The Squid's Ear Magazine


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.
 

Price: $15.95



Quantity:

In Stock

Quantity in Basket: None

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

Sample The Album:



product information:

Personnel:



Johnny Chang-viola

Angharad Davies-violin

Jamie Drouin-analogue synthesizer, radio

Phil Durrant-electronics

Lee Patterson-amplified objects, processes

John Tilbury-piano


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




Label: Another Timbre
Catalog ID: at67
Squidco Product Code: 18311

Format: CD
Condition: New
Released: 2013
Country: UK
Packaging: Cardstock gatefold foldover
Recorded live at Cafe OTO on February 16th, 2013 by Simon Reynell.

Descriptions, Reviews, &c.

"A live recording of the sextet performance from a Cafe OTO concert in February 2013, 'Variable Formations' is a wonderful extended piece in which the musicians develop material they had presented in small groups in the first half of the concert. A unique mixture of improvised and prepared elements, the piece covers an extraordinary range across its 41 minutes while remaining beautifully cohesive music."-Another Timbre



This album has been reviewed on our magazine:

The Squid
The Squid's Ear!

Artist Biographies

"Berlin-based composer-performer Johnny Chang engages in extended explorations surrounding the relationships of sound/silence and the in-between areas of improvisation, composition, performance and listening. Current collaborations/projects include: Antoine Beuger, Alessandro Bossetti, Lucio Capece, Olivier Di Placido, Jürg Frey, Chris Heenan, Christian Kesten, Annette Krebs, Luke Munn, Koen Nutters, Michael Pisaro, Derek Shirley."

-Johnny Chang Website (https://johnnychchang.wordpress.com/)
3/13/2024

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

"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.

"Jamie Drouin (b.1970) is a Canadian sound artist, composer, and abstract music improviser. His minimalistic works highlight the unique perceptual experiences which emerge from within tightly focused palettes.

Drouin has collaborated with several international artists, including projects with Lucio Capece, Johnny Chang, Crys Cole, Olaf Hochherz, Karl Kliem, Dimitra Lazaridou-Chatzigoga, Hannes Lingens, Yann Novak, Mathieu Ruhlmann, John Tilbury, and Sabine Vogel. He co-founded Infrequency Editions in 2001 with artist Lance Austin Olsen. Together, they have produced numerous collaborative artworks, compositions, and installations. Drouin's electronic music under the name Liquid Transmitter explores the intersections of ambient, abstract, and experimental genres.

Featured at numerous international venues including Deutschlandradio Kultur, Sonica, Henry Art Gallery, Biennial of the Americas, Mutek, TodaysArt. Drouin's projects have also been supported by grants from the Canada Council for the Arts, and the British Columbia Arts Council.

Recent published solo and collaborative audio works are available from Another Timbre, Caduc, Infrequency Editions, Intonema, Liquid Transmitter Bandcamp, Mikroton, Rhizome.s.

Jamie Drouin lives and works in Victoria, BC."

-Jamie Drouin Website (http://jamiedrouin.com/?page_id=4835)
3/13/2024

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

"Phil Durrant. Born 1957; software synth/sampler, live electronics and acoustic violin.

Phil Durrant studied classical violin and piano at the London College Of Music. Since 1977 he has been a freelance musician, improviser and composer. He has performed at festivals all over Europe, U.S.A and Canada and has had his music broadcast on radio and television in many countries.

Current electronic projects include Ticklish, Secret Measures (with John Butcher), Lunge (with Gail Brand, Pat Thomas and Mark Sanders) and the international electronic orchestra, Mimeo. He also plays violin in Assumed Possibilities (with Chris Burn, Rhodri Davies and Mark Wastell), "Beinhaltung", a trio with Radu Malfatti and Thomas Lehn another trio with Berlin musicians, Burkhard Beins and Ignaz Schick, and the string quartet Quatuor Accorde, with Tony Wren, Charlotte Hug and Mark Wastell. Durrant has also played in the very influential trio with John Butcher and John Russell, as well as the Chris Burn Ensemble.

