The Squid's Ear Magazine

Bang, Jan / David Toop / Mark Wastell

Compound Full Of Bones, Translucent Thousands

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.
 

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product information:

Personnel:



Jan Bang-live sampling, samples

David Toop-lapsteel guitar, flutes, whistles, small percussion, harmonica, elastic, paper

Mark Wastell-tam tam, gongs, beaters, brushes, sticks, bow, autoharp


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UPC: 5904224870591

Label: Confront
Catalog ID: core 23
Squidco Product Code: 31590

Format: CD
Condition: New
Released: 2022
Country: UK
Packaging: Cardboard Gatefold 3 Panels
Recorded in London, UK, on November 22nd, 2019, by Shaun Crook.

Descriptions, Reviews, &c.

"From the moment I heard that this trio had spent a day in a London studio I have been anticipating the results. Three distinctive musical minds and voices: each familiar, never before together.

Jan Bang's sound environments are deeply affecting, created with an Akai sampler and interwoven with the work of collaborators in both studio and live remix situations. There's a sensitivity and respect in David Toop's sound-making borne from his insatiable curiosity about the evolution of music in cultures across the world. Mark Wastell's use of acoustic percussion and his explorations into the potential of simple instruments result in nothing short of a spiritual communion with sound.

No parameters were set for the sessions. Three improvisations of around thirty minutes duration were recorded. Afterwards, every sound played in those performances was brought together to create a unified whole.

There are moments where each player's voice is distinct: the resonance of Wastell's tam-tam caresses, the bursts and trills of Toop's woodwind, the pitch-altered looping of Bang's manipulated samples. But the triumph of this collaboration is the sound world of their combined creation.

There's an openness in the mix that allows each expression to breathe. It's like being encircled by some elaborate gossamer sculpture, flashes of colour and light glinting through as it catches the breeze.

The trio's music creates a strong sense of place, yet you can't quite put your finger on the exact location. There are crescendos that remind me of the vibrant frenzy once experienced in the Amazonian rainforest. Jan Bang injects into the mix both snippets of his co-creators' performances and samples collected over time for deployment in just the right context. We hear faint orchestral swells and then voices, both spoken and sung, the recordings degraded so far as to be barely recognisable. These add a strange authenticity to this imagined territory, the acoustic purity of Toop and Wastell's instruments providing a counterpoint that expands the stage.

Deep listening reveals some beautiful passages where all else subsides but for the elegance of a simple motif. None is more perfect than the gentle melody that emerges to bring resolution in the final moments.

A Compound Full of Bones, Translucent Thousands has an eloquence that transcends both the circumstances of its creation in a small London studio and the finely-honed technique of each individual artist. Expressive, alluring: music with which to share your time and imagination."-Confront Recordings


Artist Biographies

"Jan Bang (born 21 August 1968 in Kristiansand, Norway) is a Norwegian musician and record producer, known from several albums and collaborations with musicians like Morten Harket, Sidsel Endresen, David Sylvian, Nils Petter Molv¾r, Arild Andersen, Bugge Wesseltoft, Arve Henriksen and Erik HonorŽ.

Bang played with Erik HonorŽ in ÇWoodlandsÈ (EP, 1988), and they have released two albums (2000, 2001). He has also contributed to albums with Bertine Zetlitz, Bel Canto, and has written music for the film Ballen i ¿yet (2000). In recent years he has played with Dhafer Youssef, and in 2004 he received the Gammleng Award i klassen studio, and together with musician colleague, Erik HonorŽ, he initiated ÇPunktfestivalenÈ in 2005.

He is one of NorwayÕs most accomplished and influential producers and the epithet electronics guru has stayed with him for a long time and with good reason. Bang is the kind of musical innovator and bridge-builder who consistently manages to balance progressive thinking with popular appeal. He is always looking for ways of moving music and people forward, and by creating new meeting places and musical intersections he is the kind of person who makes events like ÇScene NorwayÈ possible. In addition to hosting ÇPunktÈ, Bang will also contribute to the opening concert where he will perform with one of his many musical collaborators, the celebrated Norwegian trumpet player Arve Henriksen.

John Kellman of the All About Jazz magazine, recognized Jason Moran & Jan Bang at the Moldejazz and Arve Henriksen/Jan Bang Double CD Release Show at the Punkt Festival, Kristiansand, Norway, September 2013, as one of his 25 "Best Live Shows of 2013".

Bang has also appeared live at Music Tech Fest Berlin in 2016 with Mercury nominee Eska in a unique one-off improvised performance."

-Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_Bang)
3/27/2024

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

"David Toop (born 5 May 1949) is an English musician, author, and professor and chair of audio culture and improvisation at the London College of Communication. He was a member of the Flying Lizards and a contributor to the British magazine The Face. He is a regular contributor to The Wire, a British music magazine.

Soon after his birth, his parents moved to Waltham Cross, Hertfordshire, where he grew up. He was educated at Broxbourne Grammar School, which he left in 1967 to study at Hornsey College of Art.

Toop published his pioneering book on hip hop, Rap Attack, in 1984. Eleven years later, Ocean of Sound appeared, described as Toop's "poetic survey of contemporary musical life from Debussy through Ambient, Techno, and drum 'n' bass." Since the 1970s, Toop has also been a significant presence on the British experimental and improvised music scene, collaborating with Max Eastley, Brian Eno, Scanner, and others. He is a member of the improvising, genre-hopping quartet Alterations, active from 1977 to 1986 and reforming in 2015. In 2001, Toop curated the sound art exhibition Sonic Boom, and the following year, he curated a 2-CD collection entitled Not Necessarily Enough English Music: A Collection of Experimental Music from Great Britain, 1960Ð1977. More experimentally, Toop has also actively engaged with 'sounding objects' from a range of museums."

-Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Toop)
3/27/2024

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)
3/27/2024

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


Track Listing:



1. Compound Full of Bones, Translucent Thousands 35:53

Related Categories of Interest:


Improvised Music
Free Improvisation
Electro-Acoustic
Electro-Acoustic Improv
London & UK Improv & Related Scenes
Trio Recordings
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