{"title":"John Tilbury CDs","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"lost-daylight-terry-jennings-john-cage-john-tilbury-sebastian-lexer","title":"Terry Jennings, John Cage, John Tilbury, Sebastian Lexer","description":"\u003cp style=\"text-align: center;\" class=\"Wp-Normal-P\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C7\"\u003e1.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C22\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C23\"\u003eTerry Jennings\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C22\"\u003e   \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C7\"\u003ePiano Piece 1958                           1:57\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C7\"\u003e2.  \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C23\"\u003eTerry Jennings\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C22\"\u003e   \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C7\"\u003eWinter Sun, 1966                           7:17\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C7\"\u003e3.  \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C23\"\u003eTerry Jennings\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C22\"\u003e   \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C7\"\u003eFor Christine Jennings, 1960          8:55\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C7\"\u003e4.  \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C23\"\u003eTerry Jennings\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C22\"\u003e   \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C7\"\u003eWinter Trees, 1965                         8:20\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C7\"\u003e5.  \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C23\"\u003eTerry Jennings\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C22\"\u003e   \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C7\"\u003ePiano Piece 1960                            3:47\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C7\"\u003e6.  \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C23\"\u003eJohn Cage\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C22\"\u003e   \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C7\"\u003eElectronic Music for Piano, 1964        39:58\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: center;\" class=\"Wp-Normal-P\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C6\"\u003eJohn Tilbury\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C19\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C25\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C7\"\u003epiano\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C6\"\u003eSebastian Lexer \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C25\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C7\"\u003eelectronics (track 6 only)\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: center;\" class=\"Wp-Normal-P\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C24\"\u003eR\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C7\"\u003eecorded in London, November 2007 and September 2009\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv style=\"text-align: center;\"\u003e\u003cimg src=\"https:\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0740\/3631\/4426\/files\/john_tilbury_3_2431adb2-6dd5-4d1e-9c7d-789982beb079_480x480.jpg?v=1751896816\" alt=\"\" style=\"margin-bottom: 16px; float: none;\"\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003e\n\u003ch2 style=\"text-align: center;\" class=\"Normal-P\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C8\"\u003eSleevenotes by Michael Pisaro\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"Normal-P\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C9\"\u003eLOST    We live near the edge of  the desert and not far from the ocean.  We lean in one direction or the other.  Hiking at the edge of the Mojave one finds austerity: bone dryness, bright light, heat and wind.  One hears a high whistle and senses in one’s body the rumbling of the ground.  There is an etched horizon at the edge of each open space.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"Normal-P\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C9\"\u003eOr we move near the \\Pacific.  There is mild weather and a light breeze; a comforting and constant noise.  We walk on soft sand, as people stroll along the beachside shops and cafes, with music playing in the background.  In the sea-perfumed air, there is the fragility of a beautiful moment that could suddenly change.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"Normal-P\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C9\"\u003eBetween these two borders is a place that somehow contains both: a wasteland and a dreamspace, in addition to being a real city with hard times and seemingly unending small (almost private) cultures, hidden in plain sight.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"Normal-P\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C9\"\u003eI’m writing this in Santa Clarita at the northernmost edge of Los Angeles, about 20 miles from where Terry Jennings was born - in Eagle Rock in 1940.  He grew up in the area, and started studying at the Los Angeles Conservatory of Music and Art (later the California Institute of the Arts) at an early age.  He was an elusive figure in the scattered landscape of West Coast experimental music.  His presence is still felt here, somehow - ghostly. Although he lived for a while in New York, it’s hard, listening to the pieces collected here, not to relate the music to the landscapes we share.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"Normal-P\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C9\"\u003eIt is music of simplicity and great mystery.  There are bar lines, but nothing feels counted: things happen in moments not measures.  There is always time for resonance of the piano. (Is there any player batter at feeling this resonance than John Tilbury?)  The sounds drift, suspended in a dense medium of some kind.  The shape of a piece emerges gradually, like the hills appearing as the marine layer burns off.  Each piece feels like a small event extended in time: “one morning the sun shone just so”, “her voice seemed exactly like this”.  The gentle modality of the two later pieces (\u003cstrong\u003eWinter Sun\u003c\/strong\u003e and \u003cstrong\u003eWinter Trees\u003c\/strong\u003e) is beautifully offset by the sparse, lean harmonies of the earlier ones (\u003cstrong\u003ePiano Piece 1958\u003c\/strong\u003e and \u003cstrong\u003eFor Christine Jennings\u003c\/strong\u003e).\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"Normal-P\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C9\"\u003ePiano Piece 1960 is something of a special case.  This piece (like the \u003cstrong\u003eString Quartet\u003c\/strong\u003e from the same year) occupies a unique place in the music of the time.  The arc towards silence is so profound, that it takes on the character of something more than a pause.  It has a being.  The notes, even more than in the music of Morton Feldman, are just there to create the silences.  There are silences in the sounds too.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"Normal-P\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C9\"\u003eListening again and again to these incredible recordings, I have the unmistakable feeling of coming into contact with something necessary that has been lost.  I don’t know what it is - I can just barely make out its form, as if glimpsed once, fleetingly, at the bottom of a canyon.  Is I a certain sense of a communal future that was alive to both Jennings and Tilbury when these pieces were written?  Where did it go?  When will it be back?\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"Normal-P\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C9\"\u003eDAYLIGHT  Nothing seems to be lost in Tilbury and Lexer’s wonderful, original realisation of John Cage’s \u003cstrong\u003eElectronic Music for Piano\u003c\/strong\u003e.  The score might be sketchy, but the performance is as clear as a bright day in Cage’s Los Angeles.  Sounds ad silences appear and disappear like natural facts, without any longing of the one to become the other.  To me, the events recorded here are not mysterious, even if I don’t always know who (or what) is making them.  They are material and tangible - objects flying through time and space, from any angle or any trajectory.  Attentive performances of Cage are usually in contact with the real: with the chaos of the present; with living things that move.  It’s an anarchic materialism, and, I think, another world from the romantic immateriality of Jennings.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"Normal-P\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C9\"\u003e\u003cimg src=\"https:\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0740\/3631\/4426\/files\/sebastian-lexer-20160619115744-1351098116.jpg?v=1751897075\" alt=\"\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3 class=\"Normal-P\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C8\"\u003eSleevenotes by Sebastian Lexer\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"Normal-P\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C9\"\u003eJohn Cage’s ‘Electronic Music for Piano’ is a peculiar composition, the more so as the published score is little more than a list of hand-written notes including reference to the essential source, his earlier composition ‘Music for Piano 4-84’ (1953-56).  It seems that the score contains notes he collected for a performance by cage himself and David Tudor in Stockholm, September 2nd 1964, for two pianos and electronics, the paper carrying the letterhead of  the Hotel Malmen in Stockholm.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"Normal-P\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C9\"\u003eApproaching a realisation one is left only with hints as to what they used - “feedback, changing sounds (microphones, amplifiers, loudspeakers)” - and most crucially, a reference to the use of transcriptions on transparencies from an astronomical atlas.  Both techniques had been part of Cage’s and Tudor’s realisations in various pieces, including Tudor’s remarkable realisation of Variations II (1961) from 1967.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"Normal-P\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C9\"\u003eJohn Tilbury and I had developed a version of Electronic Music for Piano in 2002, utilising a computer-based system (which over the years became the piano+) in which parameters of effects and routings were directed by the proximity of a random movement through a digitised star map.  His approach felt inappropriate for this recording in which  the spirit of Tudor’s approach to piano and electronics is as much a governing factor as the score itself.  We wanted to go beyond a realisation that comprised of simply adding electronic effects to the piano.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"Normal-P\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C9\"\u003eIn this recording John Tilbury’s playing is captured by a series of stationary and movable microphones and pick-ups.  Transformations were initiated and directed by a score devised from lines printed on transparencies and star maps.  This organic, ‘performed’ version was then subjected to further similar randomised processes and editing to derive the order and time placement of segments, the mixing between tracks, and panning.  This enabled us to distance ourselves as much as possible from any aesthetic decision-making.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch2 class=\"Normal-P\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C9\"\u003eReviews\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C9\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C17\"\u003e'\u003cstrong\u003eLost Daylight\u003c\/strong\u003e' was released as part of the 'Piano series'; four CDs all centred on experimental music for the piano. There were three excellent reviews covering the series as a whole:\u003cbr\u003ePhilip Clark in The Wire  \u003ca href=\"\/pages\/review-of-piano-series-in-the-wire-by-philip-clark\"\u003ehere\u003c\/a\u003e \u003cbr\u003eStuart Broomer in Point of Departure  \u003ca href=\"\/pages\/review-of-piano-series-in-point-of-departure\"\u003ehere\u003c\/a\u003e\u003cbr\u003eand Bill Meyer in Signal to Noise  \u003ca href=\"\/pages\/review-of-piano-series-by-bill-meyer-in-signal-to-noise\"\u003ehere\u003c\/a\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C20\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBelow are some individual reviews of Lost Daylight:\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"Normal-P\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C11\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C16\"\u003e“\u003c\/span\u003eAny new release with John Tilbury is the cause of great anticipation on my part (not to slight the fine Master Lexer!) but I was especially antsy when I learned he'd be performing several pieces by Terry Jennings. Like many, perhaps most, I'd heard a thing or two of his over the years but had certainly read far more about him than heard his work. Tilbury plays five pieces, written between 1958 and 1966. They took a while to worm their way into me. Jennings is often cited, with Riley and Young, as one of the true precursors of minimalism and you can hear that in this music, though to a far lesser extent than I'd imagined. You perceive more of an antecedent to work like Young's \"The Well-Tuned Piano\" than subsequent Riley, much less the more routine minimalist pantheon. There's little in the way of repetition, though kernels appear and iterate now and then; I said less of Riley, but in some ways it's like Riley with a strong enough dose of Feldman to all but obliterate his standard tropes. They have the appearance of disarming simplicity; it takes a while to hear all the superfine subtlety with which Jennings (and, one presumes, Tilbury) imbue the pieces. (another referent that just popped in my head: a hyper-sensitive, ultra-contemplative Paul Bley). It's very thoughtful, beautiful music, wonderfully realized. Very glad to have finally heard Tilbury's take.\u003cbr\u003eThe Cage work, \"Electronic Music for Piano\" (1964), exists in another universe, though an equally beguiling one. Tilbury and Lexer (handling the electronics) weave a 40-minute gossamer tapestry that's entirely unpredictable and totally immersive. I don't own another version and am not sure if I've heard it before. I know Stefan Schleiermacher has recorded it on vol. 2 of his MDG series, which I should hear. Apparently the instructions are rather vague, Cage having jotted them down on hotel letterhead, Tudor having first performed it. Whatever the possibilities, here Tilbury and Lexer have opted for a very wide open reading, with great amounts of space, the sounds almost like leaves (or dust motes) irregularly swirling in an eddy from a hidden draft. Every so often there's an upsurge in volume, a clang or loud ringing as though that breeze has succeeded in knocking over some delicately balanced object. But it all occurs at such a \"natural\" sounding, unhurried pace that one accepts every event as proper. It disappears for a minute or two and you don't quite notice. Clusters form, sometimes mellifluous when clear piano tones contribute, often comprised of rumbling static, each with equal weight, each simply an event in time.\u003cbr\u003eIn both cases, this is music I can see returning to many times over the years. Very beautiful, invigorating and deep work.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C15\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBrian Olewnick\u003c\/strong\u003e,\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C16\"\u003eJust Outside\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"Normal-P\"\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"Normal-P\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C11\"\u003e\"I have listened to this album a great deal over the past couple of weeks, initially sitting in awe of it and later spending time really trying to understand it better. It is in many ways a CD in two halves. The first half an hour of the disc consists of five performances by Tilbury of piano works by the American minimalist composer Terry Jennings. There then follows a forty minute recording by both Tilbury and Lexer of John Cage’s\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Emphasis-C\"\u003eElectronic Music for Piano\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C11\"\u003e, a work from 1964 that was written for David Tudor. The album can be divided between the two not only simply by composer but also through the very different approach to aesthetics and beauty. In fact, it could almost be said that the two halves sit in complete contrast to each other, almost standing as a neat analogy for some of the main issues tackled by 20th Century composition.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"Normal-P\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C11\"\u003eThough the name Terry Jennings has occasionally popped up throughout my reading up on contemporary composition I don’t think I have ever heard any of his music before. So for that reason I am not certain how much of the sheer beauty contained in the five pieces here is to be found in the compositions themselves, and how much comes out through Tilbury’s realisation of them. Certainly it is as if these five miniatures were written for Tilbury. A lazy comparison might be to call them Feldmanseque, and indeed the space that is left within the music, into which notes are allowed to slowly decay does give that impression on surface listening, but in truth these are quite different pieces. While there is a minimal amount of notes dictated and s deathly slow pace abides there are none of the irregular patterns to be found in Feldman’s later work, no sense of gradual change over time. These five pieces, which vary from the two minute longer opener\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Emphasis-C\"\u003ePiano Piece 1958\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C11\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003eto the eight minute plus works\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Emphasis-C\"\u003eWinter Sun\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C11\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003eand\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Emphasis-C\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003eFor Christine Jennings\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C11\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003eare each fully rounded, highly romantic distillations of music. They begin, and then progress to an end as complete works, not just studies for something greater that was to follow. Each tells a story of some kind, albeit sometimes a tale told with only the fewest words and singular brush strokes. The final Jennings piece on the album, the startlingly spare Paino Piece, 1960 is particularly remarkable in that the actual number of notes played across the four minutes is reduced to just seventeen. Even here though there is none of the stark emptiness of say a late Taku Sugimoto composition. Even as the piece seems to slip away slowly into silence as the gaps between notes get longer we still feel each note hanging in the air, even after they are no longer audible, and the music holds a deeply emotive power to it throughout.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"Normal-P\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C11\"\u003eThis music was written for Tilbury’s playing. His incredible touch, the way he holds a key down as his foot works a pedal is somehow (I don’t fully understand how) different to how others seem to do it. The music has Tilbury’s mark all over it. Though if played ot me blind I would never have known the composer I would have been able to identify the pianist after just one note. Tilbury has a wonderful way of making a single piano note seem to have more life than anyone else, more soul if you will. Having watched him play many time down the years it has always been so clear to me how much he feels every note, how the sound from the piano runs through his body long after it has disappeared from the air. So these five pieces, as well written as they are also work as almost the perfect vehicle for Tilbury’s masterful playing, his own touch brought to the music. The sixth piece then sets about as its main purpose to dismantle this sense of sheer beauty, to maybe show the other side of the modern compositional dilemma.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"Normal-P\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C11\"\u003eCage’s Electronic Music for Piano was written in 1964 seemingly specifically for a performance by both the pianist and the composer together in Sweden the same year. If a recording of the performance exists I don’t think I have ever heard it, and I’m not sure that further performances of the somewhat complex work have been attempted all that often since. The “score” apparently consists of just a single page of notes and directions that point the musicians back to a an earlier Cage piece Music for Piano 4-84. It also shows that the original performance used transparencies made from astronomical charts as a way of generating random choices and timings. Lexer and Tilbury have been working through ways of performing this piece for a number of years. Eight years ago they performed a live version that is available to hear at the Interlace site here. This version though merely applied digital effects to the played piano. Considering this approach to be inadequate, the pair developed different ways of working that better capture the spirit and style of Tudor’s approach to performing Cage’s work. At the heart of their realisation however lies an attempt, at various levels to remove aesthetic decision making from the performance. If the Jennings pieces are all about simple, refined beauty and the skill involved in playing them, then the Cage work here is about removing the human touch, dismantling standard ideas of what beauty is in a piano work.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"Normal-P\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C11\"\u003eFor this performance then, Tilbury “plays” the piano, both at the keys and on the inside, and Lexer randomly places microphones and pick-ups, according to starcharts, within the piano. Some stay static, some are moved as the performance progresses, and their output is then treated via Lexer’s piano+ software in different ways, again randomly selected by the starcharts, but with a starting point perhaps leaning towards sounds and methods more akin to Tudor’s individual approach. So one full recording was made, in one take, described in the liner notes by Lexer as “organic”. Lost Daylight has been worked on by the musicians for at least two years since it was first proposed as a release on the Another Timbre label. Over this time though the duo have wrestled with their thoughts on the music, whether what they were doing was close enough to the original intentions of the score, and whether the ultimate goal of the piece should perhaps be about the complete eradication of aesthetic decision making. So, once a “final” version of the piece existed the pair then subjected it to a further randomised edit of the work, which effectively cut it up into pieces, rearranging it by chance, and treating mastering elements such as crossfade panning in a similar manner. all dictated by the starchart system. What we end up with hints at the piano, suggests the powerful expression of Tilbury’s playing, but essentially dismantles the music into something that feels unfamiliar and thoroughly awkward. it is this final edit, and the impact it has on us as listeners that really makes this music such a wonderful work to me. Everyone with any musical taste adores Tilbury’s approach to the piano. This CD chooses to ignore and subvert it.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"Normal-P\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C11\"\u003eWhat we actually hear then is in part what we might expect, single piano notes, scrapes, bangs and violent crashes inside and outside the piano sometimes treated by Lexer to stretch out sounds into further shapes and textures. The randomised placement of the sounds makes the experience very difficult to follow though. There is no sense of continual structure or development in any traditional manner, just a constant feeling of intense anticipation and expectation. Then when sounds appear they are stunning. They are often quite shocking. The way the work has been cut up leads to several immediate entries from powerful, dramatic sounds, and the way these might suddenly sound much closer, louder, present in the mix because of the randomised mastering throws you completely. The music has an incredible tension to it, even after the twentieth listen through I remain shocked and surprised at points. The sense of intensity is nothing like we are used to hearing in improvised or composed music though. The music does not get the chance to build into anything, its organic feeling has been removed, the human touch if you like has been taken away and we are left instead with these incredibly powerful fragments of music that have been thrown in the air and then carefully stitched back together in whatever order they happened to land. Long silences might be interrupted by a slight whisper, or smashed out of the way by a slammed down piano lid, but trying to make sense of the recording in any traditional manner is fruitless.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"Normal-P\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C11\"\u003eThe irony in all of this is that Sebastian Lexer is John Tilbury’s preferred sound engineer, and Lexer has spent much of the last year painstakingly remastering recordings of Tilbury playing Feldman, removing outside influences, preserving the emotional power and integrity of the performances. His skills as a mastering engineer of that kind of music are second to none in my opinion, and so much of their work together has been in search of the perfect listening experience, the best way to portray Tilbury’s personal rendition of other people’s music. This Cage work turns that relationship completely inside out. The mastering here has had all sense of listener ease removed. What we hear here is ironically what the stars predicted. It is in fact a brave move for these two fantastic musicians to place their music so much in the hands of chance, but in doing so they have created something that is both beautifully powerful and creatively honest in the same breath.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"Normal-P\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C11\"\u003eThe absolute jewel in Another Timbre’s crown, this is a wonderful, wonderful CD. As other new CDs have arrived here in their droves Lost Daylight has kept its place in my player and will return frequently. It has been a while since I heard anything so equally beautiful, challenging and stunning at the same time. If this area of music is of any interest to you then this has to be an essential purchase.”                                      \u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C15\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eRichard Pinnell\u003c\/strong\u003e,\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C16\"\u003eThe Watchful Ear\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"Normal-P\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C16\"\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"Normal-P\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Emphasis-C\"\u003e“Lost Daylight\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C11\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003ehas been a long time arriving. It has been much trailed, and eagerly anticipated since 2008, as indicated by its low catalogue number, at10. Now released as part of Another Timbre's piano series, alongside at24 and at25, good things are always worth waiting for—and this release proves the truth of that adage. Quite simply, it is a gem.