Welcome to Squidco!
Edit Your Shopping Cart

   Squidco Home
   About Squidco
   My Account
      Log Out
   Checkout

   Artist List
   Label List
   eMail List
   Rewards
   Staff Picks
   Current Email Update
   Used Albums
   Top Sellers
   Gift Certificates
   Contact Us

Release Formats    ∇
Featured Genres    ∇
Instrumental Forms    ∇
Orchestration    ∇
Miscellaneous    ∇




The Squid's Ear Magazine
275 albums from Clean Feed & Shhpuma on Sale at 50% Off!


Grady, Spencer / Fermata Ark / Mark Wastell
Thus : Excerpts From A Smaller Work

Grady, Spencer / Fermata Ark / Mark Wastell: Thus : Excerpts From A Smaller Work (Confront)

UK sound artist Fermata Ark, aka Harry Smith, composed this work from improvisations recorded by Mark Wastell performing on cello, double bass and harmonium, and Spencer Grady performing on 5-string banjo, ebow, violin bow and brass slide, creating an extended work of immersive and mesmerizing textures and tones, sounds rising and falling in sublime and passionate ways.
 

Price: $13.95

Quantity:

In Stock
Quantity in Basket: None

Log In to use our Wish List
Shipping Weight: 3.00 units

EU & UK Customers:
Discogs.com can handle your VAT payments
So please order through Discogs

Sample The Album:





product information:

Personnel:



Fermata Ark-composition, field recording

Mark Wastell-violoncello, double bass, harmonium

Spencer Grady-5 string banjo, ebow, violin bow, brass slide


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



Label: Confront
Catalog ID: core 15
Squidco Product Code: 29576

Format: CD
Condition: New
Released: 2020
Country: UK
Packaging: Cardboard Gatefold
Recorded at Studio 3, in London, UK, in October, 2017, by Rupert Clervaux.

Descriptions, Reviews, &c.

"Harry Smith's work is always looking in two directions at once: towards sound, and towards process. Listening to 'Thus', we are clearly immersed in both of these: it is a glorious celebration of sound, spinning a world of glittering textures, hovering drones, and fractured kaleidoscopes; but we are equally caught up in the unfolding of the work, with the riveting feeling that we are discovering the work at the same time as its maker is, with a shared sense of discovery and rapture. The soundworld evoked by Smith follows its own inevitable path, with Smith perhaps serving more as host or catalyst than calculating composer. But this image is deceptive: there is impeccable mastery and control here - control of his sounds and materials, but more importantly, an effortlessly masterful control of the shaping of time - that mark Smith as an artist of remarkable insight and talent.

'Thus' is a work that rewards headphone listening. No background music this; it is a work to lose yourself in. It is by turns intoxicating, hypnotic, ominous, serene, profound. It is a world of space and of texture, moving effortlessly from the gentle fluttering of insect wings to the dizzying swirling of primordial masses. Occasionally, the curtains part, to reveal a fragile and human world behind; before we can quite reach it, the fog rises, the clouds close, and we are lost once again in a sea of sound.

It is difficult not to be moved by the music on this album. It is a tactile and bodily experience, music to be felt as much as heard. The feelings it evokes, the imagery, the sensations, are all fleeting, transitory, evading any attempt to take hold of them and draw them into the light. Give yourself up to this music. You will not come away unchanged."-James Andean, Confront Recordings


Artist Biographies

"Fermata Ark is a UK based experimental Producer/Composer and Sound Designer."

-Fermata Ark Bandcamp Site (https://fermata-ark.bandcamp.com/?fbclid=IwAR2Wyrsa29KLHcnHETUjHebjs6YJVI_Vkh6njmshC0eVbuTmmo70h6Enwpc)
11/5/2024

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

"Mark Wastell Born 1968; cello.

Much of Mark Wastell's relationship with his chosen instrument is concentrated on the tactile, textural and sonic possibilities of both violoncello and bow. He is increasingly interested in working with extreme elements drawn from frequency, timbre and pitch.

