This piece of music has been haunting me on the piano. I took it to the mellotron flute and cello and it told me a different story. Strange how my images always go back to Snowdonia

prelude one paths

Written in September 2025. Orchestra.
Mount Nelson Near Hobart Town From Near Mulgrave Battery, Joseph Lycett.

Symphony 14 (ii) Part 2

Sun and sky and garden breeze

TR039 - Yoni Silver - 'Sun and sky and garden breeze' [sample]

"out of the vast void,

immerging resonances

receding again"

- Johnny Chang


A new piece by the Viola Torros, the ongoing research project by composer-performers Catherine Lamb and Johnny Chang, which seeks to realise and arrange the compositions of a pre-medieval composer, Viola Torros. A real pleasure to release this work following their stunning double CD on Another Timbre in late 2018.

Viola T. was an anonymous composer who worked outside of the religious and academic establishments of her time. In her own practice, she documented her works in a minimally effective way, just enough to communicate with her fellow collaborators but barely enough to preserve a legacy for later generations of enthusiasts of her music.

The concept of ‘research’ referred to by the Viola Torros Project involves studies of various relevant musical styles of the pre-medieval period (arabic, byzantine and indian modes), and investigating possible evolution of melodic and harmonic developments as V. T. might have discovered. Choosing one aspect of such a musical style to focus upon, details are discovered and presented in an arrangement for two violas, often with additional augmentations.


--

Johnny Chang & Catherine Lamb - violas & arrangement

--
Originally recorded by Bryan Eubanks, Düsseldorf 2017

Edited in 2020 by Johnny Chang

Artwork design by Oliver Barrett

Viola Torros

TR036 - Viola Torros Project - Johnny Chang & Catherine Lamb - Prelimainary Study for V.T. [sample]

Short excerpt of a 40 minutes live improv 
15 October 2019 @ Les Instants Chavirés
Sharing the bill with Kate Carr, a concert produced by La Fabrique Agitée
https://www.instantschavires.com/kate-carrvalerie-vivancos/

Valerie Vivancos Live Instants Chavirés  15 Oct 2019 (excerpt)

An improvisation made in my studio in April 2020 on the modular synth. It is largely based on ethnographic cylinder recordings from the Kodaly archive, made in April 1914. These small fragments are sampled with oscillators controlling the grain, loop size and time points of the samples. Pitch and envelope followers on the samples in turn control these oscillators and other physically modelled sounds. Yannis Kyriakides, Amsterdam, April 2020.

A Ghost Of Spring

Slow Melting Lesson

"Listening is and always has been at the core of The Quiet Club’s (Danny McCarthy & Mick O’Shea) work combined with their policy of not discussing the work before or after its performance this has been the hallmark of their practice. 

Unable to listen to each other perform during the Covid 19 Lockdown the duo resorted to Telepathic Listening. Uninterested in Zoom, Facetime etc. the duo decided to each perform in their own separate studio’s miles apart at a given time on appointed days for twenty minutes. The concept was that then the two recordings would be combined together unedited.

On June 16th 2020 (Bloomsday) the artists inspired by Joyce, performed separately but at the same time and the recordings were then combined together unedited to form Telepathic Lockdown Tape No 7.

There are several other works in the series including one which they both played at 4:33pm as a tribute to John Cage. Telepathic Lockdown Tape No 9."

The Telepathic Lockdown Tapes

TR079 - The Quiet Club - The Telepathic Lockdown Tapes [excerpt]

Seasons Greetings & Happy New Year
<33333333333333333333333333333333
Thanks & big ups to all :)

90 ⋯ d4n4 - Chasing-Rabbits-Being-Chased (Leaps&Bounds Mix)

Spopppu2

TR131 - Blanca Regina & Wade Matthews - 'Roadrunner'

As you can imagine we are under huge pressure at the moment and are working flat out to ensure Cafe OTO survives this. The impact of this situation is extremely acute for small venues like ours and we need all the support we can get to pull through. Please donate what you can, if you can. Thank you. 

Cafe OTO opened in April 2008 with the aim of providing a home for creative new music that exists outside of the mainstream. It comprises one large cafe/performance space open during the day serving food and drink with an evening programme of live music almost seven nights a week. 

OTOROKU is part of OTOProjects - a not-for-profit Community Interest Company (CIC) that has been set up to manage the programme at Café Oto. Any profits from OTOROKU are put back into supporting what we do and will help us to continue programming the best musicians and performers from all over the world.

www.cafeoto.co.uk

TR036 - Viola Torros Project - Johnny Chang & Catherine Lamb - Prelimainary Study for V.T. [sample]

cafeOTO

Related tracks