Irish folk trio, Amble, join us on this episode of The Adamantium Podcast. We discuss their debut album, Reverie, and lead up single “Treehouse Wings.” We also talk about their coming together as individual songwriters, the influence of Irish culture on their music, their quickly growing success, selling out venues across Ireland, supporting Hozier on his upcoming stadium tour, and the inspiration behind the songs “Lonely Island” and “Swan Song.”

E232 Amble

Otis Murphy, alto saxophone
Walla Walla Symphony Orchestra
Julien Benichou, conductor
(Recording taken from the premiere performance, 4 Feburary 2025, Cordiner Hall, Walla Walla, WA.)

Concerto for Alto Saxophone and Orchestra
2022
I. Deliberate.
II. Pensive, but not too slow.
III. Very lively, but not too fast.

Program Note:

Commissioned by the Walla Walla Symphony Orchestra, with funding generously provided by Richard D. Simon, M.D., this Concerto for Alto Saxophone and Orchestra was completed on March 23, 2022, with the bulk of sketching and composing of the first movement done in 2021. The Concerto is dedicated to the WWSO and also to one of my favorite places, the beautiful city of Walla Walla, WA. Additional small revisions to the score were made in 2023 and 2024.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, when concerts were canceled worldwide and all of my musician friends and I were abruptly out of work, I composed a series of short, unaccompanied pieces, entitled “Lyric Études,” for any musician who requested one. The idea was to nurture the musical relationships that we were all missing while live musical performances were impossible. The fifth of these, composed in 2020, is for saxophone. In many of these pieces, I already heard a latent potential in them to be expanded somehow into larger-scale compositions. Dr. Simon was so taken with Lyric Étude No. 5, that he decided to find a way for this idea to be realized, for me to compose a concerto for the WWSO making use of the themes and motifs from the fifth étude. I am extraordinarily grateful to him for his enthusiasm for my music, and for making this project happen!

In most concertos, the soloist is treated more or less as the protagonist of an imaginary narrative or conflict, and this concerto is no exception. While I often encourage the listener to imagine for themselves, if they wish, their own images or stories to accompany my music while they listen, it does seem worth sharing the dramatic concept I had in mind for this concerto from the earliest sketches. The first movement represents the soloist/protagonist in peril: a risky situation, freely accepted and undertaken. The soloist reveals great confidence and ability, but as the course of the movement proceeds the risk only increases, and the movement ends with a feeling of unresolved anxiety. The second movement represents the turning point of action; the soloist must look inward to find resolution. There is an epiphany, and the movement ends in an atmosphere of richly-earned calm. The third movement, then, might be described as none other than “time to party!” The difficulties overcome are not forgotten, but the music I hope conveys a sense of fun and ultimate acceptance.

Concerto for Alto Saxophone and Orchestra - III. Very lively, but not too fast.

Concerto for Alto Saxophone and Orchestra - I. Deliberate.

Concerto for Alto Saxophone and Orchestra - II. Pensive, but not too slow.

Die Atmung – ein universales Prinzip des Lebens – verbindet uns Säugetiere über alle Unterschiede hinweg. In Ausatmung wird dieser fundamentale Vorgang nicht nur als biologisches Phänomen, sondern auch in seiner metaphorischen Tiefe erforscht.

Das Werk setzt sich aus verschiedenen kompositorischen „Zellen“ zusammen, die sich an physiologischen Strukturen orientieren. So etwa die „Alveolen-Zelle“, benannt nach den feinen, bläschenartigen Strukturen in der Lunge, in denen der Gasaustausch stattfindet. Auch der Luftstrom selbst, mit seinen natürlichen und künstlich erzeugten Obertönen, prägt den Klangverlauf maßgeblich.

