The Squid's Ear Magazine


Davies, Rhodri: Wound Response (Amgen Records)

First released in 2012 on the Alt.Vinyl label and now reissued on his own Amgen label, Rhodri Davies performs solo in Newcastle upon Tyne on lap harp and electronics, using two main techniques: over-articulation of the strings (what harpists are taught not to do) and attacking the strings with a plectrum, forcing the tuning into new relationships until the strings eventually break.
 

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Rhodri Davies-lap harp, electronics


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Label: Amgen Records
Catalog ID: CD002
Squidco Product Code: 30207

Format: CD
Condition: New
Released: 2021
Country: UK
Packaging: Cardboard Gatefold 3 Panels
Recorded at Morden Tower, at Newcastle upon Tyne, on December 11th, 2011, by Phil Begg.

Descriptions, Reviews, &c.

"Wound Response was first released on LP with Alt Vinyl, av038 (2012) and formed a radical departure for Davies's solo work. Inspired by the 'Destruction in Art Symposium' (1966) Davies used two main techniques: over-articulate the strings (what harpists are taught not to do) and attack the strings with a plectrum, forcing the tuning into new relationships until the strings eventually broke. This is the first time that this album will be released on CD. "Wound Response is a raw recording scored for solo lap harp, overdrive, volume pedal and twin amplifiers. The fuzz is particularly cranky here, giving Rhodri's obsessively repetitive harp soundings the kinda scorch of solo Masayuki Takayanagi." -David Keenan, Volcanic Tongue 2012

See also Rhodri Davies: An Air Swept Clean of All Distance.

Artist Biographies

"Rhodri Davies was born in 1971 in Aberystwyth, Wales and now lives in Gateshead in the northeast of England.

He plays harp, electric harp, live-electronics and builds wind, water, ice and fire harp installations. He has released four solo albums: Trem, Over Shadows, Wound Response and An Air Swept Clean of All Distance.

His regular groups include: a duo with John Butcher, Common Objects, HEN OGLEDD: Dawson - Davies, a trio with David Toop and Lee Patterson, Cranc, The Sealed Knot and a trio with John Tilbury and Michael Duch.

In 2008 he collaborated with the visual artist Gustav Metzger on 'Self-cancellation', a large-scale audio-visual collaboration in London and Glasgow.

New pieces for solo harp have been composed for him by: Eliane Radigue, Phill Niblock, Christian Wolff, Ben Patterson, Alison Knowles, Mieko Shiomi and Yasunao Tone.

In 2012 he was the recipient of the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, Grants to Artists Award."

-Rhodri Davies Website (http://www.rhodridavies.com/words/)
3/13/2024

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


Track Listing:



1. everything at each moment 3:17

2. questions of__________________ middle distance 4:18

3. the concentric blaze 3:01

4. a parallel or mirroring space 6:22

5. here the sun does not enter 2:49

6. `pivotal' object 2:35

7. only compromises were arrived at in the end 2:09

8. closed horizontal illumined 2:19

9. the convergence of how we got there 6:50

10. fulfilment of the event 4:20

Related Categories of Interest:


Improvised Music
Free Improvisation
Electro-Acoustic
Electro-Acoustic Improv
Stringed Instruments
London & UK Improv & Related Scenes
Solo Artist Recordings
Friends of Squid

Search for other titles on the label:
Amgen Records.


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