The Squid's Ear
Writing about improvised, contemporary, experimental and unusual music,
following the activities of Squidco...
  •  •  •     Join Our Mailing List!



The Squid's Ear




Heard In

Reviews of artist releases:
cd's, books, magazines, &c.


  Tom Chant, Angharad Davies, Benedict Drew and John Edwards 
  Decentered
  (Another Timbre) 


  
   review by Jeph Jerman
  2009-11-04
Tom Chant, Angharad Davies, Benedict Drew and John Edwards: Decentered (Another Timbre)

Subtitled: "Improvisations and Realisations of Works by John Cage and Michael Pisaro", this recording sounds all of a piece, perhaps due to the indeterminate nature of the written works explored, and the long-running (since May 2006) nature of the ensemble.

Michael Pisaro's pieces are part of his "Harmony Series", which are "'translations' of a range of poems into musical scores", which give very basic instructions for their realisation. The number of musicians may be specified, though not their instruments, and similarly, range and duration of notes may be given, though not their specific pitch. The three examples here ("Reader, listen", "La voix qui dit" and "Flux") consist entirely of long held tones separated by silences of varying lengths, and display interesting interactions of overtones during their short lengths. The silences frame these tones and set the listener up for the next episode. John Cage's "Four 6" is one of the last of his number pieces, scored for four players who can use "any way of producing sounds". Twelve sounds are chosen by each player, and these sounds are distributed within a structure of time brackets determined by a computer program, which had become in this period a substitute for throwing the I-Ching, which Cage had previously done by hand. Between the compositions we're served two improvisations "Activation" and "Decentering", which are right in line with the compositions, albeit a bit more interactive.

If you forget all that, or ignore the liner notes altogether, what you get is slightly over an hour of beautifully recorded, carefully rendered electro-acoustic improvisation. If you're not paying attention to the track counter on your CD player, you may not realise when the pieces begin and end. Whether this is due to the open-ended nature of the compositions, or the carefulness of the players' choices and the largeness of their ears is up for discussion. Suffice it to say that it's a well-planned and executed program.





Comments and Feedback:



More Recent Reviews, Articles, and Interviews @ The Squid's Ear...


The Squid's Ear presents
reviews about releases
sold at Squidco.com
written by
independent writers.

Squidco

Recent Selections @ Squidco:


Marty Ehrlich:
OPEN AIR: The Complete
Saxophone Quartet Compositions of
Julius Hemphill
[2CDs]
(Out Of Your Head
Records)



Fred Frith/
Cornelius Claudio Kreusch/
Johannes Tonio Kreusch:
Pink/
Neon
[2 CDs]
(Galileo Music Communication )



Fred Frith/
Cornelius Claudio Kreusch/
Johannes Tonio Kreusch:
Pink/
Neon
[VINYL 2 LPs]
(Galileo Music Communication )



Tyshawn Sorey/
Pat Thomas:
Red Sulphur
(Otoroku)



Frank Trompeter/
Richard Gilman-Opalsky:
Antifascist Freedom Music
(Mahakala Music)



Sei Miguel:
Viva!
O Carro de Fogo
de Sei Miguel
[2 CDs]
(Clean Feed)



Mikolaj Trzaska/
John Edwards/
Mark Sanders:
Because It Happens
[VINYL]
(gusstaff records)



Enso (
Benjamin Dwyer/
Rafal Mazur/
Ramon Lopez):
Rhizoming
(Fundacja Sluchaj!)



Joe Morris/
Rob Brown/
Anna Webber/
Matthew Rousseaux:
Counter Spectacle
(Fundacja Sluchaj!)



B:A:N:S BAND (
Sophie Agnel/
John Butcher/
Pascal Niggenkemper/
Stale Liavik Solberg):
Foam & Mesh
(Fundacja Sluchaj!)



Golding/
Brice/
Prevost:
High Laver Levitations
Vol 4:
Sound-Out -
jazz is dead,
long live jazz
(Matchless)



Angles 4 (
Kuchen/
Haker-Flaten/
Stahl/
Nordeson):
Angles 4
[CD + DOWNLOAD]
(Relative Pitch)



Glass Triangle (
Parkins/
Rasmussen/
Sawyer):
3 X 1
[CD + DOWNLOAD]
(Relative Pitch)



Lao Dan Chicago Quartet:
Klotski
(Trost Records)



Lao Dan Chicago Quartet:
Klotski
[VINYL]
(Trost Records)



Nick Mazzarella:
Siena Sessions
(Corbett vs. Dempsey)



Hartmut Geerken/
Chris Trent:
Omniverse Sun Ra (
Expanded And
Revised 3rd Edition:
2026)
[BOOK]
(Art Yard)



Sonic Fiction Special (
Gratkowski/
Strobl/
Graewe/
Hemingway) feat. Earl Howard:
Banding Patterns
(Random Acoustics)



Schlippenbach Trio:
Elf Bagatellen
[DOUBLE VINYL]
(Cien Fuegos)



Verona Sextet (
Armaroli/
Buck/
Gemmo/
Mayas/
Piccolo/
Sharp):
Leap And Bounds
(ezz-thetics by
Hat Hut Records
Ltd)







Squidco
Click here to
advertise with
The Squid's Ear






The Squid's Ear pays its writers.
Interested in becoming a reviewer?




The Squid's Ear is the companion magazine to the online music shop Squidco !


  Copyright © Squidco. All rights reserved. Trademarks. (25516)