| $13.44
back in stock as of
may 26th, 2010
first in stock on
january 16th, 2010
threads:
modern-composition
minimalism-drones
site-specific
concert-recordings
|
| | | pica disk (norway) #pica 013 cd tony conrad / c. spencer yeh / michael f. duch “musculus trapezius” compact disc - musculus trapezius (65:17)
| | click the play button to hear an excerpt of "musculus trapezius" |
| january 2010 release ; believe this is the first issued collaboration between 60s violinist / film-maker / tunning-systems sage tony conrad and contemporary violinist / film-maker / traveler c. spencer yeh, caught on tape (in a trio formation with contrabassist michael f. duch) in oslo back in 2008 ...
after a good 10 minutes of spare piano and rattling architectural appointments, the strings do come in ; at first fighting for a solid footing, then slowly ratcheting into some form of harmonic unison, all whilst the bass iterates in steady, tonal pulses ...
it’s amazing to hear spencer dial it back a bit (he’s by & large keeping to sustained, pitched tones ; very little in the way of his trademark bow-scrape) ; at all points his & tony’s playing is near-indistinguishable ...
now that i think about it ; i haven’t heard a recording of tony’s in some time where he isn’t bathing his difference tones in a sea of electronic effects ; the purely acoustic recording (in what sounds like a glorious old wooden church) does wonders for revealing the detail & clarity of everyone’s playing ... |
| | pica disk press release... |
|
tony conrad / c. spencer yeh / michael f. duch: musculus trapezius
pica013. cd. released january 2010.
from the abstract of the article "emg trapezius muscle activity pattern in string players:: part i—is there variability in the playing technique?" authored by anncristine fjellman-wiklund, helena grip, jan stefan karlsson, and gunnevi sundelin, first published in the international journal of industrial ergonomics (volume 33, issue 4, april 2004) : "work-related neck and shoulder disorders are a great problem for string musicians; a playing technique with more relaxed muscles and a greater variation in the muscle activity pattern, i.e., with shorter sequences at a varied number of amplitude levels... might prevent pain." oops.
an epic performance captured pristine, unfurling its massive limbs patiently and cannily over the course of seventy-plus minutes. conrad mingles amongst his trusted wood-and-steel sidekicks, engaged in both age-old conversations and inspired new inquisitions; yeh bookends his passive/aggressive behaviour on violin with spare piano incantations; duch acts as a ghostly anchor, casting formidable binding and deft velocity. yes, the drones do flow freely, but these reliable horizons fracture into surprising detours, tearing apart not only the instruments and players involved, but the expectations of the music itself.
recorded in sofienberg church of oslo, norway in february 2008, and mastered by jim o'rourke in tokyo, japan. cd in digipak cover.
tony conrad: harpsicord and violin.
c.spencer yeh: piano and violin.
michael f. duch: double bass |
|
|
