The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows

Commissioned by the Aurora Orchestra to celebrate the 10-year anniversary of its relationship with the BBC Young Composer Competition. This commission was generously supported by the RVW Trust.

Performed by members of the Aurora Orchestra on December 12, 2020 in Kings Place, Hall One. 

Trombone - Matthew Gee
Violin 1 - Alexandra Wood
Violin 2 - Jamie Campbell
Viola - Ruth Gibson
Cello - Sébastien van Kuijk

Points of Intersection (2020) - excerpt

The Mistral, is a strong wind that commonly occurs in southern France, blowing down from the north along the lower Rhône River valley toward the Mediterranean Sea. As the wind reaches the Rhône delta, gusts can often hit speeds of 130 km (about 80 miles) per hour.

This recording was taken from the bedroom window of an old "Mas" (farmhouse) just outside Barbentane (Bouches-du-Rhône) with the mics pointing directly at a Plane tree (platane)at least 250 years old.

Sound Devices Mix Pre 6 + 2 x Sennheiser MKH 8040s (ORTF)
24.08.2021

Strong "Mistral" Wind - Barbentane, France

Cattle is drinking and swimming while it’s hot in the desert of Arizona, in the area of Arivaca. 

Recorded by a Sound Devices MixPre6
With a ORTF Schoeps Setup CCM4 x 2 in a windscreen by Cinela,
Sound Ref: AZ210816T001
Wave, 96kHz
Recorded on 16th of August 2021
GPS: 31.661166, -111.165792

Cows’ choir around a pound in the desert

TR195 - John Tilbury - 'Metalessness' [excerpt]

Performed at the Festival of Laurence Crane: A Tribute Concert on Monday 18th October 2021.

The title is an accidental pun on Laurence’s Bobby J for electric guitar. I was chatting with Patrick about putting the piece together and told him we might both have to muster up our best Bobby D impressions (aka Bob Dylan).

Lara Agar (violin, harmonica)
Christian Drew (guitar, harmonica)
Harry Harrison (percussion, harmonica)
Patrick Hegarty (guitar, harmonica)
Darius Paymai (harmonium, harmonica)

Bobby D

(Un) universo (nace). Visualiza, escucha y va creciendo. (Este) universo (seres sintientes) van mutando su capacidad para ver, oír y percibir información en el tiempo. Y (ese) universo total, entero y sensible se encuentra absorbiendo la vida que tiene por delante, los lados, por arriba y por abajo. Y va mutando, va observando, va entendiendo y sigue escuchando.

Ya no es (un) universo sino (cosmos) de elementos, recuerdos, registros y encuentros nuevos. De paisajes visuales y sonoros; un campus infinito de belleza y horrores que transpora en (elle) como maleta, recorre y explora lo desconocido para seguir (creciendo).

Sonidos y paisajes sonoros de Mar del Plata, grabaciones de zorzales colorados y benteveos en Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Fotografía: Damián Alférez 
Edición: María Emilia Pérez

#paisajesonoro #deeplistening #womeninsounds #fieldrecordist #fieldrecording #soundart #contemporaryarts #soundscape #environment #mardelplata #buenosaires #argentina #ambient

(Un) universo (nace)/ Paisaje sonoro de Buenos Aires y Mar del Plata.

Performed live by the Zöllner-Roche Duo at Unerhörte Musik in Berlin, Germany on November 9, 2021.

www.unerhoerte-musik.de
www.zoellner-roche.com

Commissioned by Gaudeamus Muziekweek for their 2021 festival.

Program Note:
The concept for this piece comes from The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows, a collection of words invented by John Koenig that “aims to fill a hole in the [English] language—to give a name to emotions we all might experience but don’t yet have a word for.” The title for this piece comes from the definition for “silience.”

This word is something I felt deeply following the King Soopers shooting in my town of Boulder, Colorado on March 22nd 2021. I remember that day vividly, as I was receiving my first COVID vaccination while the shooter was active at the grocery store down the road. As our community grieved the loss of ten lives, I witnessed an incredible spirit and strength in those around me. I was amazed by my students–by their ability to face the weight of this tragedy, and their ability to hold space for others. I truly believe that community, our collective strength and care, is the highest form of excellence human-kind has to offer. And while we're here: ban guns. 

silience, n. the kind of unnoticed excellence that carries on around you every day, unremarkably—the hidden talents of friends and coworkers, the fleeting solos of subway buskers, the slapdash eloquence of anonymous users, the unseen portfolios of aspiring artists—which would be renowned as master- pieces if only they’d been appraised by the cartel of popular taste, who assume that brilliance is a rare and precious quality, accidentally overlooking buried jewels that may not be flawless but are still somehow perfect.