During his career he has played with many creative and important musicians, including: Derek Bailey, Evan Parker, Grooverider, Shut up and Dance, John Zorn, Phil Minton, and Tom Cora. He has also been awarded various Arts Council grants to research and develop his use of electronics. Two current duo projects - at early 2001 - were: Durrant, violin and software synth/sampler with Wade Matthews, bass clarinet, alto flute; and Durrant software synth/sampler with Mark Sanders drums and sequenced samples.

Phil Durrant has also been collaborating and composing music for a wide variety of choreographers. These include PLastic chill, In the face of a stranger and Deja deux with Maxine Doyle; Salome, Concrete and On stage with Susanne Thomas; Partial site, near view and Delay for five with Gill Clarke; Future perfekt with Ana Sanchez-Colberg; and Borderlander and Home zone with Sophia Lycouris. Salome, Concrete and Partial site, near view were site-specific and involved speaker systems in a number of different rooms. He recently wrote the music for a new play by Nick Sutton called Home movies."

-European Free Improv (EFI) (http://www.efi.group.shef.ac.uk/musician/mdurrant.html)
3/13/2024

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

"John Tilbury (born 1 February 1936) is a British pianist. He is considered one of the foremost interpreters of Morton Feldman's music, and since 1980 has been a member of the free improvisation group AMM.

Tilbury studied piano at the Royal College of Music with Arthur Alexander and James Gibb and also with Zbigniew Drzewiecki in Warsaw. 1968 he was the winner of the Gaudeamus competition in the Netherlands.

During the 1960s, Tilbury was closely associated with the composer Cornelius Cardew, whose music he has interpreted and recorded and a member of the Scratch Orchestra. His biography of Cardew, "Cornelius Cardew - A life unfinished" was published in 2008.

Tilbury has also recorded the works of Howard Skempton and John White, among many others, and has also performed adaptations of the radio plays of Samuel Beckett.

With guitarist AMM bandmate Keith Rowe's electroacoustic ensemble M.I.M.E.O., Tilbury recorded The Hands of Caravaggio, inspired by the painter's The Taking of Christ {1602). In this live performance, twelve of the members of M.I.M.E.O. were positioned around the piano in a deliberate echo of Christ's Last Supper. The thirteenth M.I.M.E.O. member (Cor Fuhler) is credited with "inside piano" as he interacted and interfered with Tilbury's playing by manipulating and damping the instrument's strings, essentially doing piano preparation in real time. Critic Brian Olewnick describes the album as "A staggering achievement, one is tempted to call The Hands of Caravaggio the first great piano concerto of the 21st century."

Another notable recent recording of Tilbury's was Duos for Doris (like The Hands of Caravaggio also on Erstwhile Records), a collaboration with Keith Rowe. It is widely considered a landmark recording in the genre of electroacoustic improvisation (or "EAI").

In 2013 he collaborated with artist Armando Lulaj in FIEND performance at the National Theatre of Tirana (Albania)."

-Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Tilbury)
3/13/2024

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


Track Listing:



1. Variable Formations 41:13

Related Categories of Interest:


Improvised Music
Electro-Acoustic
Electro-Acoustic Improv
London & UK Improv & Related Scenes
Sextet Recordings
Objects and Home-made Instruments
Instant Rewards

Search for other titles on the label:
Another Timbre.


