Pale Sakura (Naviarhaiku 378)

Forms - 1

Young Miss Saeki (Unga fröken Saeki)is the second movement of four in From the Bottom of a Well (Från botten av en brunn) based on Haruki Murakami's novel Kafka on the Shore. The the sounds were designed from, and the music was written from a grounded theory analysis of the book. The piece was performed and recorded on the 16th of December 2021 by Robert Ek, clarinet; Kevin Kirs Verstege, cello; and Rikard Vilhelm Lindell, eurorack at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm. Photography by Hannes Häfele.

Robert Ek's portfolio: www.remusik.se/
Hannes Häfele's portfolio: luminea.eu/

Video recording from the concert is available here: https://vimeo.com/716682374

Unga fröken Saeki / Young Miss Saeki

Mixed Signals

Trio AntiquaNova - Distat Terra Festival 2022

Bass Flute: Rosario Castillo
Bass Clarinet: Griselda Giannini 
Contrabass: Edgardo Vizioli

waning (2022)

According to ancient tradition, Sappho was the inventor of an instrument by the name of “pēktis”, or the first Greek poet to use this instrument which originated in Lydia, seems to have been a kind of lyre, and is mentioned in one of the fragments, although without any kind of description.
A large proportion of the surviving poetry of Sappho (c. 630-570 BCE) is preserved in the form of narrow papyrus fragments, resulting from the manuscript being torn into strips for binding mummies in Egypt. The text used in this composition is numbered in the extant works of Sappho as fragments 88a and 88b. Not enough of this poem is preserved for the reader to get an overall idea of its subject matter – not one line is complete, and not all lines contain even a single complete word - and what remains has the quality of disjunct glimpses into intimate secrets, perhaps as if intermittently overheard.
However, the metrical structure of the 28 lines (which may or may not be the complete poem) is known, so that the remaining words and syllables can be fitted into it with a certain degree of accuracy, and this composition is based around these 28 units, each consisting of 16 events (syllables) divided into short and long durations according to the metre, with the fragments of text occurring at their original metrical positions so far as I’ve been able to work these out. (One complicating factor is that in the metre of this poem, called “acephalus hipponactean with a double choriambic expansion”, the first syllable of a line may be short or long...) The durations of the lines are regular at the beginning and become more irregular as the music continues, and the distinctions within them between “short” and “long” durations undergo more complex evolutions, although both categories generally become longer in the course of each line. Against this framework ,of 28 lines each of 16 events, is placed a repeating series of 32 times 14 diatonic pitches (each diatonic pitch class twice) distributed through the entire range of the harp, whose actual identity at each iteration is “modulated” by gradual changes in pedal settings, which in turn cycle through all the available modes containing both a cluster of three semitones and a cluster of four semitones. Thus the harmonic colour of the music is always changing but at the same time remaining consistent in character. The 16 events in each line are assigned to a sequence of 16 sound-types (harmonic, glissando, chord, counterpoint and so on) although only 8 of the 16 events in each line follow this scheme, a different selection each time, the others being freely realised. The vocal pitches used for the text generally involve taking the harp pitch assigned to the event corresponding to a particular syllable, and transposing it into the range of the voice, taking into account the tonal character of ancient Greek. Silences between the lines grow very gradually shorter towards the centre of the piece and then expand rapidly
- Richard Barrett

Recorded at Zepter Museum, Belgrade, 15 August 2023.

Richard Barrett - pēktis

One of the best singers amongst the birds around here is the common blackbird - Turdus merula. It's song is melodic, gentle and for me - a key to memories of quiet spring days filled with peace and delight.
Technically it's challenging to record in the suburbs where i live due to the constant noise pollution and at the same time away from the city and further up on the mountain where there is less human noise this species is not present.

Common blackbird (Turdus merula) song - 23-05-24-001

Track included in the V.A compilation "Fifteenth Listen", released by PCL. Available on Bandcamp.

Bandcamp

Inklink

From the album The rise and Fall and Brittle Resurrection of Adam Kadmon.
This piece is divided into three movements. 1) The Human Copulation X-plosion; 2)Emergence from Sleep Mud; 3) Dried Dung of Collosal Olmec Heads

Jitters of Cervical Zenith

Movement 11 from my 2020 exhibition 'La morte mi troverà vivo' (death will find me alive). I dont know where to start or finish with the story of this piece - if you want the long version please go to bandcamp https://nomatesensemble.bandcamp.com/album/la-morte-mi-trover-vivo  there 3 essays on the exhibition in the notes and of course the whole work which is 90 minutes long. This piece for Intonarumori was the starting point for the show, written and recorded to be played at Luigi Russolo's grave as a form of 'calling ' to his spirit. La morte mi troverà vivo is a kind of sonic seance where i composed music as an evocation and used occult number theory to manipulate field recordings to capture what i term an 'imagined response from the spirit world'. The work was made in Italy July/August 2019 and exhibited in Hobart Tasmania in Jan/Feb 2020. I will post visual links and more info at a stage, though of course its a sound installation (i managed to get the whole room to softly rumble with speakers installed out of site in the walls and under the floor)so there isn't heaps to see. :) Thank you all, sorry to ramble !!

Piece For 3 Intonarumori (La morte mi troverà vivo  - mov. 11)

I am learning to play music just for the delight of it, also doing field recordings and growing plants.

Common blackbird (Turdus merula) song - 23-05-24-001

Petar Kostov

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