" …Mike… "

Will Scott, alto saxophone, clarinet
Steve Mathers, tenor saxophone
Greg Sinclair, baritone saxophone, clarinet
Jonny Murray/Mike Soper, trumpet
Adam Tyas, trombone
Ed Ashby, tuba
James Kitchman, guitar
Elliot Galvin, piano
Louis Thomas, double bass
Lizy Exell, drums
Matt Gordon, director

(Recorded live at The Spice of Life, Soho, 16th May 2013)

© M Gordon, 2013


" …Mike… "

" …Greg… "

Will Scott, clarinet
Steve Mathers, tenor saxophone
Greg Sinclair, baritone saxophone
Jonny Murray/Mike Soper, trumpet
Adam Tyas, trombone
Ed Ashby, tuba
James Kitchman, guitar
Elliot Galvin, piano
Louis Thomas, double bass
Lizy Exell, drums
Matt Gordon, director

(Recorded live at The Spice of Life, Soho, 16th May 2013)

© M Gordon, 2013

" …Greg… "

Jazz Orchestra • Recorded at Oxford Brookes University, 2009

Sara-Jane Dunn: Soprano Saxophone
Rob McInerney: Alto Saxophone
Phillippa Lasocki: Tenor Saxophone ~ solo
Harry Giles: Tenor Saxophone
Sam Le Breton: Clarinet
Stan Irvine: Trumpet
Hannah Fogg: Trumpet
Mike Soper: Trumpet ~ solo
Andy Smith: Trombone
Chris Gardener: Trombone
Joe Edwards: Trombone
Dave Taylor: Bass Trombone
Phil Smith: Piano
Dan Scott: Electric Bass
Paul Derricott: Drums
Matt Gordon: Director

© M Gordon, 2011

El Torero

Solo piano • Sam Wood, piano (Recorded live at Blackheath Concert Halls, 7th June 2011)

• ves•ti•bule |ˈvɛstɪbjuːl| -- noun
1 an antechamber, room, hall, or lobby just inside the outer door of a building.
2 a chamber or channel communicating with or opening into another.
origin -- early 17th cent. (denoting the space in front of the main entrance of a Roman or Greek building): from French, or from Latin vestibulum ‘entrance court’.

Vestibule was commissioned by Thalia Myers as part of a collaborative project between TrinityLaban Conservatoire composition students and The City Lit centre, London. Myers asked for a single page composition for solo piano that would be suitable for adult learners of piano. The piece was given its first performance at St Lawrence Jewry, London in March 2011.

© M Gordon, 2011

Vestibule

Laura Jurd Quartet (*) • Laura Jurd, trumpet; Elliot Galvin, piano; Conor Chaplin, bass; Corrie Dick, drums (Recorded live at Blackheath Concert Halls, 7th June 2011)

This piece explores how limited materials can be used to form a larger composition. The players are presented with sparse material that can be reworked and used as a basis for improvisation. Players are only given a small amount of information on how the piece may be performed enabling them to interpret the music in their own individual manner.

(*) A Chaos Collective Ensemble

© M Gordon, 2011

Call Laura

Wind Quintet • David Albon, flute; Amy Whitaker, oboe; Henry Melbourne, clarinet; Ben Preece, french horn; Natalie Bernard, bassoon (Recorded live at Blackheath Concert Halls, 7th June 2011)

Aspen is written both as a personal response to Benjamin Britten’s famous speech 'On Winning the First Aspen Award' and as a reflection upon a short scene from the documentary-film about percussionist Evelyn Glennie, 'Touch the Sound'.
The scene in question* is footage of Glennie, seated and watching over a near silent, almost motionless stone garden in Japan, quietly observing a young man as he carefully rakes lines into the stones. Whilst this takes place, Glennie’s voiceover tells us that silence is “one of the loudest sounds” we may experience.

"The only brake that one can apply is that on one's own private and personal conscience; when that speaks clearly, one must halt; and it can speak for musical and non-musical reasons." ~ Benjamin Britten (from the speech 'On Winning the First Aspen Award')

© M Gordon, 2011

*http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqmx4wrXj88 -- Excerpt from 'Touch the Sound'.

Aspen

Chamber Orchestra (2.2.2.2 / 2.2.1.0 / 2 Perc / Harp / 10.8.6.4.2) • Trinity College of Music Student Composer's Orchestral Workshop, conducted by Gregory Rose (Recorded March 16th, 2012)

'Intimate Borders' was written as part of the Student Composers’ Orchestral Workshop class taught by Anglo-American composer Stephen Montague at TrinityLaban Conservatoire of Music & Dance. 'Intimate Borders' is this composer’s first work for large ensemble and was first performed by an ensemble of TrinityLaban musicians at a recording session conducted by Gregory Rose in March 2012.

