as featured on: 

Radio Eclectus #29: Radical new music (Jan. 30, 2020)

Radical new music from around the world. Improv from Chi & NYC, dark ambient from Zürich, fixed media from Seattle, postminimalist from Texas, Asian-American chamber music, Michael Gordon’s cello fuzz (via Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood), Hans Abrahamsen’s piano concerto, & astringent discourses from Europe, Uruguay & the US. Plus celebrate the 60th BD of George Benjamin, the 75th of Noah Creshevsky, and the 80th of video pioneer (& violinist) Steina Vasulka.

Photos: St Celfer by Marcus Leoni, Michael Gordon by Peter Serling, Dave Phillips by Mei Zhiyong, Jennifer Jolley by Elizabeth Glenn, Ben LaMar Gay by Oliver Abels, Chen Yi by Kuandi Photos, Noah Creshevsky via the artist, Naked City (Horvitz, Zorn, Baron, Frisell, Frith) via Wikipedia, Osvaldo Colluccino via the artist, Chinary Ung via UCSD, Tyshawn Sorey by Steven Pisano, Steina Vasulka via the artist. Also featured: Jennifer Curtis, S. Eric Scribner, James Ilgenfritz, Coriún Aharonián, Roberto Fabbriciani, Alexandre Tharaud.

Bandcamp

Suite #2: Divertimento

as featured on: 

Radio Eclectus #35: Seattle Flu (Mar. 12, 2020)

Coronavirus has clobbered Seattle’s new music scene, but it can’t touch Mixcloud, so our first hour is devoted to radical music from the Pacific Northwest. Join us, and help sustain our community while we hunker down!

Plus new tracks by David Rakowski & Philippe Hurel, and a look back 50 years at a Miles Davis/Teo Macero classic and a Penderecki curiosity that has just been recorded for only the second time since 1971. We also say goodbye to McCoy Tyner and happy 80th BD to Jon Gibson. Featured artists include Wayne Horvitz, Blake DeGraw, St Celfer, Melia Watras, Spontanea, Steve Layton, Jennifer Jolley, George Harvey, Noisepoetnobody, Jarrad Powell and Raica.

Photos: Layton via the artist, Penderecki by A.Kumiszcza, Raica by C.Corsano-Leopizzi, St Celfer by M.Leoni, Davis by T.Palumbo, Rakowski via Edition Peters, Watras by M.Smith-Lewis, Horvitz by M.Schell, Noisepoetnobody & Harvey via the artists, Jolley by E.Glenn, Tyner by B.McMillen, Powell via the artist, Hurel by J.Radel.

Suite #5: Prelude

as featured on:

Radio Eclectus #74: Haroun & the Sea of Grunge (Dec. 10, 2020)

Annotated playlist for show #74⠀
Intro and SET 1: Avant-grunge from the Northwest and beyond⠀
1. [2:30] Hound Dog Taylor's Hand: Riot Cake. From HDTH AND, part 1 (Bandcamp, 2020) with Rob Millis (guitar), Christopher Burns (electronics), HDTH: Jeffery Taylor (guitar), Greg Kelley (trumpet), John Seman (contrabass), Mark Ostrowski (drums)⠀
2. [11:30] Langham Research Centre: Quanta/Signal/Noise - Version 3. From Quanta/Signal/Noise (Bandcamp, 2020) with Robert Worby. NOTE: Langham Research Centre is scheduled to release an iOS app based on this piece. Search in the App Store for “Langham Research Centre variPlay: Quanta/Signal/Noise” beginning December 15, 2020⠀
3. [16:04] St Celfer: Suite #6 - Etude. From Suites #1–9 (Bandcamp, 2020) with St Celfer AKA John Parker. NOTE: A YouTube version of a piece from these Suites is scheduled to be streamed on YouTube on Saturday, December 12, 2020. See http://stcelfer.blogspot.com/ for info⠀
4. [18:24] St Celfer: Suite #3 - Dirge 1. From Suites #1–9 (Bandcamp, 2020) with St Celfer AKA John Parker⠀
⠀
Voice break with Charles Dodge: Earth's Magnetic Field. SET 2: Noah Creshevsky (1945–2020) [24:12]⠀
1. [29:30] St Celfer: Suite #7 - Serenade No Cry. From Suites #1–9 (Bandcamp, 2020) with St Celfer AKA John Parker
2. [33:03] Entropic Advance: Gathering in the streets. From Nonviolent Protests (Symbolic Insight, 2020) with bios+a+ic AKA Wesley Davis (effects processed/looped manipulated trumpet, samples, vocals), NoisePoetNobody AKA Casey Chittenden Jones (rhythmic programming, effects processed percussion/string textures)⠀
3. [42:41] Steve Roden: Do something boring, are there sections Consider transitions. From Stratégies Obliques Ø (Ferns, 2020) with Steve Roden (synthesizer, instruments and objects, voice), Steve Peters (recording, editing, processing, assembling, mixing). NOTE: See Steve Peter's article on this project at https://www.spsoundart.com/blog/2020/11/20/steve-roden-small-cruel-party-split-lp⠀
4. [45:50] Body Meπa: Bullitt. From The Work Is Slow (Bandcamp, 2020) with Greg Fox (drums), Sasha Frere-Jones (right guitar), Melvin Gibbs (bass), Grey McMurray (left guitar)⠀
5. [53:20] Noah Creshevsky: Sleeping Awake. From Sleeping Awake (Open Space, 2019) with Dorota Czerner (voice, poet). NOTE: Realized 2017

