusual cello duo format is explored by Mitzlaff and Mira in these experimental contemporary improvisations using acoustics and techniques mimicking live electronics to create a uniquely informed music.
 

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Ulrich Mitzlaff-cello

Miguel Mira-cello


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Label: Creative Sources
Catalog ID: cs174
Squidco Product Code: 12907

Format: CD
Condition: New
Released: 2010
Country: Portugal
Packaging: Jewel Tray
Recorded by Miguel Mira in June 2009 at Casal da Granja-Varzea de Sintra, Portugal. Mixed and Mastered by Emidio Buchinho in July 2009.

Descriptions, Reviews, &c.
structure similar to the Offenbach's options for those scores. This is how experimental contemporary music pays tribute to past achievements. Sure you'll still find here the "classical" factor, but "Cellos" is an entirely improvised, post avant-garde and exploratory set of cello duos, incorporating elements that go from jazz (Mira tunes his instrument in fourths, like if it was a double bass, following the proceedings of the jazz cellist Oscar Pettiford) to "live" electronics, sometimes mimetizing acoustically the sound world of synthesists and laptop experimentalists.

But there's much more to say about this surprising and extraordinary record assembling a German musician living in Portugal for 12 years now and a Portuguese-born Renaissance man dividing his time between music, architecture and painting. Beginning with the fact that each improvisation has a particular concept behind it, presented by the title; and the titles aware us of a transposition to music of formulae coming from the visual arts. "Visual music" is the name used to refer the influence of music in painting, sculpture, cinema, video and computer art since Kandinsky and Norman McLaren, but even if what we have here is the reversed situation, the designation is fully applyable. And that because it corresponds to the same equation: the search for synesthesia, began by Scriabin with his "tastiera per luce". If the plastic artists of the last century were trying to inscribe the notion of time in their works, present musicians like Mitzlaff and Mira deal with space. We can even say that the Einstein's Relativity Theory is being fulfilled in the domains of art, the "space-time continuum" getting finally global covering. In his book "Digital Harmony" (1980), John Whitney writes about a "new kind of composer: one with the ability to conceive ideas both musically and visually". In this case, the particularity is that we have two instant-composers, musicians composing in the exact moment of the performance, committed to the "here and now" of the creative act.

Some of the situations approached are ambiguous, in the sense that they have several, but complementary in some way, interpretations depending on the perspective. "Shape", the first track of the album, alludes directly to architectural and sculptural considerations, but in Portuguese the word "figura" (which we can literally, but not very correctly, translate to English as "figure") has other meanings. We might think they're referring to the "musical figure", a short succession of notes and their possible variations, but if there's indeed a simple and basic motif, what is really in question is the unity of the form. And this takes us to the definition of figurativism, since the focus is on an object. The implications are of great interest, considering that music is not a representational art. "Inversion" suggests a visual movement and more than adopting music processes through inverted intervals and consonant or dissonant weird counterpoints, it warns us for the rhetorical dimension of the interactive discourse developed by the two players, presenting it as a parallel to human verbal language. "Tripartition" mentions the thesis in music semiology by Jean Molino and Jean-Jacques Nattiez, which divides the musical phenomenon in three vectors: the music "producer", the "text" (the music itself), and the "receiver" (the listener). Simultaneously, it's the equivalent of the tryptic opuses in history, from Hieronimus Bosch to Francis Bacon.

"Discontinuity" sums up the performing philosophy adopted by Ulrich Mitzlaff and Miguel Mira. The non-linear structure cuts with the cause and effect relationships specific to time, enabling to play with spatial categories. In this improvisation we find the second great musical reference of "Cellos", Morton Feldman (from Mitzlaff's input), but also another extra-musical source of inspiration: the "jump drive" principle (warp flights, teleportation) in science fiction (coming from Mira, a comics fan and collector). In one way or another, the intention is to break with the understanding of music as a narrative (like the conventional literary and cinematic ones), with its rigidly implied "time-scheme". One of Feldman's main characteristics is the non-chronological organization of sounds and the refusal to restrict it in a closed syntax and in a phrasing construction, distancing him from the type of uses common, for instance, in jazz and improvised music. The recorded piece is fragmentary and unstable, dismantling any perceptions of past, present and future. "Asymmetry" is the logic next step, and again we are in plastic arts territory. And in architecture: through the 20th century, and until now, it's believed that "only a bad architect relies on symmetry". Science is the basis: in biology, chemistry, physics, thermodynamics, astronomy, and so on, there's innumerable examples of non-symmetric systems.

Then we hear "Abstract", the closing track. Being music abstract by definition, that factor gained more evidence under the guiding of the visual avant-garde tendencies from Dada to Fluxus. Curiously enough, abstractionism always had a strong empathy with geometry, the mathematics of objects, and in music truth is abstraction tends also to be geometric. Mitzlaff and Mira close the circle, arriving at the start, putting side by side the metaphor of a real, natural, object ("Shape") and the metaphor of an "inner", imagined, object ("Abstract"). In the art of sounds there's no substantial differences between the two exercises - it's simply two aspects of the same reasoning. In doing so, they design for this album an "open-ended" symmetry by asymmetric means, and that is brilliant. Few times improvisation had such a conceptual relevance. Offenbach would be puzzled with "Cellos", as I did and certainly will you."-Rui Eduardo Paes



This album has been reviewed on our magazine:

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Artist Biographies

"Ulrich Mitzlaff completed his cello studies in the seventies at Tübingen (Germany) with Professor Stefan Zarnescú. Since 1996 he lives at Lisbon, Portugal, where he works as cellist and composer of contemporary and experimental music, improvisation, free-jazz, conceptual composition and sound-art. He collaborates with various artists in multidisciplinary and electro-acoustic projects and he is member of the art-association "granular".