Recommended & Related Releases:
Durrant, Phil / Daniel Thompson
Live / Studio
(Bead)
The improvising string duo of stalwart London improvisers, Daniel Thompson on acoustic guitar and Phil Durrant on the octave mandola, are heard in two settings of texturally rich, intricate interactions, first at Cafe OTO in 2022 for an extended improvisation, then at Cable Street Studios two months later for six succint, impressively diverse dialogs.
Butcher, John / Thomas Lehn / John Tilbury
Lights
(Fataka)
Recorded for the release concert of their 2013 album Exta, the trio of John Butcher on saxophones, Thomas Lehn on analog synthesizer and John Tilbury on piano captured this extraordinary live concert at Cafe Oto in London, only the second time the group had performed together, recording in two extended sets but segmented into four exceptional and dramatic improvisations.
Sijstermans, Germaine
Betula [2 CDs]
(elsewhere)
The solo debut album from Dutch composer & clarinetist Germaine Sijstermans: seven recent contemplative works in a Wandelweiser vein, composed between 2017-2019 and performed with six exemplary and complementary performers: Antoine Beuger (concert flute), Rishin Singh (trombone), Johnny Chang (viola), Fredrik Rasten (guitar, ebow), and Leo Svirsky (accordion).
AMM (Rowe / Prevost + Tilbury)
Last Calls
(Matchless)
To celebrate drummer/percussionist Eddie Prévost's 80th birthday, Café Oto hosted four concerts once a week in June, 2022, each a differing configuration from Prévost's history; this final concert reconvened for an extended improvisation between Prévost & guitarist Keith Rowe, with a "Postscript" from pianist John Tilbury recorded at his home in January, 2023.
Sijstermans, Germaine
Betula [2 CDs]
(elsewhere)
The solo debut album from Dutch composer & clarinetist Germaine Sijstermans: seven recent contemplative works in a Wandelweiser vein, composed between 2017-2019 and performed with six exemplary and complementary performers: Antoine Beuger (concert flute), Rishin Singh (trombone), Johnny Chang (viola), Fredrik Rasten (guitar, ebow), and Leo Svirsky (accordion).
Machinefabriek
+
(Machinefabriek)
Trying to strike a balance between composition and the challenges of being a young parent, Rutger Zuydervelt, aka Machinefabriek, created a series of short tracks that could be developed quickly with invited collaborators, a concept that worked so well that in little time he found 52 enthusiastic and diverse musicians to develop the expanse of this impressive collection.
Davies, Rhodri / Nikos Velitotis
Hotel Art Head [BOOK]
(gwasg amgen)
A curious book of images from artists including Rhodri Davies, John Butcher, Angharad Davies, Richard Dawson, &c. photographed in a location familiar to a touring musician--a budget hotel room--pictured laying on the bed with each artist's head covered by that room's hotel wall painting, from typically insipid to perplexingly unexpected.
Riley, Terry played by John Tilbury
Keyboard Studies
(Another Timbre)
There is uncertainty of when pianist John Tilbury recorded these three solo keyboard works by his associate and friend, legendary minimalist composer Terry Riley, performing "Keyboard Study #1" and #2, along with "Dorian Reeds" using piano, electric organ, harpsichord & celesta, captured with excellent quality in superb performances from Tilbury at the height of his powers.
Chang, Johnny / Keir GoGwilt / Celeste Oram
Hope Lies Fallow
(Another Timbre)
Six pieces developed by violinists Johnny Chang and Keir GoGwilt, with vocalist Celeste Oram joining on three, starting with early music works by Hildegard van Bingen and Orlando de Lassus in a hybrid of musical archaeology informed by modern concepts of repetition, variations of timbre, improvisation, &c, as they seek hidden sound worlds in older notation.
Sugimoto, Taku
Octet
(Meenna)
Part of Japanese composer Taku Sugimoto's Solo for Strings series, these works focus on bowed stringed instruments played only with natural harmonics, arranged with clarinets and flute, using long tones and repetition that allow the performer decisions on their length, performed by a Berlin-based octet including Catherine Lamb, Johnny Change, Samuel Dunscombe, &c.
Akama, Ryoko
Songs For A Shed
(Another Timbre)
Six beautiful, fragile and mysterious works for piano in combinations with other orchestral arrangements and solo, including pitch-based compositions and a graphic work directed by photographs, performed by members of Apartment House in duos, quintets & sextets; works initially commissioned by Another Timbre and Philip Thomas and here performed on piano by Siwan Rhys.
Consorts
Distinctions
(Spoonhunt)