The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows: silience (2021) // Zöllner-Roche Duo Live

I dedicate Desiderium Animae in loving memory of a dear friend and mentor Nataša Jovanović, professor of violoncello and chamber music from Belgrade, who left us too soon.

On October 31st I accidentally discovered Tunnel Grič in central Zagreb. It is 1 kilometer long WWII air-raid shelter, now a pedestrian tunnel recently reopened for the public after being sealed for decades. 

This is the integral field recording of my first encounter with the tunnel and its incredible acoustics, interacting with passers-by, examining its sonic properties, feeling its dense memory field, while walking up and down and holding the recorder in my hand. 

The recording is later enriched by minimal ambient interventions.

All rights reserved.

Desiderium Animae

The first single heralding the upcoming Bodyfulness album by Jacek Doroszenko feat. Ewa Doroszenko.

Landscape Of Algorithmic Desire

Jacek Doroszenko - Landscape Of Algorithmic Desire

Yet another album of miscellaneous instrumentals, finished in 2022, called Instrumenties 03: Bangin' My Head on a Ghost (Yup).

Zen Massacre

6 Teeshori

As a vocalist, I have long been obsessed with the nuanced resonance of the human voice, and in particular the timbral variation and inflection inherent to many folk vocal traditions. These highly expressive micro-variations deliver intense pangs of emotion that can be sung in the subtlest of ways. They are distilled, fleeting moments of suffering and joy that fall between the cracks of melody and harmony. This piece is about the music that exists between the notes.

One wish, your honey lips (2016) // Emissary Quartet

Music Copyright (c) Annika K. Socolofsky 2018. ASCAP. All rights reserved.

Recorded by So Percussion at Princeton University in February 2019.

The concept for this piece comes from The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows, a collection of words invented by John Koenig that “aims to fill a hole in the [English] language—to give a name to emotions we all might experience but don’t yet have a word for.” The title for this piece comes from the definition for “ambedo.”

This piece was premiered by Liz Karney, McKayla Philips, Nick Martinez, and Lauren Molloy at the 2018 So Percussion Summer Institute Princeton PhD Concert, and is dedicated to them.

ambedo
n. a kind of melancholic trance in which you become completely absorbed in vivid sensory details—raindrops skittering down a window, tall trees leaning in the wind, clouds of cream swirling in your coffee—which leads to a dawning awareness of the haunting fragility of life, a mood whose only known cure is the vuvuzela.

http://www.dictionaryofobscuresorrows.com/

The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows: ambedo (2018) // So Percussion

The concept for this piece comes from The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows, a collection of words invented by John Koenig that “aims to fill a hole in the [English] language—to give a name to emotions we all might experience but don’t yet have a word for.” The title for this
piece comes from the definition for “the meantime.”

the meantime
n. the moment of realization that your quintessential future self isn’t ever going to show up, which forces the role to fall upon the understudy, the gawky kid for whom nothing is easy, who spent years mouthing
their lines in the wings before being shoved into the glare of your life, which is already well into its second act.

This piece was commissioned by the Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival for the Callisto Quartet, who premiered the piece at St. Hugo of the Hills in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan in June 2019.

This recording features the Aizuri Quartet, recorded by Andrés Villalta at Princeton University in November 2020.

The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows: the meantime (2019) // Aizuri Quartet

Annika Socolofsky is a composer and avant folk vocalist. Described as “unbearably moving” (Gramophone) and “just the right balance between edgy precision and freewheeling exuberance” (The Guardian), her music erupts from the embodied power of the human voice and is communicated through mediums ranging from orchestral and operatic works to unaccompanied folk ballads. She is Assistant Professor of Composition at the University of Colorado Boulder and holds her PhD in Composition from Princeton University.

The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows: silience (2021) // Zöllner-Roche Duo Live

Annika Socolofsky

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Paul Maurice Roche | Composer

Paul Maurice Roche | Composer

Paul Maurice Roche | Composer

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