At the moment, he participates in music-projects like: the Duo Ulrich Mitzlaff / Miguel Mira, with a new and very surprising CD "Cellos" that was presented early springtime this year; Separados Frutos, an experimental music and spoken word formation with Nuno Rebelo, Vera Mantero and Manuel Guimarães; the Open Speech TRIO with Carlos Bechegas and Miguel Feraso Cabral; the Duo Carlos "Zingaro" / Ulrich Mitzlaff and the Fruit Music Quartet with Franziska Schroeder, Pedro Carneiro and Pedro Rebelo.

With Carlos "Zingaro" he was performing in many different constellations and formations that had a significant impact on his playing. The same is to say about his collaborations with Nuno Rebelo, Carlos Bechegas, Miguel Mira and Carlos Santos.

He was interpreting the original music composed by Nuno Rebelo in 2001 for "como rebolar alegremente sobre um vazio interior", choreography by Vera Mantero for the Ballet Gulbenkian, and in 2003 for "Silicone Não", choreography by Paulo Ribeiro for the Companhia Paulo Ribeiro. He was collaborating in 2000 and 2001 with Américo Rodrigues in his multi-dimensional piece "...como um relâmpago...".

He composed and presented live in 2008 the music for the choreography created by Romulus Neagu "The Invisibility of the Small Perceptions". With Romulus Neagu he works also in the duo "ImproFormance", an instant dance-performance.

In 2008 he created and interpreted the music for the documentary film by Miguel Clara Vasconcelos over the choreographic project of Romulus Neagu "The Invisibility of the Small Perceptions", and in 2009 he composed and interpreted the music for the dramatic short film by Miguel Clara Vasconcelos "Pedrinez". He interpreted the original music written by Paulo Curado for the animation film "Cândido" by "Zepe" - José Pedro Cavalheiro in 2007.

He participated in many international festivals like "Festival LEM Primavera" (Barcelona 2009), "Festival Portugal and the World" (Brussels 2007), "Metasonic LX" (Lisbon 2006), "Metasonic III" (Lisbon 2010), "Festival Músicas do Mundo" (Sines 2006), "Festival Alkantara" (Lisbon 2006), "Sonorities" festival of contemporary music (Belfast, Northern Ireland 2005), "CAMP 03 - international festival for electronic music, sound art and visual arts" (Tübingen, Germany 2003) and "CAMP 05" (Montemor-o-Novo 2005), "Encontros de Música Experimental- EME" (Setúbal 2000 and 2001), "Ó da Guarda" (Guarda 1999, 2005 and 2008) among many others.

He was playing in various concerts with Fried Dähn, Rodrigo Amado, Emídio Buchinho, Reinhold Friedl, Vitor Joaquim, Thomas Maos, Stefano de Bonis, Josep-Maria Balanyà, Bart Maris, Miguel Cardoso, Pedro Lopes, Hernâni Faustino, Stefano Zorzanello, Gregg Moore, Liba Villavecchia, Paulo Curado, Bertrand Gauguet, Miguel Leiria Pereira, Ernesto Rodrigues, Mark Whitecage, Phill Niblock and many others. He worked in the duo I/O with Carlos Santos (MAX/MSP) in the field of electro-acoustic improvisation and he was collaborating with the Lisbon Improvisation Players of Rodrigo Amado."

-Creative Sources (http://creativesourcesrec.com/artists/u_mitzlaff.html)
3/13/2024

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

"Born in 1958, studying guitar at the Academy of Music Amateurs, in the 70s, with Prof. Nagy. In the late 70 studying bass at the Hot Club, in the early '80s, with Prof. Zé Eduardo.

"Intrigue and permanent and persistent unease with stringed instruments, jazz and improvisation itself. During the last forty years, in concert, in private or in the studio, I had the honor of having played and learned (chronologically) Nuno Grande, Armindo Neves, Emilio Robalo, Celso Carvalho, António Ferro, Arthur Costa, Ze Bitch John Vinegar, John Lucas, Francisco Medina, Abdul moimeme, Rashiim Ausar Sahu, Patrick Brennan, Rodrigo Amado, Scott Fields, Francisco Trindade, Ernesto Rodrigues, Harvey Sorgen and Joe Giardullo.

Today, honor me play (and perpetuate my restlessness) with Rodrigo Amado, Abdul moimeme, John Lucas, Joseph Bruno Parrinha, John Parrinha, João Pedro Viegas, Alipio Carvalho Neto, Gabriel Ferrandini, Ernesto Rodrigues, Armando Gonçalves Pereira, Hernani Faustino, Rodrigo Pinheiro, Zé Lencastre, Louis Desirat, Peter Castello Lopes, Luís Lopes, Luís Vicente, Philip Sousa, Pedro Roxo, Johannes Krieger, George Lamprey, Marcello Maggi, Paulo Curado, Diogo Leal, D' Incise, Virginia and Eduardo Chagas. With some of my friends. I share my musical day in broader bands or ensembles, with other I highlight specific musical encounters and they are my entire curriculum." "

-JACC Records (http://www.jacc-records.com/en/musicians/miguel-mira)
3/13/2024

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


Track Listing:



1. shape 1:21

2. Inversion 8:32

3. tripartition 1st part 5:58

4. tripartition 2nd part 8:54

5. tripartition 3rd part 3:22

6. discontinuity 4:22

7. asymmetry 9:21

8. abstract 8:24

Related Categories of Interest:

Creative Sources

Improvised Music
European Improv, Free Jazz & Related
Stringed Instruments
Free Improvisation
Duo Recordings
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Creative Sources.


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