Die kompositorische Idee bewegt sich zwischen organischem Atem und technologischem Mechanismus. Der Übergang vom natürlichen zum artifiziellen Atemprozess spiegelt dabei eine posthumanistische Perspektive wider, in der die Grenzen zwischen Mensch und Maschine zunehmend durchlässig werden. UA 27.05.2025 ensemble für neue musik hannover

Ausatmung (UA 2025) prolatio ensemble für neue musik hannover

DKDM/RDAM students & alumni performing Swarm #2 (v2024)
Date: 31st October 2024
Venue: Hans Tausens Kirke (Cph, DK)
Sound engineering: Aske Vang Rasmussen

Swarm #2 (2024)

INCENSE (2007)
FOR SOLO VOICE 
to my son Louis Arturo Aguirre
Lyrics: BASHO
I- CAGED
II- AMONG FLOWERS
III- BUTTERFLY
Live recording of the premiere, in a portrait concert with my music.
at the "Bådteatret" (Nyhavn), Copenhagen.
voice/percussion: Malene Bichel.

INCENSE (2007)

The art of persuasion has always fascinated me, especially the skill and originality of street vendors, who with extravagant gestures and speeches try to convince you to buy their products or services. In Italy, several figures have become iconic for their bizarreness and madness, so much so that they have become myths of popular folklore. By now, many of these figures have almost disappeared in our hyper-technological/globalized world, but they still evoke lively and playful childhood memories. Characters such as l’arrotino (the knife grinder), il coccobello (the coconut seller on the beach) or the histrionic door-to-door greengrocer were able to transform an economic transaction into a real theatrical performance, and it is precisely to these three icons that I wanted to pay homage in Oikonomia (from the Greek , “economy”). 
The knife grinder passed through the streets with his van, broadcasting a tape from the loudspeakers that has now become a cult object. After introducing himself eloquently (“Donne! È arrivato l'arrotino”/“Ladies! The knife grinder has come!”), he offered a bizarre combination of services: knife sharpening, umbrella and gas stove repair.
The greengrocers who stop at street corners prefer instead a live “performance”, improvising to the speakers a flurry of lists of vegetables, numbers, polite phrases, shouts and much more that to my ears sounded like a brilliant musical comedy. The greengrocer's text comes from a recording I recently made in Monopoli, a small town in Puglia (Apulia).
Finally the coconut seller, a character worthy of the commedia dell'arte, an entertainer on Italian beaches. A storyteller, poet, modern minstrel, he performed with playful rhyming phrases to convince you of the sensational qualities of coconuts (aphrodisiacs, fertility, etc.), sometimes displaying a scurrilous and bawdy language enriched by sexual allusions. In the piece I have collected some of the most popular ones.
This lively carousel led me to give a caricatural-parodic character to the composition, but the idea of the piece comes from a deeper critical thought which is revealed in the finale: the reflection about the dehumanization of the economy in today's society. When it comes to goods and services transactions, most of the richness, the complexity and even poetry that once characterized exchange relationships seem to be all but lost in a world predominantly oriented towards web marketing. At the end of the piece, after an open improvisation that retraces and merges the previous three parts, all the lively and picturesque vibes spread by the three characters faded into a dystopic ritualistic atmosphere. Here a sort of profane Communion starts, accompanied by the solo vibraphone like a church organ: the singer is now a delivery person, a courier, a sort of celebrant, delivering hastily parcels to the musicians; they get the object, one by one, only a dry exchange of customary words. The last disciple is the percussionist, who has to stop playing. He takes the parcel, says “amen”, and leaves.


Oikonomia for soprano, violin, double bass, piano and percussion (2024)

The composition is inspired by the work of Sappho of Lesbos, a poetess of ancient Greece, and in particular by her most fragmentary poems. The charm of the incomplete allows us to navigate with our imagination, to imagine meanings and connections that the surviving verses can in some cases subtly suggest, but which often remain shrouded in enigma. The idea of “completing” some of these fragments is the basis of the composition and influences its structure. In fact, the five short pieces that build this work fill, so to speak, the gaps in the lost verses, which are integrated by the performer with the recitation or intonation of the surviving ones, suggesting the enigma that the music has begun to reveal. The pieces range between the different nuances that eros embodies in the Sapphic work, from the most delicate to the most Dionysian. The entire work is unitary and cyclical, as the last piece of the collection integrates, corrodes and distorts some musical fragments and episodes of the previous pieces, permeating them with the feeling of transience and nostalgia that appears in the last verse of Sappho.

Performer: Pietro Elia Barcelona

Erotika (Sappho-Fragmente) for double bass (2024)

Live at Ircam Manifest ( RIM : Konstantinos Baras) - WAM of Pasquale Corrado for Trumpet and Electronics

Wam - Pasquale Corrado

secondo movimento del "Secondo Concerto" per orchestra d'archi (Casa Sonzogno-2025)

Variazioni Lassus

Il mito della caverna 04-06-2025

Program Note:

OSCILLATIONS, for large ensemble and electronics, plays with color and collage, juxtaposing different textures and materials on a constantly shifting sonic canvas. As the title suggests, this piece explores fluctuations between states, expanding the concept of a waveform - a core electronic sound source for the piece - into a greater formal and temporal argument. Defined as periodic movement between two points, waveforms are the building blocks of sound synthesis. In essence, sound synthesis could be described as series of interconnected oscillations, where complex sounds are produced from the combination and modulation of simple sounds. This core concept was my guiding influence throughout the composition of this piece, where fluctuations in parameters like texture and tempo are simultaneous with those in the electronics, creating another kind of sound synthesis between acoustic and electronic components in the piece. 

OSCILLATIONS feature a range of electronic sounds, from sine tone clusters and frequency modulation, to prerecorded processed sounds that act as a halo around the acoustic ensemble. The piece also embeds electronic sound sources within the ensemble, such as the ground hums produced via bass amps in the percussion set ups, and the use of electronic mechanisms like Ebows and electric fans in the harp and piano parts, furthering the shapeshifting role of the electronics.  On a macro scale, this piece oscillates between different textures, tempos, and colors, with varied electronics functioning as a glue, or collaging agent between parts. The instrumentalists weave their parts together to form composite lines, creating a jagged and episodic counterpoint that is frequently interrupted. Taken together, this combination of contrapuntal line, polyphonic noise, and ticking rhythmic vignettes, weave a vivid and varied tapestry, full of fluctuations.

This piece was commissioned by the Grossman Ensemble for premier on March 7th, 2025 under Conductor David Fulmer at the University of Chicago.

OSCILLATIONS for large ensemble, modular synthesizer, and electronics

"...Elle n'est qu'un paquet d'eau sonore" (2020) for flûte, clarinet, violin, cello, piano and percussions. 
Commissioned by Ensemble Hopper. 
Premiere : La tricoterie, Bruxelles (2021)
Recorded on Soond Label by Ensemble Hopper : François Deppe (dir), albane Tamagna (fl), Rudy Mathey (cl), Roxane Leuridan (vl), Ian-Elfinn Rosiu (cello), Sara Picavet (pn), Rémi Lafosse (pc).
https://open.spotify.com/intl-fr/track/4E4R9YrvYOwVFbLzXxOHTk?si=47513821a1f24146

...Elle n'est qu'un paquet d'eau sonore

Enjoy this charming Piano Piece of the italian composer Luciano Berio, played by me! ❤️🎵

For donations: www.paypal.com/paypalme/carlocozzula

Berio L. - Wasserklavier [1965] (piano)

Kisamilé est une pièce introspective, dont les sonorités du piano utilisé comme objet sonores permettent un voyage au sein de texture, paysages et couleurs particulières.

Juin 2024, avec l'accompagnement de Stéphane BORREL.

Kisamilé - pour piano préparé

Shir Eres for Ensemble - Eli Korman

Israeli Contemporary Players Ensemble
Conductor - Ilan Volkov 

Recording & mix - David Louria 

Live recording, Hichal HaTarbut Tel Aviv, 10/5/25

About the piece:

Shir Eres (Lullaby).

White Noise.

During the process of creating this piece, white noise took on a new meaning in my life. Once a symbol of something superhuman and electronic — like a blank television screen or a radio searching for a signal — it became a lullaby: human, warm, and familiar, which my eldest daughter falls asleep to it almost every night.

The electronic white noise, streaming from my phone's speaker during bedtime, muffles the sounds of the outside world and helps her drift off to sleep. It gives her a sense of calm and safety. to her, it is the sound she heard while developing in the womb — wrapped in layers of warmth and protection — primal, ancient, human sounds.

