Your use of textures and dramatic sensibility are just divine. Incredible work!

Wonderful piece. As an imago you've wings and it seems that you're flying high

written for & premiered by the Attacca Quartet at the Phillips Collection on 04.20.21

note| Imago is a response to artworks that, due to the pandemic, I couldn’t see or interact with in real life. The distance from the pieces and the wonderful Attacca Quartet created something of a disembodied writing experience. Untitled & The Allusion of Gravity exist most clearly in my mind, illuminated and filled in by imagination & impression. However, I can’t draw on the memories or emotions of first sight, deep study, or sketching in their presence. What did translate over the internet and staring my eyes red at the laptop screen, was the musicality and impossible figurations of Linn Meyers’ and Alyson Shotz’s incredible works. Their limited materials, repetition, and sheer physicality of process made me determined to bring those presences into this new work and seek proximities. 

Repetition, for me, is queer — pushing to see a single moment from every angle, the desire to experience multiplicity, recognizing the capacity of objects to move in a thousand directions at once. I wrote to invoke images of physical creation with timbre, process, and shared materials. I strove to interact the motion of drawing with the smooth movement of a quartet of bows, of adding detail with pen or brush as dragging tightened hair. I saw the physicality and endurance of continuous motion, bowing or harmonics or strums or dense harmonies, as the bending and beading of a complex work. I sought the infinite shapes and implications of a group orientation towards sculpture or magnified square of mylar - in their overlapping vision, a new and beautiful object. A wider perspective. 

(Imago is the final stage of insects metamorphosis - happy cicada year)

Imago [2021] | Attacca Quartet

Thomas Feng, piano

April 23, 2021
Cornell University, Ithaca, NY

Milton Babbitt – About Time

The two latest reissues to spin off from our acclaimed Imaginational Anthem Volume 8: The Private Press feature the solo guitar compositions of Russell Potter, recorded in the last waning days of the initial American Primitive explosion.

A then obsessed teenaged devotee of John Fahey, Robbie Basho, and Leo Kottke at a time when Punk and New Wave were ascendant, Potter harnessed a similar DIY ethos to his own ends by starting his own label & self-publishing his first record, 'A Stone's Throw', while a freshman enrolled at Goddard College in Vermont in 1979. Assembled at the legendary Boddie Records in Potter's hometown of Cleveland, Ohio, and sprinkled liberally with references to his heroes, from the initial record label name of Fonytone (which more than a little recalls Fahey's earliest record label, Fonotone), to the arcane song titles and references to obscure rags.

Even as he looks to his elders, Potter's debut release nimbly evinces a complete mastery of his form and is all the more remarkable for one of such tender years, as only the chutzpah of youth can account for such moves as successfully grafting one of your own composition to one of John Fahey's, as he does here. There's a very immediate, lovely, and real homespun quality to Potter's chiming twelve-string compositions that puts it in the realm of those classic records that seem to simply exist outside of time.

Shortly after 'A Stones Throw', Potter produced & released a 45rpm single by an Ohio bluegrass band featuring the cult singer songwriter Bob Frank performing a cover of Devo's 'Mongoloid', before moving on to his second (and sadly final) album the following year, 'Neither Here Nor There'. Following an independent study with a Goddard College ethnomusicologist, Potter's compositions and performance only deepened on his second release - the recording quality steps up a little but loses none of the immediacy, the playing gets more exuberantly virtuosic -but then more reflective too, particularly on the tunes that are influenced by the gorgeous traditional Irish slow airs. He's still tipping his hat to Fahey occasionally as well, this time with an audacious electric guitar setting of the classic "Dance of the Inhabitant of the Palace of King Philip XIV of Spain."

Though these albums landed at a time when American Primitive guitar music's 1960s & 1970s heyday was in the rear view mirror, they absolutely look ahead to the genre's eventual 21st Century resurrection, anticipating both in form & content many of the same concerns you find in the great contemporary work of the last two decades by Jack Rose, Glenn Jones, Daniel Bachman, et al., and as such provide about as fine a stepping stone between these two eras as you're likely to find.

Neither Here Nor There

Eirigh Suas A Stoirin

Moths At The Window

Written for and performed by pianist Ben Smith at 'MUSICON: Eternal Returns' on 9.6.2021.

Many thanks to Simone Tarsitani, Eric Egan and Musicon, Durham University for the recording.

Watch the full concert here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZX8WNkc2VM&t=1527s

This piece is in dialogue with an earlier work of mine, 'flicker': https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4RQoseTp7Y

flare (2021)

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

Song by https://soundcloud.com/sheabou, recorded in 2015

New demos

SHEABOU - This Is The Start

A few recordings I captured with the Rycote HC22 microphone and Sound Devices Mixpre 3 II in Kenya. Not processed or edited in any way. 24/96 wav file available for download but not for commercial use. For context check out this video: https://youtu.be/vgCtBL1PYAc

Rycote HC22 Demo Recorded In Kenya

Tapes and Topographies is US based artist Todd Gautreau, who has had music releases on labels such as Past Inside the Present, Dronarivm, Shimmering Moods and his own imprint, Simulacra. His project has been active since 2014 following his previous alias Tear Ceremony and he also produces a downtempo as Sonogram.