This piece attempts to achieve a loose, undulating ‘floating’ quality, characteristic of some forms improvised music, using conventional Western notation.

The piece abandons the homophonic texture common to most orchestral music and instead focuses on creating and sustaining a more diffuse, polyphonic and contrapuntal texture wherein no single instrument is given hierarchical importance over any other.

The title 'Intimate Borders' is a rough translation from the Danish 'Intime Grænser', an enigmatic phrase that deals with emotional, psychological and pathological aspects of human interaction.

© M Gordon, 2012

Intimate Borders

TRIPTYCH, Pt. 3 • Will Scott, alto saxophone; Steve Mathers, tenor saxophone; Greg Sinclair, baritone saxophone; Jonny Murray/Mike Soper, trumpet; Adam Tyas, trombone; Ed Ashby, tuba; Elliot Galvin, piano; Louis Thomas, double bass; Lizy Exell, drums; Matt Gordon, director (Recorded live at Blackheath Concert Halls, 21st May 2012)

Soul Image is a term invented by the Swiss psychiatrist and founder of analytical psychology, Carl Gustav Jung (1875 – 1961). The phrase describes an element of the unconscious mind that is the archetypal image of the masculine and the feminine. Jung theorised that the anima (feminine) is the soul-image expressed in the male mind and, conversely, the animus (masculine) in the female mind.

The different sections of Soul Image seek to depict both the anima and animus through sound, though the exact correlation to the music, or lack thereof, is left to speculation on the part of the listener.

At certain points in the solo spaces for Piano and Trombone, the players are given shorts texts from Jung’s writings on the subject of the anima and animus as inspiration for their improvisations. They are thus able to reflect upon their own understanding of Jung’s concepts and translate them into sound.

© M Gordon, 2012

Soul Image (Triptych III)

TRIPTYCH, Pt. 2 • Will Scott, flute; Steve Mathers, tenor saxophone; Greg Sinclair, bass clarinet; Jonny Murray/Mike Soper, flugelhorn; Adam Tyas, trombone; Ed Ashby, tuba; Signe Lykke, voice; Elliot Galvin, piano; Louis Thomas, double bass; Lizy Exell, drums; Matt Gordon, director (Recorded live at Blackheath Concert Halls, 21st May 2012)

Yūgen is a concept taken from Japanese aesthetics that, whilst defying direct translation, can be loosely interpreted as ‘dark’, ‘grace’ ‘subtle’, ‘mysterious’ or ‘profound’. The concept is at the heart of traditional Japanese aesthetics and deals with the appreciation of art and beauty.

The enigmatic phrase (which serves as the subtitle of the piece) “…adapt the nothing therein to the purpose at hand…” is taken from the Tao Te Ching, a Chinese philosophical work from the 4th century BC written by Lao Tzu. A central text in the Chinese religion of Taoism, the Tao Te Ching deals with many fundamental Taoist ideas, particularly the notion of ‘nothing’.

Yūgen is an attempt to blend these two eastern concepts with the sound of western antiphony creating a rich, resonant cathedral-like texture and a feeling of spaciousness, leaving the listener with the experience of being immersed in the dark, graceful, subtle mysterious profoundness of 'nothing'.

© M Gordon, 2012

Yūgen (Triptych II)

TRIPTYCH, Pt. 1 • Will Scott, alto saxophone; Steve Mathers, tenor saxophone; Greg Sinclair, baritone saxophone; Jonny Murray/Mike Soper, trumpet; Adam Tyas, trombone; Ed Ashby, tuba; Louis Thomas, double bass; Lizy Exell, drums; Matt Gordon, director (Recorded live at Blackheath Concert Halls, 21st May 2012)

Ritual seeks to evoke the experience of the common human practice of sacred worship. Though no direct connection is intended with any of particular religion, allusions can be drawn with many spiritual communities around the world and speculations made about pre-historical practices.

The opening solo for Tenor Saxophone suggests the role of the spiritual elder, be it priest, rabbi, or shaman, whose call announces the beginning of a ceremony, not unlike the Islamic muezzin atop a minaret or the Jewish Ba’al T’qiah with his Shofar. The responses given to this solo by the other instruments are not unlike those found in both the European and African religious traditions.

The final section, lead by the Alto and Baritone Saxophone, is intended to be somewhat reminiscent of choral or congregational signing found in many religions. At this point in any sacred ritual, a ‘climax’ is reached wherein all present are collectively elevated to an alternate state of consciousness and heightened spiritual awareness that ultimately subsides but the memory of which is kept in the hearts and minds of the worshippers until the time of the next gathering.

© M Gordon, 2012