Composer Dominic Lash's Consort ensemble explores the possibilities of combining sustained-tone music, guided & free improvisation, and the relationship between acoustic and amplified sound, heard in this evolving, extended concert at Café Oto on Lash's 40th birthday, in a unique mix of acoustic & electronic instruments that even includes an amplified kitchen sink!
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.
Ablinger, Peter
Augmented Study (2012)
(Sacred Realism)
Austrian composer Peter Ablinger wrote this study, which is not intended for live performance, using a violin performing a slow glissando over one octave, here performed by violinist Johnny Chang, the recording then composed in the studio as a proportion canon, virtually layering 16 violins in a study displaying the harmonic interactions of that single glissando.
Seen, The
For Sake Of Joy Of Study Of Oneself Together
(Confront)
Inspired by a work by John Stevens from 1991, Mark Wastell developed this work merging narration and improvisation by transcribing the text from Steven's performance, preseanted here by an electroacoustic ensemble including Phil Durrant, Dominic Lash, Bertrand Denzler, Jennifer Allum &c, yielding an enveloping and fascinatingly mysterious piece presented in two versions.
Formanex w/ AMM / Christian Wolff / Keith Rowe / Ralf Wehowsky / John Tilbury / Phill Niblock / ONsemble / Seth Cluett / Radu Malfatti / Michael Pisaro / Julien Ottavi / Kasper T. Toeplitz
20 Years Of Experimental Music [10 CDS]
(Mikroton Recordings)
Their first release in 2000 performing Cornelius Cardew's "Treatise", for 20 years the Formanex quartet of sound artists, conceptualists and experimenters Anthony Taillard, Christophe Havard, Emmanuel Leduc, and Julien Ottavi are heard here in collaborations with Keith Rowe, Kasper T. Toeplitz, Ralf Wehowsky, Seth Cluett, Michael Pisaro, Radu Malfatti, &c.
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.
Holy Quintet, The (Change / Drouin / Lash / Lazardiou / Ryan)
Borough
(Mikroton Recordings)
The meeting of Johnny Chang (viola), Jamie Drouin (suitcase modular synth), Dominic Lash (double bass), Dimitra Lazaridou-Chatzigoga(zither, and David Ryan (bass clarinet) recording at Bourough welsh Congregational Chapel, in London in 2013, recorded by Another Timbre label leader Simon Reynell, for a unique merging of disparate approaches to ea-improv.
Smith Quartet with John Tilbury
Morton Feldman: Music for Piano and Strings Volume 3 [DVD-AUDIO]
(Matchless)
Recorded live at the Huddersfield Festival of Contemporary Music in 2006, this is the 3rd and final volume of works by Morton Feldman performed by the Smith Quartet with John Tilbury on piano, recorded in high quality DVD audio and with extensive liner notes by Tilbury.
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).
AMM
Spanish Fighters
(Matchless)
Recorded at the festival Neposlusno (Sound Disobedience) in Ljubljana, Slovenia in 2012, the AMM duo of Eddie Prevost on percussion and John Tilbury on piano perform an extend improvisation of tension and dynamic, delicately balancing sound in a rich dialog.
Davis, Matt / Phil Durrant / Mark Wastell
Confront Collectors Series
(Confront)
Re-issue of one of the earliest Confront releases, the trio of trumpeter Matt Davis, violinist Phil Durrant and cellist Mark Wastell performing subtle and sophisticated free improvisation at St. Michael's and All Angels church, Chiswick, London in 2000.
Smith Quartet with John Tilbury
Morton Feldman: Music for Piano and Strings Volume 2 [DVD-AUDIO]
(Matchless)
The 2nd volume of "Music for Piano and Strings" by Morton Feldman is performed by The Smith Quartet with John Tilbury, presenting "Patterns In a Chromatic Field", and "Piano, violin, Viola, Cello", on DVD audio to allow for the length of these large works.
Moser, Michael
Resonant Cuts: (2 CDs AND BOOK)
(Edition Rz)
Book and 2 CDs documenting a 2010 concert and sound installation by Carsten Seiffarth and Michael Moser, with Polweschsel & guests (Burkhard Beins, Axel Dorner, &c) performing the concert.
Feldman, Morton
Piano Three Hands, Intermission 5, Vertical Thoughts 2, Extensions 3, Four Instruments, Intermission 5, Piano Piece 1956 A + B, Intersection 3, Instruments 1
(Edition Rz)
A collection of Feldman compositions primarily for piano as recorded by his earliest interpreters: Cornelius Cardew, John Tilbury, David Tutor, Cantilene Chamber Players, and Feldman himself.
Watkins, Zachary James
Suite for string quartet
(Confront)
Electronics artist Watkins wrote this piece for resonant spaces, interactive electronics, audience participation & string quartet, here in a special version tuning each string to an odd partial of 60Hz.



The Squid's Ear Magazine

The Squid's Ear Magazine

© 2002-, Squidco LLC