His early activity was consciously and subconsciously influenced by a variety of improvising musicians including John Stevens, Barry Guy, Phil Durrant and John Russell. Subsequent exposure to contemporary composers lead to a greater understanding and appreciation of the works written for strings by Feldman, Cage, Nono, Lachenmann and Sciarrino. The use of live electronics and music concrete by Tudor, Parmegiani, Xenakis and others was another important early influence.

Wastell's current instrumental material primarily focuses on using abstract principles of space and texture - encompassing elements of new London silence, pro-instrument minimalism, new complexity and electro-acoustics. Because of the very nature of his chosen instrument, he tends to favour 'chamber' style ensembles and is a member of a number of regular groups:

• Chris Burn's Ensemble, with John Butcher, Rhodri Davies, John Russell, Matt Hutchinson

• Derek Bailey's Company - with, for example, Will Gaines, Simon H. Fell and Rhodri Davies

• Evan Parker's String Project, with Peter Cusack, Hugh Davies, Rhodri Davies, Phil Durrant, John Edwards, Kaffe Matthews, Marcio Mattos, John Russell

• Assumed possibilities, with Chris Burn, Rhodri Davies and Phil Durrant

• The Sealed Knot, with Burkhard Beins and Rhodri Davies

• Necessaire with Alessandro Bosetti, Ignaz Schick and Burkhard Beins

• IST with Simon Fell and Rhodri Davies

• Quatuor Accorde with Tony Wren, Phil Durrant and Charlotte Hug

• Broken Concort, a duo with Rhodri Davies

Mark Wastell has also performed with many other leading musicians including John Zorn, Keith Rowe, Peter Kowald, Hugh Davies, Roger Turner, Veryan Weston, Lol Coxhill, Mark Sanders, Axel Dorner, Hans Koch, Phil Minton, Max Eastley and Steve Beresford.

As a soloist he has played at the Micro-classical Festival (London 1996), LMC Festival (London 2000) and the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival (2000). He has travelled extensively with various groups, performing on tour and at festivals in the USA, France, Spain, Italy, Germany, Sweden, Denmark and Greece. Other work includes the launch in 1996 of his own record label, Confront Recordings. Wastell is also joint co-ordinator of the concert venue All Angels, together with Rhodri Davies."

-European Free Improv (EFI) (http://www.efi.group.shef.ac.uk/musician/mwastell.html)
11/5/2024

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

Spencer Grady is a multi-instrumentalist and sound artist, performing on banjo, guitar, keyboards. He is a member of Padang Food Tigers, Rameses III, Rose Paste Chorale, The Seen, The Spencer Grady 3, and Toast.

-Discogs (https://www.discogs.com/artist/648326-Spencer-Grady)
11/5/2024

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


Track Listing:



1. Thus : Excerpts From A Smaller Work 37:00

Related Categories of Interest:


Improvised Music
Free Improvisation
Electro-Acoustic
Electro-Acoustic Improv
Duo Recordings
Electro-Acoustic
Electroacoustic Composition
Field Recordings
Solo Artist Recordings
New in Experimental & Electronic Music

Search for other titles on the label:
Confront.