Voice break with Harold Budd: Sandtreader [58:01]⠀
1. [1:02:52] Harold Budd: Preludes for Solo Piano (excerpt). From From The Kitchen Archives No. 5: Pianos in The Kitchen (Orange Mountain Music, 2011). NOTE: Recorded live March 14, 1980 at The Kitchen, New York⠀

SET 3: Pagh-Paan at 75 [1:04:16]⠀
1. [1:05:00] Younghi Pagh-Paan: Ta Ryong III - Tsi-Shin. From Silken Thread - Chamber Music (Wergo, 2020) with Michael Pattmann, Norbert Kramer (percussion). NOTE: Composed 1991. At https://youtu.be/uxeXx3-3QIo you can find a snippet of two Taiwanese percussionists performing this work wearing ritual masks⠀
2. [1:16:53] Charles Hamm: Round. From Kenneth Gaburo Conducts New Music Choral Ensemble (Neuma, 2020) with New Music Choral Ensemble I, Kenneth Gaburo (director). NOTE: Composed and recorded 1967⠀
3. [1:21:59] Marco Stroppa: Birichino, come un furetto. From Miniature Estrose, Primo Libro (Kairos, 2020) with Erik Bertsch (piano). NOTE: Composed 1991– 2003, revised 2009⠀
4. [1:25:33] Harold Shapero: Partita in C for piano and small orchestra (excerpts). From Orchestral Works (BMOP/sound, 2020) with Vivian Choi (piano), Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Gil Rose (conductor), Joel Gordon (engineering). NOTE: Composed 1960⠀



Suite #6: Etude

as featured on:

Radio Eclectus #74: Haroun & the Sea of Grunge (Dec. 10, 2020)

Join us as we clear out some Seattle avant-grunge, with buzzing new tracks by several Northwest musicians. We also bid farewell to Noah Creshevsky and Harold Budd, and honor the late Charles Wuorinen with highlights from a recording of his opera Haroun and the Sea of Stories, a surprisingly jocular setting of Salman Rushdie’s novel by this notoriously serious-minded composer.

There’s more: the debut recording of Body Meπa (a new power quartet featuring Melvin Gibbs), the latest albums from British live-electronic band Langham Research Centre and “lowercase music” inventor Steve Roden, a new project from Marina Rosenfeld that’s a hybrid of composed music and sound installation, Wergo’s new CD dedicated to Younghi Pagh-Paan’s cross-cultural music on her 75th birthday, and a remarkable and prophetic early example of English minimalism that’s just been rescued from 47 years of oblivion. Radical new music from the Northwest and beyond, guaranteed carol-free for the Holidays!

Photo credits: Harold Shapero via Brandeis University, Noah Creshevsky by Michael Hafftka via Open Space, Younghi Pagh-Paan via Ricordi, Langham Research Centre via the artists, Charles Wuorinen By Javier Del Real, Dorota Czerner via the artist, Salman Rushdie by Kubik, Melvin Gibbs by Michael Hoefner, Harold Budd by Masao Nakagami, Thomas Simaku via University of York, Yarn/Wire via the artists, installation by St Celfer, Marco Stroppa via the artist.

