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Powerfully rich sounds from two NY-based instrumentalists — John McCowen on contrabass clarinet & Carlo Costa on bass drum & percussion — in a three-part work of acoustic improvisations, McCowen sounding deceptively electronic through overtones and masterful harmonic technique, while Costa's bass drum provides deep foundations as he mysteriously layers percussive distractions; phenomenal!
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John McCowen-contrabass clarinet
Carlo Costa-bass drum, percussion
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Label: Tripticks Tapes
Catalog ID: TTT037
Squidco Product Code: 33350
Format: CASSETTE
Condition: New
Released: 2023
Country: USA
Packaging: Cassette
Recorded at Buckminster Forest, in Brooklyn, New York, on November 19th, 2020, by Nathaniel Morgan.
"Every time I hit play on pianissimo etc, and the opening track kicks in, I get this impossible feeling as though I'm being dragged through a metallic debris field floating in midair. It makes very little sense, but that's a big reason why I am so captivated by this music. McCowen's contrabass clarinet feels inevitable, larger than life. Guttural vibrations reverberate through caverns, encasing us in an oppressive glow. It would be too much if not for Costa's folly, high-pitched squeals, and swishing percussive explorations. With the clarinet humming from the Earth's core, Costa riddles the sonic mass with textural phrasings and spectral imagery. Together, the duo unlocks something ancient, the key to a place where we levitate on sound while it scrapes our skulls clean. This is fucking great."-Brad Rose, Foxy Digitalis
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Artist Biographies
• Show Bio for John McCowen "John McCowen is a New York based composer and performer whose work focuses on extending the possibilities of the clarinet family. John embraces long-form drones, difference tones, and beating harmonics as a means to extrude the dimensionality within - treating the clarinet as an acoustic synthesizer. His works for ensemble utilize spectral techniques to superimpose the timbral/sonic characteristics of the clarinet onto a grouping of instruments. This may include the clarinet as a solo instrument while the ensemble functions as a resonant system. John was a founding member of the Chicago avant-rock group, Wei Zhongle, where he performed on amplified clarinet/electronics. His most recent release of three compositions for solo contrabass clarinet, Solo Contra (IARC0015), is out now on International Anthem Records. His discography includes releases on International Anthem, Astral Spirits, Cairn Desk, NNA Tapes, New Atlantis, Self Sabotage, Edible Onion, and DAAANG. He has toured extensively throughout North America as well as trips to Europe and Asia. These performances/spaces include Le Guess Who Festival(NL), Norður og Niður Festival(IS), Hot Air Music Festival, Bowling Green New Music Festival, Supersonic Festival(ENG), Berkeley Art Museum(BAMPFA), The Stone, San Francisco Conservatory of Music, International Clarinet Festival 2014, and more. John was the 2017 artist-in-residence at Lijiang Studio in Yunnan, China. He received the Elizabeth Mills Crothers Award for music composition in 2016 from Mills College where he also received an MA in Music Composition." ^ Hide Bio for John McCowen • Show Bio for Carlo Costa "Percussionist and composer Carlo Costa was born in Rome, Italy. In 2001 he moved to Boston to study music. Since 2005 he has been living in New York City where he regularly performs as a leader and co-leader of various projects, as well as a sideman. Carlo is currently primarily involved with experimental and improvised music and is an active composer for his ensembles and ad hoc projects. He has performed throughout Europe and the US in a wide variety of contexts. Carlo currently leads or co-leads Natura Morta (a trio with violist Frantz Loriot and bassist Sean Ali), the Carlo Costa Quartet (with trombonist Steve Swell, saxophonist Jonathan Moritz and bassist Sean Ali), Earth Tongues (with trumpeter Joe Moffett and tubist Dan Peck), the large ensemble Acustica, the trio Ancient Enemies (with alto saxophonist Nathaniel Morgan and violist Joanna Mattrey), and a solo percussion project. In November 2014 Carlo launched the record label Neither/Nor Records which is dedicated to experimental and improvised music." ^ Hide Bio for Carlo Costa
4/24/2024
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4/24/2024
Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.
Track Listing:
SIDE A
1. I 07:00
2. II 12:51
SIDE B
1. III 14:08
Cassettes
Physical Releases that include Download Codes
Improvised Music
Free Improvisation
NY Downtown & Metropolitan Jazz/Improv
Recordings by or featuring Reed & Wind Players
Percussion & Drums
Duo Recordings
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New in Improvised Music
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Tripticks Tapes.
 | Lauzier, Philippe / Carlo Costa Interspace (Tour de Bras / Inexhaustible Editions ) |
| After performing together in Canada beginning in 2019, bass clarinetist & electronic artist Philippe Lauzier and NY percussionist Carl Costa remained in contact during the pandemic by exchanging compositional concepts, the 4-part "Sincronica Vaga" and "Soft Routine" the results, the former based on dovetailing motives, the latter on harmonic counterpoint interaction. | |
 | Schiller, Christoph / Carlo Costa Spinet and Drums (Neither/Nor Records) |
| Three "Card Pieces", short series of pitch collections in a timeline with no other parameter spelled out, performed in a minimalist approach by Swiss spinet player Christoph Schiller and New York drummer & improviser Carlo Costa, where metallic strings are offset by organic and ringing responses, with a final work "Sottobosco" expanding their palette and pace. | |
 | Wooley, Nate / Mutual Aid Music Four Experiments [4 CD BOX SET] (Pleasure of the Text Records) |
| Engaging an expanded version of the ensemble from his Mutual Aid Music, trumpeter Nate Wooley provides scores for his players in various configuration that challenge concepts of group composition, instrumental sound and resonance, idealized tones and the human voice, the development of melody and harmony in compositions, &c.; performers include Wooley, Seymore Wright, John McCowen, Gabby Fluke-Mogul, Cory Smythe, Luke Stewart, Eric Wubbels, &c. | |
 | Diaphane (Loriot / Costa / Hubsch / Loher) Paris (Neither/Nor Records) |
| A live album at the Cafe de Paris in 2019, and the recording debut of the international quartet Diaphane of Frantz Loriot on viola, Raphael Loher on piano, Carl Ludwig Hübsch on tuba and Carlo Costa on percussion, heard here in an extended and fully free improvisation using unusual techniques and objects to extend the pallet of their acoustic instruments. | |
| Lauzier, Philippe / Carlo Costa Interspace (Tour de Bras / Inexhaustible Editions ) |
| After performing together in Canada beginning in 2019, bass clarinetist & electronic artist Philippe Lauzier and NY percussionist Carl Costa remained in contact during the pandemic by exchanging compositional concepts, the 4-part "Sincronica Vaga" and "Soft Routine" the results, the former based on dovetailing motives, the latter on harmonic counterpoint interaction. | |
 | Seabrook, Brandon brutalovechamp (Pyroclastic Records) |
| Looking to create a sound realm that would reflect more life and less process, NY guitarist/banjo player Brandon Seabrook takes his 8-piece ensemble Epic Proportions on a truly epic journey through "lyrical melodies, dynamic improvisations and manic counterpoint", showing great evolution and development as a contemporary composer and player; "Brutal is beautiful". | |
 | Fraser / McCowen / Weinberg Thip [CASSETTE w/ DOWNLOAD] (Tripticks Tapes) |
| Recorded primarily at Issue Project Room in Brooklyn and leveraging the natural resonance of that performance space, the New York trio of innovative improvisers Henry Frase on double bass, John McCowen on Bb and contrabass clarinets and Sam Weinberg on tenor & soprano saxophones explore the peripheries of their instruments in intense and reflective interplay. | |
| Diaphane (Loriot / Costa / Hubsch / Loher) Paris (Neither/Nor Records) |
| A live album at the Cafe de Paris in 2019, and the recording debut of the international quartet Diaphane of Frantz Loriot on viola, Raphael Loher on piano, Carl Ludwig Hübsch on tuba and Carlo Costa on percussion, heard here in an extended and fully free improvisation using unusual techniques and objects to extend the pallet of their acoustic instruments. | |
 | Costa, Carlo Silos (Neither/Nor Records) |
| While on vacation in Rome in 2018, NY percussionist Carlo Costa took his portable recorder inside a grain silo in the countryside north of the city, eschewing traditional percussion for found bricks, pipes, rocks and branches found nearby, recording in the resonance of the silo with the sounds of cicadas and other ambiance permeating the silo as he unfolds this engrossing, thoughtfully paced improvisation. | |
 | Lijiang Quintet Crossing A River By Rope (fo'c'sle) |
| A rare and exuberant exchange of sonic discourse between Chinese and American improvisers recorded in the Yunnan Province of China at the Lijiang Studio artist residency, in a uniquely voiced quintet with Theresa Wong on cello & voice, Lao Dan on saxophone & bamboo instruments, John McCowen on clarinet & recorder, Li Xing on electric & acoustic guitars, and Deng Boyu on percussion & found objects. | |
 | Moritz / Ali / Costa Estuary (Neither/Nor Records) |
| After having collaborated in a variety of contexts for a few years, in 2017 Jonathan Moritz, Sean Ali and Carlo Costa started to perform regularly as a trio, over time honing a distinctive sound, using space through patient development, abstraction and textural playing and central tenets in their jazz-influenced improvisations, here in their first album. | |