Recommended & Related Releases:
Butcher, John / Luigi Marino / Mark Wastell
Parallel Streams
(Confront)
An impressive live performance at Exploratorium Berlin in 2024 as part of the international symposium Musicians' Perspectives on Improvisation, which explores the practices, ideas, visions and theories of improvising musicians, from the trio of John Butcher on saxophones, Luigi Marino on cymbals, zarb, zarb e zurkhaneh & feedback devices, and Mark Wastell on percussion.
Nicols, Maggie / Matilda Rolfsson / Mark Wastell
Semiotic Drift
(Confront)
Extending the duo of British improvisers, legendary vocalist and leader of London's The Gathering, Maggie Nicols, also performing on taps and percussion, and Confront label-leader, percussionist Mark Wastell performing on cymbals and frame drum, with Swedish percussionist Matilda Rolfsson on bass drum, captured in a captivating concert at All Ears in Oslo in 2023.
Jones / Lash / Wastel
Meditating With The Father, Son, And Holy Ghost
(Confront)
An interpretation and reimagining of the opening track of Coltrane's Meditations, from the UK trio of Ed Jones on tenor & soprano saxophones, Dominic Lash on double bass and Mark Wastell on tam tam, gongs, cymbal & percussion, performed live at Cafe OTO in London in 2023, transforming the original recording's density into a slowly opening, evolving work of beauty.
Wastell, Mark
Cello-intern Solos
(Confront)
Beginning in February 2022 on the 1st Saturday of the month Mark Wastell would bring his cello to the Hundred Years Gallery in London with the grace of gallery owners Graham MacKeachan and Montse Gallego and play, not as a performance, not as a rehearsal, just to play and record his improvisations as he expands his reach on the instrument, heard here in 17 fascinating excerpts.
Bang, Jan / David Toop / Mark Wastell
Compound Full Of Bones, Translucent Thousands
(Confront)
An extended improvisation interweaving acoustic and electronic instruments in a beautifully coherent evolution of mysterious and approachable sources, from the trio of Jan Bang, David Toop and Mark Wastell, combining tam tams, gongs, flutes, lapsteel, live sampling, gongs, brushes, elastic, paper and more to captivate the curious listener.
Collusion Duo (Nick Smith / Mark Wastell)
Refraction
(Confront)
Violinist and percussionist Nick Smith, having access to St. Mary's Church at Great Baddow for music performance and rehearsals, made his first use of the space in 1996 in a duo with Mark Wastell on violincello, preparations and percussion, where they used the acoustics of the church to enhance their detailed and absorbing improvisations.
BEFOREHAND (Lazaridou / Wastell)
Live at Hundred Years Gallery
(Confront)
The duo of Dimitra Lazaridou-Chatzigoga on zither and Mark Wastell on his electronics set including bowls and shruti box, formed for the release concert for Angharad Davies' "Six Studies" in 2014, recording this excellent improvised dialog of rich and unusual sound.
Ist (Davies / Fell / Wastell)
Consequences (of Time and Place)
(Confront)
ist (The Improvising String Trio) of Rhodri Davies (harp), Simon H. Fell (bass) and Mark Wastell (violincello) performing at The Natural Music Club in London, 1997, using unorthodox techniques in indeterminate systems and free improvisation for fascinating results.
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.
Ist (Davies / Fell / Wastell)
Berlin
(Confront)
Ist - Rhodri Davies (harp), Simon H. Fell (double bass) & Mark Wastell (violoncello) - recorded this fascinating, quietly active lower case work at Total Music Meeting in Berlin 2001.
Ist (Davies / Fell / Wastell)
Lodi
(Confront)
Since 1995 the string trio of Rhodri Davies, Simon H. Fell & Mark Wastell have created sparse, introspective improvisation, performing here at the Contemporaneamente festival in Lodi, Italy.
Sealed Knot, The (Beins / Davies / Wastell)
and we disappear
(Another Timbre)
For a decade this trio has created some of the most interesting electroacoustic improvisation, captured in a 38 minute performance at the Ear We Are Festival in Biel, Switzerland, 2007.
Scotch Of St James, The
Live at Amplify 2004
(Confront)
Tim Barnes on snare drum and amplification and Mark Wastell on amplified textures, tuned metal, making small, mostly unidentifiable sounds with a Cage-style open flair.
Other Recommended Releases:
Cameron, Lisa / Alex Cunningham
Chasms
(Waveform Alphabet)
Improvising over the abyss, Texas drummer Lisa Cameron (Roky Erickson, ST 37) and violinist Alex Cunningham (Sandy Ewen, Damon Smith, Claire Rousay) present three extended interactions using conventional instrumentation in unconventional ways, augmented by feedback, bowed cymbals, electronics and objects, under the control of exceptional technique.
Wastell, Mark
Pre-Existing Commitments
(Hundred Years Gallery)
