Players: Nikolai Galen (voice), Serkan Şener (kaval) and Jeremy Woodruff (kaval).
The third of three improvisations recorded at Serkan's office at the İTU Conservatory, Istanbul, on 26.5.23. Someone was playing piano in a nearby room. The recording was made on a digital stereo recorder. Jeremy's kaval is more in the left channel, and Serkan's more in the right. I've lightly mixed the 2 track master. No edits.
I took the photo outside Istanbul on 27.5.23.

26.5.23 - 3rd Improvisation

Performed by Ensemble X:

Ellen Jewett - Violin
Elizabeth Simkin - Violoncello
Xak Bjerken - Piano

Turkish Premiere - August 2018, Cappadocia.

Art: Max Ernst

Leaked Tape from the Sacred Mysteries (2018) for piano trio

Stockholm Saxophone Quartet:
Mathias Björnstad
Jörgen Pettersson
Anna Magnusson
Linn Persson

Livestream: Johan E.Andersson
The concert was presnted by Estonian Music Days 2020

As I studied the recordings of various wolf howls I quickly learned that sensing each other’s presence through songs or voices, and the power or intimacy such a common experience creates is familiar both to people and the loneliest wolf cub. I viewed the spectral track of two different wolf packs and found fascinating musical references in the howling ensembles of the pack members. For example, in one of my recordings, the alpha established a specific pitch, the next wolf joined by sliding downwards, the third by sliding upwards and together they reached a pulsating unison that resounded throughout the woods. This pitch was also picked up on the other side of the forest and so they kept answering each other in this multi-choral manner for three minutes. While the pulsating unison might amplify the sound and give the impression that the number of wolves is greater, without the purpose of claiming territory the wolves’ bodies release happiness hormones and strengthen the ties within the pack.
In these 3 pieces similarly to wolves, the saxophones interact with each other in a temporally flexible manner, choosing and synchronising entrances and listening to the delicate microtonal shades of the unison.

Us... and Them... (2020) for saxophone quartet and wolves

Nikolai Galen is a performer and writer living in Istanbul

26.5.23 - 3rd Improvisation

Nikolai Galen

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