Suite #3: Dirge 1

as featured on: 

Radio Eclectus #74: Haroun & the Sea of Grunge (Dec. 10, 2020)

see it here: https://youtu.be/JbF0LVLRF6s

Tom Moody (https://www.tommoody.us/) says:

“Serenade has a pretty, soprano sax or oboe-like run of notes that repeats. I like having some kind of melody or rhythm to anchor the "noise" elements (as I guess you know). The meat of the piece is the variety and ingenuity of these glitched-out elements but the melody acts as a pleasant bed for this activity....

That plaintive, recurring “soprano sax” riff in “Serenade No Cry” consists of a note, a triplet, the triplet inverted, and a higher note. (A conservatory musician might care which notes of the scale they are.) If you were a soundtrack composer this would be audio gold. I could imagine a nature documentary of a cheetah running across the veldt, along the top of a ridge, in silhouette, in slow-mo. The music says "he is the last of his kind, he is a beautiful animal, we are sad."

But in your tune it's just one element (a cog) interacting with other cogs, some of which also have melodic content, but not as foregrounded. Different timbres, different moods, possibly time signatures -- at times it reminds me of Charles Ives with several ensembles playing simultaneously, and motifs fading in and out of our attention. But the "sax" glues it together, gives it direction, keeps my ear engaged.

Edward Tufte, the design guru, talks about the use of "confection" in a design, some sweet formal hook that helps to bring boring data alive in a chart or graph. Like a pretty color, or symmetry, or something nice about the line quality. For me the sax is the confection."

From the conversation between Tom Moody and St Celfer:
https://www.tommoody.us/archives/2020/12/04/on-breaking-the-square-a-conversation-between-john-parker-and-tom-moody/


Suite #7: Serenade No Cry

as featured on:

Wednesday 5 - 7pm (EDT) | On WFMU's Give the Drummer Radio
Ridgewood Radio with David Weinstein: Playlist from December 7, 2022: Energy Bars
Rejuvenating concoctions from Sarah Pagé, Peter Evans, St Celfer, Ches Smith, Komodo Kolektif, and more...

Stereo mix of an experiment presenting 16 tracks on 16 speakers pointed in different directions. The artist lives between São Paulo and Seattle.

Suite #5: Finale

as featured on:

Wednesday 5 - 7pm (EDT) | On WFMU's Give the Drummer Radio
Ridgewood Radio with David Weinstein: Playlist from August 2, 2023: Dark Matter
Tracks playing in the multiverse, from Vasco Trilla & Ra Kalam Bob Moses,
Jeremiah Cymerman & Charlie Looker, Felicia Sjögren,
Bass Bridge Quartet, St. Celfer, and more...

Stereo mix from a Suite experimenting with 16 tracks on 16 speakers pointed in different directions. St Celfer is of Korean and American origin and floats between São Paulo, NYC, Seattle, DC, and the Bay Area.  

Suite #1: Fantasia

as featured on:

Wednesday 5 - 7pm (EDT) | On WFMU's Give the Drummer Radio
Ridgewood Radio with David Weinstein: Playlist from March 20, 2024: Controlled Re-entry

Mostly gentle ritualistic pieces, from Susan Alcorn, Taylor Deupree/Joseph Branciforte,
Elliott Sharp, Jeremiah Cymerman, St Celfer, and more...

Suite #9: Outro - A Land of the Future

St Celfer deploys a kaleidoscopic assortment of varied electronic textures with associated melodic motives in a free, improvisatory fashion, recalling landmark jazz fusion and minimalist albums of the late 1960s and early 1970s such as Miles Davis’s Bitches Brew and Terry Riley’s A Rainbow in Curved Air - A.M.L.S

Suite #8: March of the Covids

The recent St Celfer releases on Bandcamp are stereo mixes of 16-track works, that were spatially distributed in the gallery using directional speakers, during your show in São Paulo, Brazil. "Singspiel," to me, makes it most easy to imagine (of the work on Ten Tracks) how the sounds might have struck my ear in a gallery space. The sped-up voices could be gallery visitors moving around the space, mingling with room tone and random sounds bouncing around the walls. The deep bass bumps also have an almost accidental feel. But as with "Ricercare" there is a lullabye-ish tune that warps in and out, giving the piece a forward-moving, musical direction, rather than just "ambience."

Tom Moody

Suite #9: Singspiel

St Celfer™ just started using Soundcloud!

New tracks tagged #space between points