The Squid's Ear Magazine

Pisaro-Liu, Michael

Within (2) / Appearance (2) [2 CDs]

Pisaro-Liu, Michael: Within (2) / Appearance (2) [2 CDs] (Confront)

This double-CD set finds Michael Pisaro and Michael Francis Duch probing the attentive meeting of electric guitar and double bass in extended, quietly rigorous works that privilege the fine gradations of sound, duration and silence, offering a minimal but richly textured listening experience rooted in subtle transformation rather than overt spectacle.
 

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Product Information:

Personnel:



Michael Pisaro-electric guitar

Michael Francis Duch-double bass

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Label: Confront
Catalog ID: core 60
Squidco Product Code: 36831

Format: 2 CDs
Condition: New
Released: 2025
Country: UK
Packaging: Cardboard Gatefold
Recorded at Ora Studio, in Trondheim, Norway, by Karre Laastad. Mastered by Lasse Marhaug.
Descriptions, Reviews, &c.

Artist Biographies

"Michael Pisaro was born in Buffalo in 1961. He is a composer and guitarist, a member of the Wandelweiser Composers Ensemble and founder and director of the Experimental Music Workshop, Calarts. His work is frequently performed in the U.S. and in Europe, in music festivals and in many smaller venues. It has been selected twice by the ISCM jury for performance at World Music Days festivals (Copenhagen,1996; Manchester, 1998) and has also been part of festivals in Hong Kong (ICMC, 1998), Vienna (Wien Modern,1997), Aspen (1991), London (Cutting Edge, 2007), Glasgow (INSTAL 2009), Huddersfield (2009), Chicago (New Music Chicago, 1990, 1991) and elsewhere.

He has had extended composer residencies in Germany (Künstlerhof Schreyahn, Dortmund University), Switzerland (Forumclaque/Baden), Israel (Miskenot Sha'ananmim), Greece (EarTalk) and in the U.S. (Birch Creek Music Festival, Wisconsin). Concert length portraits of his music have been given in Munich, Jerusalem, Los Angeles, Vienna, Merano (Italy), Brussels, New York, Curitiba (Brazil), Amsterdam, London, Tokyo, Austin, Berlin, Chicago, Düsseldorf, Zürich, Cologne, Aarau (Switzerland), and elsewhere.

He is a Foundation for Contemporary Arts, 2005 and 2006 Grant Recipient. Much of his music of the last several years is published by Edition Wandelweiser (Germany). Several CDs of his work have been released by such labels as Edition Wandelweiser Records, Compost and Height, confront, Another Timbre, Cathnor, Nine Winds and others, including most recently "transparent city, volumes 1-4", "an unrhymed chord", "hearing metal 1", "A Wave and Waves" and "harmony series (11-16)".

His translation of poetry by Oswald Egger ("Room of Rumor") was published in 2004 by Green Integer. He is Co-Chair of Music Composition at the California Institute of the Arts near Los Angeles. He has performed many of his own works and those of close associates Antoine Beuger, Kunsu Shim, Jürg Frey and Manfred Werder, and works from the experimental tradition, especially John Cage, Christian Wolff, James Tenney and George Brecht."

-Edition Wandelweiser (http://www.wandelweiser.de/michael-pisaro.html)
10/22/2025

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"Michael Francis Duch (b. 1978) was born and raised in Trondheim and plays the double bass. He is a member of the editorial committee for VIS - Nordic Journal for Artistic Research and an alumni member of the Young Academy of Norway.

Duch completed his three-year period as an artistic research fellow at the Department of Music, NTNU, with his defense on October 30, 2010. His project, "Free Improvisation - Genre and Method," explored free improvisation and improvisation-based experimental music.

He has contributed to over 80 releases in various formats, including several solo albums, and has performed solo concerts in Norway, Sweden, Reykjavik, Athens, Madrid, Vienna, Glasgow, Huddersfield, and London. Duch has worked closely with composers such as Lene Grenager and Michael Pisaro-Liu, premiering several solo pieces written specifically for him and releasing multiple albums featuring new composed music.

His main interest lies in experimental contemporary music, particularly the Anglo-American tradition of the 1950s and '60s, with composers such as Cornelius Cardew, John Cage, Christian Wolff, and Pauline Oliveros.

Duch regularly performs with SiTron (Trondheim Sinfonietta) and Alpaca Ensemble. He is also active in various other constellations, including a trio with John Tilbury and Rhodri Davies, the improvisation quartet LEMUR (with Bjørnar Habbestad, Hild Sofie Tafjord, and Lene Grenager), the free jazz trio EN EN EN (with Tor Haugerud and Eirik Hegdal), and the Scottish experimental disco band AMOR.

He has collaborated with numerous renowned musicians, including Pauline Oliveros, Mats Gustafsson, AMM, George Lewis, Christian Wolff, Tony Conrad, and Joëlle Léandre."

-Norwegian University of Science and Technology (https://www.ntnu.edu/employees/michael.duch)
10/23/2025

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Track Listing:
Related Categories of Interest:


Compositional Forms
Stringed Instruments
Guitarists, &c.
Duo Recordings
lowercase, reductionist, micro-improv, sound improv, onkyo sound
Ambient, Minimal, Reductionist, Onky Sound, &c.
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The MaDam Electroacoustic Improvisation Collective based in Spain performs the first in Pisaro's 34 piece Harmony Series, which attempts to create the conditions for a harmonic situation without giving any actual notes, just numbers, durations of tones, and pauses; this work is based on "swell piece (for alison knowles)" (1967) by James Tenney.
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Four works interpreted for accordion performed by Edwin Alexander Buchhol, including John Cage's "Cheap Imitation"; Michael Pisaro-Liu's "Here (2)"; Jurg Frey's "Sam Lazaro Bros." and Antoine Beuger's "die geschichte des sandkorns".
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Stones
(Edition Wandelweiser Records)
Antoine Beuger, Burkhard Schlothauer, Chico Mello, Jurg Frey, Kunsu Shim, Michael Pisaro-Liu, and Thomas Stiegler participate in this realization of Christian Wolff's compositions to make sounds or draw sounds out of stones, alone or with other surfaces, acoustically or amplified.
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Black, White, Red, Green, Blue (Voyelles) [CASSETTE]
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Guitarist Barry Chabala's interpretation of composer Pisaro's piece, instructing the performer on structure and pitch but allowing the precise timing and sound to the player; plus a reworking of Chabala's recording taking advantage of cassette hiss and sine tones.
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Ricefall (2), the 2nd is a 72-minute piece for 64 separate tracks of rice falling on objects, performed with percussionist Greg Stuart, a composition of unusual dynamics and pacing.




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