pleasing noise

I couldn't sleep so came down to make a cup of tea and the birds began their day, so I did too.
Recorded out of the kitchen door in mid-Suffolk.
24th May 2022 at about 4.15am GMT

Dawn Chorus 24 May 2022 - Recorded in Suffolk by Laura Cannell

From the upcoming 2nd album: DESTRUCTION HORIZON by HUNTERESS.
Out on 21st April 2023.
Available soon from Brawl Records http://www.brawlrecords.co.uk

6. WAR HORSES - Hunteress

Whirlwind
Take me there
Where I will be
His lady fair
Sheets of night
Hiding us
Gusts of wind
Riding us
I'm blown away
Into his hands
I'm weak and high
Can barely stand 

In the web
Of dizzy leaves
Virgins all
Elude the trees 

Touch me now
Touch me
The black acres are claiming me
They're claiming me 

He holds me up
Like a babe
Pressing close
I can't behave
I need to have
This little death
I'm up against
His downy chest 

In the web
Of dizzy leaves
Virgins all
Elude the trees
The chill is flush
With burning flesh
It's so refined
This little death 

Touch me now
Touch me
The black acres are claiming me
They're claiming me 

Touch me now
Touch me
The black acres are claiming me
They're claiming me
Black acres 

I'm running
Away from home
Black acres
And the wind
The wind is blowin'
Black acres
And the weathervane
Its heathen song
Lulls the world
With silver tongue 

Touch me now
Touch me
The black acres are claiming me
They're claiming me

Elysian Fields - Black Acres

A one take improvisation at Mistely Towers in October 2023. I have been using resonant spaces to explore improvising on the clarinet. I've been drawing on my experiences of growing up on a rural farm and ambling around the fields, being immersed in skies and fields, crows and cattle. The slowness of walking in wellies. A complete awareness of mortality and exploration of many isolated hours ambling through the open wilderness. This improvisation started with me following the branches of a yew tree through a tiny window in one of these towers. Connecting and channelling in the present moment through nature.

Titles for sections include:

The Yew Tree Dances
Starlings
The Ambling Hours
Jay Bird
Here Is the World
Time Rushes On
I Want To Be Here Forever (but I know it all has to end)

Mistely Towers - The Yew Tree Dances

The Bells Of Minsmere

Voice Is The Original Instrument is the first of two crucial Joan La Barbara reissues incoming this spring on Arc Light Editions. It was the first record released by Joan La Barbara in 1976, and has since become iconic as one of the initial examples of extended vocal techniques in experimental music. The human voice is the only instrument on the recordings, which were made live at the University Art Museum in Berkeley, CA.

Out 20 April, via www.arclighteditions.bigcartel.com

extended vocal techniquejoan la barbara1970savant-gardeExperimentalVocal
Released by:
Arc Light Editions


Joan La Barbara - Voice Piece: One-Note Internal Resonance Investigation

Simultaneous Flight Movement

Winter Saltings - Simultaneous Flight Movement RELEASE DATE: 21.10.16

The Happiness of Both Worldes Part 1 - Simultaneous Flight Movement RELEASE DATE: 21.10.16

You Have Departed - Simultaneous Flight Movement RELEASE DATE:21.10.16

Passion Sources

Ulvi

Clip from the latest Subtext Recordings release by Ellen Arkbro - For organ and brass. For organ and brass is comprised of two works by the Stockholm-based composer Ellen Arkbro. Both works focus on tuning, intonation and harmonic modulation. In previous projects, Arkbro composed for early music ensembles, wrote a series of durational pieces utilising synthetic tones and processed guitars, and, most recently, presented a work lasting 26 days at the Stockholm Concert Hall. for organ and brass looks back to Arkbro’s studies in Just Intonation with La Monte Young, Marian Zazeela, and their disciple Jung Hee Choi in New York, as well as with kindred spirit Marc Sabat in Berlin.

The title composition was written for an organ with a specific kind of historical tuning known as meantone temperament. It was only after locating an appropriate instrument—-the Sherer-Orgel dating back to 1624 in St. Stephen’s Church in Tangermünde, Northeastern Germany—-that Arkbro set about recording both for organ and brass and its counterpart, three. “Hidden within the harmonic framework of the Renaissance organ are intervals and chords that bare a close resemblance to those found in the modalities of traditional blues music,” explains Arkbro. “The work can be thought of as a very slow and reduced blues music.” 

The work moves gradually through a series of long, sustained tones played by the organ and in parallel by a brass trio comprised of horn, tuba, and trombone. Arkbro’s treatment of pitch resembles the tuning strategies of La Monte Young. The brass parts were performed by microtonal brass trio Zinc & Copper, a group whose repertoire has included works by C.C. Hennix and Christian Wolff.  http://www.zincandcopper.org/

In Arkbro’s words, “the brass instruments and the organ fall into patterns of interaction in which a new breathing instrument emerges.” three, which follows the 20-minute title work, deploys the same principles of harmonic relativity. In removing the organ from the instrumentation and switching to a different meter, three acts as an intimate counterpoint to the ritual drone cycles of the title piece.  

Ellen Arkbro is currently studying for her Master’s degree in music composition at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm. Her work has been performed in Brooklyn, Stockholm, Norberg, Bologna, Gothenburg, Berlin, Birmingham, and Malmö, and on Swedish National Radio.
for organ and brass was recorded in Tangermünde, Germany in September 2016. 
The performers were Johan Graden (organ), Elena Kakaliagou (horn), Hilary Jeffery 
(trombone), and Robin Hayward (tuba).

Ellen Arkbro - For Organ & Brass Clip

2 hands 2 pianos - improvisation from Salon Milan Grol Beograd 2017

Mal Cannell reads his favourite poems with his calming Norfolk warmth. These are magical poems to fall asleep to.

The Lovliest Of Trees - A E Housman

Sea - Fever - John Masefield

The Walrus And The Carpenter - Lewis Carroll

The bitter dark

Combining traditional and medieval music elements with improvisation, including extended instrumental techniques such as the "deconstructed bow" and double recorders, the artist draws inspiration from the emotional influence of the landscape, animal calls or fragments of liturgical music in order to build a unique form of chamber music that avoids historicism and instead inhabits an imagined territory, combining contemporary and archaic elements.

The Happiness of Both Worldes Part 1 - Simultaneous Flight Movement RELEASE DATE: 21.10.16

LauraCannell

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