During cellist and Confront label-leader Mark Wastell's 2022 residency at the East London Hundred Years Gallery he recorded four solo recordings, using his acutely creative approach to the strings in unique ways for each recording, which he then layered in the studio without edits to create this wildly and often psychedelically stochastic orchestral work.
Oceans Of Silver & Blood
Acetate [CD EP]
(Confront)
Reissuing their limited 2014 release on Joachim Nordwall Editions, the Oceans Of Silver & Blood duo of Joachim Nordwall on analog synthesizer, effects & tape and percussionist Mark Wastell on tam tam and timpani present two pieces, the first an environmental work underpinned by subtle percussion, the second a richly resonating work of threatening warmth.
Padang Food Tigers (Stephen Lewis / Spencer Grady)
God's Plenty
(Shhpuma)
Blurring abstract electronics with folk improvisation in gently evolving music with an experimental edge, the London Panang Food Tigers duo of Stephen Lewis and Spencer Grady use keyboards, guitars, dobro, charango, field recordings and electronic sources to create contemplative atmospheres, a sort of ambient-folk music drawing out forgotten daydreams and moods; beautiful.
Reviriego, Alex
Raben [CASSETTE W/ DOWNLOAD]
(Tripticks Tapes)
Spanish double bassist Alex Reviriego (Memoria Uno) in a solo album recorded by Ferran Fages in 2019, the second chapter of his "German Poets Trilogy" following his 2018 Blaue Tauben album, here inspired by the writings of Romanian-born poet Paul Celan in an intense and moving album of dense foreboding depicted through nine improvisations of heavy bowing, ruminative harmonics and dark friction.
IST (Davies / Fell / Wastell) + John Butcher / Phil Durrant
A More Attractive Way [5 CD BOX SET + 20 page booklet]
(Confront)
A comprehensive album of live performances from IST (Rhodri Davies: harp, preparations; Simon H. Fell: double bass, preparations; Mark Wastell: violoncello, preparations) between 1996 and 2000, beginning with their concert at Club Orange in London and including concerts in London, Billericay, Norwich and Cambridge, with a 20 page booklet of photos and text from the band & collaborators.
Frequency Disasters (Beresford / Magaletti / Martino)
Frequency Disasters
(Confront)
Pianist & improviser Steve Beresford performing on prepared piano, toys & electronic, percussionist Valentina Magaletti and bass player Pierpaolo Martino are heard in this cataclysmically interesting album based around Beresford's compositions, each piece a vignette that merges elements of free improv, rock, sound & avant structures in inventive and compelling ways.
Sealed Knot, The (Beins / Davies / Wastell)
Twenty
(Confront)
After twenty years playing together, the Sealed Knot trio of Burkhard Beins on amplified percussion, Rhodri Davies on amplified lap harp, and Mark Wastell on dual 32 past tam tams, gongs & nepalese singing bowls, performed live at Cafe OTO to record this beautifully captured, contemplative concert of tone, texture and ringing sound, like a 20-year dream reflected.
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.
Virtual Company (Fell / Wastell / Bailey / Gaines)
Virtual Company
(Confront)
IST, configured as the duo of double bassist Simon H. Fell and cellist/percussionist Mark Wastell, performing a virtual quartet at London's Cafe OTO, using using pre-recorded fragments of solo work from late guitarist Derek Bailey and tap dancer Will Gaines, combined with sections of silence of unforeseeable length, and then combined with the live musicians; amazing.
Cooper, Mike / Mark Wastell
Sound Mirrors
(Confront)
Lapsteel guitarist and electronic artist Mike Cooper and percussionist Mark Wastell, employing a paiste 32" tam tam and a shruti box, pay homage to the large acoustic sound mirrors used in Britain from 1916 to 1930 as an early form or radar, each of their detailed improvisation referencing one of the locations on the British south and northeast coasts.
Davies, Rhodri / David Sylvian / Mark Wastell
There Is No Love
(Confront)
Confront initiates their new Core Series with the text piece "There Is No Love" with David Sylvian on voice, vocal treatments and electronics, Rhodri Davies on harp, vibraphone and radio, and Mark Wastel on tam tam and percussion, a sophisticated spoken word piece of shadowy atmosphere and innuendo, leveraging approaches from experimental, improvised and composed music.
Eastley / Halliwell / Parker / Wastell
a life saved by a spider and two doves
(Another Timbre)
Three extended improvisations documenting the first meeting of an exciting and unexpected electro-acoustic quartet with a unique sound and instrumentation.



The Squid's Ear Magazine

The Squid's Ear Magazine

© 2002-, Squidco LLC

New In:
Recent Releases
Improvisation
Electro/Experimental
Compositional
Rock & Related