Wet Ink Large Ensemble
live at Roulette, 9/30/13

Erin Lesser, flute
Steve Lehman, saxophone
Alex Mincek, saxophone
Sara Schoenbeck, bassoon
Peter Evans, trumpet
Jacob Garchik, trombone
Dan Peck, tuba
Kate Soper, voice
Ian Antonio, percussion
Russell Greenberg, percussion
Eric Wubbels, piano
Josh Modney, violin
Jeff Snyder, analog synths
Sam Pluta, live electronics





Anthony Braxton: Composition No. 227 (Roulette, 2013)

I. HighSlowHighFast
II. HighSlowLowSlow
III. FastLowSlowLow
IV. FastLowFastHigh

FastLowHighSlow is performed here by Josh Modney and Jacob Greenberg of ICE. It is a playful exploration of the extremes of two musical axes: register and speed. The violin has a slow, high module and a fast, low module. The piano has a fast, high module and a slow, low module. Either of one instrument’s modules fit with either of the other instrument’s modules. Thus, the four movements are derived by cycling through all of the possible module combinations. There is also an optional fifth movement for two violins and piano 4-hands not performed here (HighSlowFastLowFastHighLowSlow) which combines all four modules.  

FastLowHighSlow

telegraphharp.com/patrick-higgins-bachanalia

People have been reinventing Bach for nearly 300 years but there has never been anything quite likePatrick Higgins’ Bachanalia. Equal parts gorgeous and severe, these highly original arrangements of JS Bach prove the endless possibilities contained within the master’s pen. Bachanalia emerges from a dynamic relationship among three main elements: Higgins’ own virtuosic classical guitar playing, stereo electronic processing, and the recording spaces themselves. Truly site-specific, it makes unique use of the extreme and special acoustics of St. Cecilia’s Church in Brooklyn and Future-Past Studios, an upstate New York recording complex housed in a historic Lutheran church. While Bach’s compositions will be familiar to almost everyone, Higgins gives us a mesmerizing glimpse into the future.

Described by The New Yorker as one of the “prime movers of the local avant-garde,” and an “exacting avant-classical guitarist” by Time Out NY, Patrick Higgins is a New York-based composer/performer of experimental music. Higgins has composed works for some of the nation’s leading ensembles, from chamber orchestra works, percussion cycles, and string quartets to smaller ensembles and soloists. He has scored music for television, museum exhibitions, and films both short-form and feature-length. Higgins plays guitar and composes in Zs, hailed by The New York Times as “one of the strongest avant-garde bands in New York.” As a producer and studio owner at Future-Past, Higgins has helped produce records for The National, Josephine Foster, John Zorn and Dither Quartet, Mantra Percussion, Zs, Eric Wubbels and Josh Modney, Ensemble Contemporaneous, Vicky Chow, and many more.

For Bachanalia, Higgins and co-engineer Ben Greenberg worked with a collection of rare vintage Neumann, RCA, and Sennheiser microphones to carefully capture a spatialized natural room reverb. This provided a palate to warp, manipulate, and re-process the sound in precise counterpoint to Bach’s compositions. The end result weaves together live performance and studio composition. The musical arc reaches from light to dark, both in the emotional timbre of the compositions and in the density of the electronic elements. In the final three tracks (“Minuet,” “Chaconne,” “Aria da Capo”), both the experimentation and emotional intensity are pushed to new heights. This is highlighted in the “Chaconne,” Bach’s infamous death mass written after the passing of his first wife, presented here as a 14 minute epic recorded in two continuous takes. While any piece on Bachanalia can stand alone, the album articulates Patrick Higgins’ singular narrative vision from start to finish.

Patrick Higgins "Prelude - Violin Partita No. 3 BWV 1006" - Bachanalia (Telegraph Harp, 10/16)

Mivos Quartet:
Josh Modney, violin
Olivia De Prato, violin
Victor Lowrie, viola
Mariel Roberts, cello

Bryan Jacobs and Eric Wubbels, electronics

live recording
Roulette (Brooklyn, NY)
11/2/2015



being-time, Panel V ("Presence") [2013-15]

WET INK ENSEMBLE
Josh Modney, violin
Eric Wubbels, piano

Live performance at Roulette (NYC)
Darmstadt Institute New York 70th Anniversary Celebration
May 9, 2016

MATHIAS SPAHLINGER: extension (1979/80)
for violin and piano

(Part I)*
exposition n1 [0:00]
exspiration [12:10]
extempore I [18:32]

(Part II)
exposition n2 [23:28]
exklamation = exhumation III [32:58]
exposition n4a = extempore Va = extrapolation n4a [41:30]
exposition n4b - extrapolation n4b = extempore Vb (=exequien?) [49:25]
ex post n [54:48]

*this is an informal guide for navigation through the piece, rather than an exhaustive list of movements

MATHIAS SPAHLINGER: extension (1979/80)

Excerpt of Josh Modney's reinterpretation of J.S. Bach's "Ciaccona" in Just Intonation, as performed by Modney on "Engage" (New Focus Recordings)

http://www.newfocusrecordings.com/catalogue/josh-modney-engage/

J.S. Bach: Ciaccona (1720) with Just Intonation (excerpt)

Violinist, violist, improviser, co-director of the NYC-based Wet Ink Ensemble, member of the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE)