We are super excited to share with you the first recording from our Alternative Lessons and Carols, which happened back in November in Jesus College Chapel. 

This piece, 'A Tender Light', was written by Pia Scattergood for the mermaid café to perform (with Ruari on vibraphone and Joanna singing). It's a beautiful and atmospheric setting of excerpts from the Byron poem 'She Walks in Beauty' - we hope you enjoy! 

TMC x

Pia Scattergood: A Tender Light

"The TC Helicon VoiceLive 3 and I first worked together back in 2015, on a piece for voice and ensemble that took advantage of my many-buttoned collaborator’s ability to transform my voice in real time. Though the experience of frantically trying to press the right button at the right time whilst singing quite complicated notes wasn't altogether easy, I was left with a lot of curiosity for what this machine could do. I felt our adventures had only just begun... Fast-forward to March 2020: I decided to take the plunge, to order one and make this reunion a lockdown project that might save morale and sanity. What's documented here are my little experiments, recorded over a 6-week period as I got to know the beast, fiddling around with the several hundred preset vocal effects, the manifold possibilities of individual effects (such as harmony and hardtune) and the loop function. Each track was made very fast, with no time for critical reflection." - Juliet Fraser

BIOGRAPHY
Soprano Juliet Fraser has a repertoire dominated by the very old and the very new. She regularly appears as a guest soloist with contemporary music ensembles Musikfabrik, Klangforum Wien, Ensemble Modern, Plus-Minus and Talea, and has ongoing partnerships with Quatuor Bozzini and pianist Mark Knoop. She is also a core member of EXAUDI vocal ensemble, which she co-founded with composer/conductor James Weeks. Juliet is an active commissioner of new music and has worked particularly closely with composers Cassandra Miller, Matthew Shlomowitz, Michael Finnissy, Pascale Criton and Rebecca Saunders. She now has an extensive solo discography: her debut disc was of Morton Feldman’s Three Voices (released on Hat Hut) and her most recent is an album of solo works written for her by Lisa Illean, Sivan Eldar, Nomi Epstein and Lawrence Dunn (released in April 2020 on HCR). Her early music recordings include Renaissance polyphony by Lassus, Vitoria and Byrd with Collegium Vocale Gent and Gesualdo madrigals with EXAUDI. She is the founder and artistic director of the eavesdropping series in London, and co-director with Newton Armstrong and Mark Knoop of all that dust, a new label for new music. 

www.julietfraser.co.uk

TR051 - Juliet Fraser - Loop 2 (wallace Stevens)

Sewed Up Sold In

all writ., rec., prod.: edan umrigar_apollo the fake

24-28.7.2020

i hear seagulls

sink & rise

I'm happy with idle

the mermaid café is a pop / ambient / experimental singing, instrument-playing, electronics-using duo.

we are a political group: thinking about queering and decolonising creative practice is at the core of what we do.

we write and devise original music, we improvise, we do research and activism and we collaborate with other creatives across disciplines.

@joannamward + @ruari-paterson-achenbach

follow us on bandcamp --> https://themermaidcafe.bandcamp.com/follow_me

Pia Scattergood: A Tender Light

the mermaid café

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