I’ve noticed that instinctively, while trying to lull her to sleep, I produce white noise myself — a soft, gentle “shhh”. I'm not sure who it soothes more — her or me — a quiet testament to the human and ancient essence of white noise.
In my piece Shir Eres (Lullaby in Hebrew) I explore the ways in which white noise can exist: in its warm, womb-like form — soothing, protective, sleep-inducing — and in other forms, ones that seep into the world of dreams and take on different faces each time.

Shir Eres (lullaby) for ensemble

"La lumière sale du matin" (2022) for large ensemble. 
Commissioned by Musiques Nouvelles. 
Premiere: Flagey, studio 4 - 2022
record : Jarek Frankowski
video : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3oor4IQz64

image credit : Yves Moret

"La lumière sale du matin"

composer, performer and sound artist based in Chicago, IL.

Trumpet player, electroacoustique experimental music
https://www.instagram.com/swanntxr?igsh=MW5kcHV5ZWZibWR0aQ%3D%3D&utm_source=qr

Daniele Di Virgilio is an Italian Berlin-based composer and perpetual researcher. Conceiving composition as a multi-disciplinary and social-oriented expression, his music is inspired by a theatrical imagination and by the interest in psychoanalysis.

Co-fondatore del movimento “neoromantico”, è stato allievo di A. Paccagnini, F.Testi e N. Castiglioni.
Esordio alla Biennale di Venezia del 1981 con grande successo.
Ha scritto molta musica sinfonica e da camera, quattro opere e molti balletti.
Ha orchestrato il Carnaval di Schumann e L’albero di Natale di Liszt.
Ha lavorato con artisti di fama internazionale, la sua musica è incisa, commissionata, eseguita in molte parti del mondo.
Insegna composizione e orchestrazione e ha collaborato con il Giornale della Musica.
Edito da Casa Ricordi, Casa Sonzogno, Edizioni Sconfinarte.

https://louisaguirre.cargo.site/
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpHP3DQe90w6q6uD_kY-UAw/featured?view_as=subscriber
Louis Aguirre (f. 1968) Cubansk komponist bosiddende i Danmark. Aguirre er uddannet som komponist i Cuba, Amsterdam, men fortsatte studierne efter han flyttede til Danmark i 2004, og afsluttede solistklassen i komposition ved Det jyske Musikkonservatorium i 2007. Aguirre er en stærk og original stemme i dansk musikliv. Hans værkliste, med mere end 200 værker, inkluderer: opera, orkester- og kammermusik, soloværker, vokalmusik, koral-, elektronisk- og didaktisk musik. Han er en aktiv del af musiklivet i Danmark og Nordjylland, bl.a. ved sit arbejde som medlem af komponistgruppen Snow Mask og som kunstnerisk leder af Snow Mask Ensemblet. En række af hans værker er inspirerede af den cubanske Santeria religion og de religiøse tekster fra området.

Radio Raheem is an independent online radio station streaming 24/7 music and visuals from Milan with a cosmic perspective.
The radio, located inside Triennale Design Museum.
The platform aims to support and elevate a genuine and diverse local scene while keeping an eye to the moon and the galaxies far away.

From one artist to another. The Adamantium is a Toronto-based interview show hosted by Adam R. Harrison featuring musicians, celebrities & local personalities in casual conversations about art, culture & entertainment.

https://www.elikorman.com/

Eli Korman is an Israeli composer and saxophone player, based in Kibbutz Netiv HaLamed Hey, Israel.

 

He completed his degrees in composition at the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance and the Musik Akademie Basel FHNW, studying under Professors Ari Ben Shabetai, Yinam Leef, Caspar Johannes Walter and Yair Klartag.