 | Costa, Carlo Oblio (Neither/Nor Records) |
| New York-based Italian percussionist and Neither/Nor label leader Carlo Costa in a solo percussion album of two pieces using drum set, concert bass drum, singing bowls, bells, triangles, wood blocks, tiles, styrofoam, cymbals, violin bows, marbles, chains, knives, and other objects, creating fascinating alien soundscapes of momentous activity without histrionics. | |
 | Dim Thickets (Carlo Costa / Jason Nazary) Dim Thickets [CASSETTE] (Anticausal Systems) |
| Bringing together two New York percussionists for a wild ride of that finds drummer Jason Nazary performing exclusively on electronics against and alongside Neither/Nor label-leader Carlo Costa's percussion, using glitch and aberrant electronics in actively constrained ways as the two dart and weave around each other in an exciting and unique improvisational dialog. | |
 | McCowen, John Mundanas I - V (Edition Wandelweiser Records) |
| Two clarinetists--John McCowen, also the composer, and Madison Greenstone, both on clarinet & bass clarinet--taking the title from Boethius' (427-524 AD) printed work on ancient Greek music: "De institutione musica", as they generate long-form drones using the harmonic interactions and interference patterns of similar tones, overtones, and difference tones; impressively intense. | |
 | Volden, Havard / Carlo Costa In the Wake (Neither/Nor Records) |
| Italian-born New York-based percussionist Carlo Costa meets Norwegian guitarist Havard Volden (Moon Relay, Muddersten) for an album of water-themed free improvisations, beautifully developing with thoughtful playing using rich chord patterns and unusual sonic inventiveness in percussive objects to create a set of rich and languorous surges and pools of sound. | |
 | Natura Morta (Loriot / Ali / Costa) Environ (Neither/Nor Records) |
| The trio of Frantz Loriot (violin), Sean Ali (contrabassist) and Carlo Costa (percussion), a grouping named for still life paintings that concentrate on composition and color, presenting three extended compositions of rich acoustic sound, extending their instruments through masterful technique to create exquisitely detailed and compellingly self-controlled conversation. | |
 | Costa's Acustica, Carlo Strata (Neither/Nor Records) |
| New York composer and drummer Carlo Costa assembled this accomplished ensemble of NY improvisers for a live performance at IBeam in Brooklyn, capturing his piece "Strata" that evolves layers of sound from very sparse to densely yet accesibly stacked sound, varying recurring material to change perspectives in the aural space as the piece progresses; impressive. | |
 | Godet, Jean-Brice Quartet (Godet / Attias / Niggenkemper / Costa) Mujo (Fou Records) |
| The debut album of French clarinetist Jean-Brice Godet, recording with a New York quartet of Michael Attias on alto sax, Pascal Niggenkemper on doublebass, and Carlo Costa on drums for seven tracks of adventerous original compositions, using weaving lines in melodic heads that propel his sidemen to lyrically rich solos and asides. | |
 | Earth Tongues (Costa / Peck / Moffett) Rune (Neither/Nor Records) |
| Paying attention to tone, tension, space and silence, the trio of Carlo Costa on percussion, Joe Moffett on trumpet, and Dan Peck on tuba use extended and unusual techniques in a meditative and highly concentrative album of free improvisation, the first album from this trio whose attentive approach to improvisation rewards in unique sonic environments. | |
 | Costa, Carlo Quartet Sediment (Neither/Nor Records) |
| A new NY label from percussionist Carlo Costa in its 1st release, a quartet with Steve Swell on trombone, Sean ali on bass and Jonathan Moritz on sax, presenting an improvisational language that subsumes the individual players into a distinct group sound. | |
 | Hollow Deck Over East [CASSETTE w/ DOWNLOAD] (Tripticks Tapes) |
| Straddling quirky folk song and experimental sound collage, the long-running Western Massachusettes duo of fiddler, banjo player & singer Mia Friedman and clarinetist, wind player & sound artist Andy Allen (Guerilla Toss) present an album of observational songs with unusual perspectives and an anything goes approach to the music that surrounds each song; delightful. | |
 | Fishkin, Daniel Dark Listening [CASSETTE w/ DOWNLOAD] (Tripticks Tapes) |
| Taking the viola da gamba and the daxophone into uncharted (dark) territories, composer Daniel Fishkin (who studied with daxophone inventor Hans Racheil) presents four works leveraging interference & frequency patterns, performed with an exceptional set of specialists on each instrument, and Fishkin's own 20-foot long instrument, The Lady's Harp, creating long, sustained tones. | |
 | Coles, Dominic Alphabets (Tripticks Tapes) |
| A study of language through the repetition of fragmented sound, demonstrating how repetition brings alienation of meaning, Cole creating a synthetic alphabet within an unsignified musical context of electronic responses, repeated until the listener loses contact or reference to the original word; a challenging series of transformations rewarding to the engaged listener. | |
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