With each new album, Todd follows a different workflow to achieve new details and results in his sound. Increasingly, his work has been aided by the use of hardware and outboard effects.
In his latest album Amplitudes, he has taken a set of sounds and fed these through a looper, experimenting with altered loop speeds. He used FM synthesis for the first time in this body of work, alongside some of his tried and tested methods, joined by field recordings.

These nine compositions clock in at almost 50 minutes; a compelling listen through dreamy, organic textures. Todd has created a lot of music in the last 18 months and Amplitudes is the latest in his continuous process of distilling his sounds and ideas down to their essence.
The album’s artwork is a macro-photograph of a stone, as the fine details are ‘amplified’ by the magnification effect of the camera’s lens. There is not a clear concept but inspiration is drawn from film and literature, as well as self-reflection, memory, loss and dreams. As these compositions play out, you’ll find yourself concentrating on fine details, whilst at other times, in a blissful state, zooming out to absorb the bigger picture.

Amplitudes

wlr104 Tapes and Topographies - Amplitudes

A small flock of sixty Migrating Whooper Swans in the middle of night resting on Makholma Bay, Western Finland.  The tempo of the yoking will increase to the end. The nearby shore with forest is giving a nice echo. 

Video from the Bay:  http://www.rupuranta.net/weblog/filet/211114a/

(MKH8020 ab80cm, SD702, 24/48, Flac)

Whooper Swans  - 14/11/2021 - Makholma Bay

Composed in 2020.
Commissioned by 840 Series, for their 5th anniversary concert, 
with funds provided by Arts Council England, Richard Thomas Foundation, Hinrichsen Foundation and RVW Trust.
Performed by Juliet Fraser (soprano), Colin Alexander (cello), Stephanie Tress (cello) and Peteris Sokolovskis (cello).
Live recording of 1st performance, at Cafe Oto, London on 
31 January 2020.

European Towns

[piece title] [year written] | [performing ensemble]

inti figgis-vizueta (b.1993) is a composer and educator who works to reconcile historical aesthetics and experimental practices with trans & Indigenous futures. Described as a “rising new music star” (LA Times), with “smooth and serrated melodies” (New York Times) and an “intriguing…highly integrated sound” (Gramophone), “wrought from a language we’d do well to learn” (Washington Post), inti has been commissioned and performed by leading artists including the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Phoenix Symphony, Oregon Symphony, Dallas Symphony, American Composers Orchestra, New World Symphony, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Ensemble Reflektor, Aspen Music Festival, Ojai Music Festival, Spoleto Music Festival, Kennedy Center’s Sounds of US Festival, International Contemporary Ensemble, Alarm Will Sound, Wild Up, Roomful of Teeth, Carnegie Hall’s Ensemble Connect, Kronos Quartet, Attacca Quartet, JACK Quartet, Music from Copland House, Crash Ensemble, violinist Jennifer Koh, and cellists Andrew Yee and Jay Campbell, among many others. inti’s work has been featured at Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, Kennedy Center, Walt Disney Hall Concert Hall, Symphony Center, REDCAT, National Concert Hall (IE), Southbank Centre (UK), Philharmonie de Paris (FR), Muziekgebouw aan 't IJ (NL), and Konzerthaus Berlin (DE). 

Upcoming projects include Earths to Come in VR for the Venice Film Festival, mad scramble for crumbs for Opera Saratoga, Metahaven’s film The Feeling Sonnets, and works for flutist Claire Chase, pianist James McVinnie, and cellist Andrew Yee with Roomful of Teeth. inti is the recipient of the Lotos Foundation Prize, ASCAP Foundation Fred Ho Award, National Sawdust Hildegard Award, Café Royal Foundation Music Grant and residency fellowships from Dumbarton Oaks, Civitella Ranieri, Juilliard Summer Percussion, and Music at Copland House.

inti has held faculty positions with Luna Composition Lab (21-24’), Wildflower Composers (20-22’), Fresh Inc Festival (22’), and Atlanticx Composition (21’). She regularly lectures on her music with recent visits to Harvard University, The Juilliard School, Peabody Conservatory, and CalArts, among many others. inti has curated programs for the Los Angeles Philharmonic Green Umbrella series, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra Current Series, Wild Up’s Darkness Sounding, and American Composers Orchestra SONiC Festival. She is the 2024 Robert M. Trotter Lecturer for the College Music Society 67th National Conference. 
​
inti studied with Marcos Balter, Felipe Lara, Donnacha Dennehy, and George Lewis. Her mentors include ﻿Tania León﻿, Nico Muhly, Angélica Negrón, Derek Bermel, and Andrew Norman, among many others. inti honors her Quichua bisabuela who was the only woman butcher on the plaza central and used to fight men with a machete.

Imago [2021] | Attacca Quartet

inti figgis-vizueta

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