Eli participated in several master courses for composition such as CEME master course of Meitar Ensemble, the International Young Composers Academy in Ticino, the Workshop for Young Composers of Divertimento Ensemble, the Bludenzer Tage zeitgemäßer Musik and the Uuden Musiikin Lokakuu 2023 festival in Finland with professors such as Franck Bedrossian, Phillippe Leoux, Helmut Lachenman, Mauro Lanza, Samir Odeh-Tamimi, Unsuk Chin, Du Yun, Oscar Bianchi, Eva Reiter, Clara Iannotta, Mark Andre, Lucia Ronchetti,  Nadir Vassena and Carola Bauckholt.


Eli received the Jerusalem Institute of Contemporary Music scholarship (Siday Fellowship for Musical Creativity), the scholarship for musicians in Switzerland from the Stiftung Melinda Esterházy de Galantha, excellence scholarship from the ''America-Israel Cultural Foundation'', as well as an excellence scholarship from the Jerusalem Academy for Music and Dance.


Eli won the Eduard Brunner Kompositionpreis 2023 from the Musik Akademie Basel, the second prize in the Abraham and felicia Klon competition for young composers in Israel (2023), the second prize in the ''Israel Composers' League'' competition for young composers (2018), the Call for piano works by RMN (2020) the Call for Scores of Blank Ensemble (2021) and a Diploma for nonstandard thinking and originality of idea from the 3rd National Composer Competition from the Kazakh National University for Arts (2021).


His pieces are performed by Les Percussions de Strasbourg, Divertimento Ensemble, Quartetto Maurice, Meitar ensemble, Hai Kvartetti, Duo Alto, Tedarim ensemble and various players in Israel, Hungary, the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, Chile, North Macedonia, South Korea, Italy, Austria and Finland.

Carlo Cozzula was born  in Sassari in 1971.
In 1994 he obtained the Experimental Magistral Diploma with the highest grade; in 1996 - under the leading of Hedda Vignanelli Illy – he graduated, with the highest marks, in Organ at the Conservatory of his city and next year, he graduated in Harpsichord at the Conservatory "B. Marcello" of Venice. 
He has studied Choral Music and Choir Conducting and also studied piano at the concert levels since 1985.
He performed on all the instruments as a soloist in chamber ensemble also with vocal soloists, accompanying several polyphonic complexes, among which the "Cantori della Resurrezione" by A. Sanna, with whom, in 2000, he collaborated for a recording of music by G. B. Platti (Bongiovanni Records), and with whom he performed in a concert in July 2003 in the Basilica of the SS. Rosary of Lourdes (France).
He was the main organist at the Monumental Church of S. Maria di Betlem (Sassari) and at the Basilica of S. Gavino (Porto Torres). 
As an organist, in October 1997 he was invited for a tournée in Germany, performing in prestigious places, including Limburg, Wiesbaden, Lorch, Frankfurt, as soloist and chamber musician, in concert seasons including well-known soloists such as W. Stockmeier, R. Haas, M. Pirenne, U. Krupp, W. Rockel, J. Von Erdmann.
He was invited again for the October of 2003 to give a concert at the “Orgelsommer 2003” in St. Josef Church (Frankfurt), achieving great success, playing in a schedule with some of the most famous and acclaimed organists on the world scene, such as J. Parker-Smith, Th. Trotter, H. Vogel, P. Pincemaille, D. Zaretsky, P. Pietiläinen.
In 2007 he was called a part of the Jury of the 1st Art Competition "Il Filo di Arianna", at the Baja Hotel in Cannigione (Sardinia). 
He taught Music Theory and has been pianist accompanist of lyric singing classes at the Civic School of Nuoro, taught in State Schools.
Recently he has edited the Italian translation - in World Premiere - of the essay of 1846 written by the French F. Levacher D'Urclé: "Manual didactic problems in relation to the study of the anatomy of the hand" and also the thesis by M. Punt "The Straube Code-Deciphering the metronome marks in Max Reger's Organ Works".
As a composer, he is the author of music - original and not - dedicates to the international singer Teresa Salgueiro. He is also the author of a series of Concert Transcriptions for organ - even in World Premiere - from the piano and symphonic repertoire, and for pf. from the original organ repertoire, but also from accurate choices concerning the world of jazz, fusion, Brazilian music, French chansons and Soundtracks.
One of the piano transcriptions has already been recently included in a piano recital. These compositions are already available to the international artists such as: Philippe Raskin, Mariangela Vacatello, Irene Veneziano, Simone Pedroni, Igor Roma, Gloria Campaner, Antonio Pompa-Baldi, Alexei Volodin, Roberto Plano, Maurizio Baglini, Andrew Litton, Sandro Russo, Nicholas McCarthy, Ramin Bahrami, Thomas Ospital, Stephen Tharp, Thierry Mechler, Joseph Nolan, Danilo Rea, Enrico Pieranunzi, Carisa Marcelino and Clare Hammond.

