Wanderings is Ryan Williams' debut solo album

2. Sweet Phase

1. Snorlax

3. Toothpicks

5. Spiders

6. Steam Punk

7. Widow

8. Home

4. Kookas

Branle

Renaissance Recorder Demo Cmaj

Renaissance Recorder Demo C#maj

A natural driver for me in every project I participate in is to make sure that I'm involved in some type of creative output. Whether that's improvisation within existing music, composing my own tunes or collaborating to create something new. In the case of Dolce L'Ombre I wrote something for my colleagues, all amazing musicians who bring both old and new music to life. I love the sound of renaissance recorders playing together and thought they could offer a fantastic new sound world to an audience.

The content of Felt is divided into three distinct moods that form a whole; entitled Felt, Pick the Glitch and Room Full of Teeth. They're not really separate movements as the work is played straight through without breaks, however, the titles are integral for the performers to help them distinguish between the three main moods of the work.

Most of the musical content is derived from a few previously written, but never performed works for different instrumental ensemble combinations, including a mixed recorder ensemble. Each of the three main sections of the work are reactions to different musical stimuli including the album Felt by Nils Frahm, the band Punch Brothers' unique sound world and playing style and ensemble Room Full of Teeth's fantastic use of extended vocal techniques which produce an engaging blend of the familiar and extraordinary. Certain moments in the work also unintentionally recall the colourful woodwind playing on Sufjan Stevens' early albums, including 2003s Michigan and 2005s Illinoise. The major basis for all the musical material in Felt is hours of chord building (stacking single notes on top of each other) based from a jazz harmony foundation until I found harmonies I liked and then pieced them together like a jigsaw puzzle. After adding the rhythmic elements I've ended up with a style that is a little bit post-minimal, ambient and groove orientated whilst always trying to keep with the original Renaissance flavour that the instruments work so well within.

Felt (2018) - for renaissance recorder quartet - Ryan Williams

Ryan is a recorder artist.

Ryan’s passion for the recorder has lead him to create a path full of cross-artform collaboration, engaging performance and exciting improvisation.

Ryan’s aim in collaboration with any artform is to engage the audience as an active performer on stage.

Ryan Williams Recorder

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