Ryan M. Hare, composer and bassoonist, was born in Reno, Nevada in 1970, and now lives in Pullman, Washington. He earned tenure and the rank of full Professor at Washington State University, where he taught composition, bassoon, and music theory from 2003 until 2020, when he decided to take a voluntary early retirement in order to focus his attention on composing.

Ryan’s music has been performed at a large variety of venues and festivals, in as diverse locations as Tokyo, Japan, and Darmstadt, Germany, as well as Southeast Asia and China. Commissioners include Fred Korman, longtime former principal oboist of the Oregon Symphony, and the Washington Music Teachers Association, who awarded Ryan "Washington State Composer of the Year" in 2012. Further commissions have come from the Walla Walla Symphony, Mid-Columbia Symphony, Washington Idaho Symphony, Common Tone Arts, Affinity Chamber Players, the University of Idaho Vandaleers Concert Choir, and the Lake Forest College Orchestra, among others. His music has been championed by numerous other well-known performers and ensembles around the world, with notable recognition from New Music USA, Artist Trust, and the American Prize. In addition, a number of Ryan's compositions are published by TrevCo Music Publishing and ALEA Publishing.

Much of the subject matter of Ryan Hare's music is drawn from nature; recurrent themes include the deep mysteries of the cosmos and the extraordinary beauty of the state of Washington—as originating from a gloriously violent and volcanic past. He finds delight in the outdoors, physics, and astronomy, both in pursuit of hobbies such as hiking, photography, and bicycling, and also as a source of musical inspiration. He has often found creative respite in bicycling all over the beautiful region of southeast Washington known as the Palouse. 

Inspired by the multiplicity of styles found in art music of the twenty-first century, Ryan sees no essential contradiction between serialism, the avant-garde, minimalism, and the vernacular, but rather embraces the rich potential for all of it to be synthesized into something beautiful, compelling, and unexpected.

With numerous guest artist appearances at multiple venues around the U.S., including many at International Double Reed Society annual conferences, Ryan M. Hare seeks to combine composition and bassoon whenever possible. He believes in the promotion of the music of today for its own sake but also as a necessary component of maintaining and refreshing the interpretation of music of the past. 

Ryan is a founding member of the Artemisia Winds chamber ensemble, and also serves as principal bassoonist of the Yakima Symphony Orchestra, McCall SummerFest orchestra, Siletz Bay Music Festival orchestra, co-principal bassoonist and contrabassoonist of the Walla Walla Symphony, contrabassoonist of the Mid-Columbia Symphony, and has performed in a variety of the leading professional ensembles all over the Pacific Northwest. He has been featured as a concerto soloist with the Yakima Symphony, Washington Idaho Symphony, and WSU Symphony Orchestra.

Before earning the degree Doctor of Musical Arts in Composition in 2000 at the University of Washington, Ryan M. Hare  earned a Master of Music degree in Composition at Ithaca College, and a Bachelor of Arts degree with an emphasis in composition at Oregon State University. Ryan's principal teachers in composition include Joël-François Durand, Diane Thome, Richard Karpen, Greg Woodward, and Ron Jeffers. Additional composition studies were also undertaken with Shulamit Ran and Jacob Druckman, both visiting professors at Ithaca College, and Brian Ferneyhough and Paul-Heinz Dittrich at the 1996 Ferienkurse für neue Musik, Darmstadt, Germany. His primary bassoon teachers include Arthur Grossman, Lee Goodhew, and Mike Curtis, with additional studies in audition preparation with Seth Krimsky.

New tracks tagged #contemporary music