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"Normal-P\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C11\"\u003eAlthough, perhaps, best-known for his long-established membership in AMM and his other improvised work, pianist John Tilbury is just as renowned for his recordings of scores by John Cage, Cornelius Cardew, Morton Feldman, Howard Skempton and Christian Wolff. Now\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Emphasis-C\"\u003eLost Daylight\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C11\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003efollows in that lineage. It consists of two contrasting halves, featuring five solo piano compositions by the little-recorded Fluxus minimalist Terry Jennings, followed by a forty-minute realization of Cage's Electronic Music for Piano, with Sebastian Lexer on electronics.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"Normal-P\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C11\"\u003eTilbury, along with Cardew, championed Jennings back in the 1960s. The Jennings pieces here, which include his best-known works \"Winter Trees\" and \"Winter Sun,\" are understated and repetitive, creating a tranquil, meditative mood. The silences between the notes are as important as the notes themselves. To be heard at their best, these pieces rely on delicacy of touch and restrained pacing, both of which Tilbury supplies in abundance. Throughout he sounds totally in the moment, irresistably engaged by the music and his performance. Near-perfect, these readings of Jennings could not be improved.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"Normal-P\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C11\"\u003eThe long Cage piece dominates the album and contrasts well with the Jennings. Tilbury and Lexer have collaborated for a number of years at Goldsmith College in South London, appearing together at the regular Interlace concert series there and developing approaches to combining piano and electronics. This version of the Cage piece does not simply add electronics to the piano. Instead, Tilbury's playing is picked up by a series of stationary and movable mikes, and transformed electronically (in a very Cage way), using a score devised from lines printed on transparencies and star maps. The recording of the performance is then further transformed and edited in a similar fashion. The end result produces a fine balance between piano and electronics, in terms of playing time and emphasis. It is restrained and full of space, feeling like a co-operative enterprise not a struggle or a battle. Against expectations, the most dramatic episodes come from the piano, with the electronics being relatively subdued. The whole is easy to listen to and reveals new facets with each hearing.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"Normal-P\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C11\"\u003eIts release date meant\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Emphasis-C\"\u003eLost Daylight\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C11\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003emissed the \"best of the noughties\" lists, but it is sure to be on similar lists come 2019. A future classic.”                                                        \u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C15\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eJohn Eyles\u003c\/strong\u003e,\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C16\"\u003eAll About Jazz\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"Normal-P\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C16\"\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"Normal-P\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C11\"\u003e“Earlier this week I got the four new releases in the “piano series” put out by the\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Hyperlink-C\"\u003eAnother Timbre\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C11\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003elabel (read a review of all four\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Hyperlink-C\"\u003ehere\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C11\"\u003e). While I am of course interested in listening to the entire series, the long awaited John Tilbury release has gotten almost all of my attention so far. Announced almost at the beginning of the label’s history (it’s AT 10, the most recent is AT 25) it contains recordings of solo piano pieces by the minimalist\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Hyperlink-C\"\u003eTerry Jennings\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C11\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003eplus an innovative working of John Cage’s\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Hyperlink-C-C0\"\u003eElectric Music for Piano\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C11\"\u003e. The Terry Jenning’s pieces are sublime, delicate piano miniatures from 1958-66 that anticipate Feldman’s late piano pieces in their soft, deliberate nature if not their length. Jennings is woefully underrepresented in performance and recordings, I can only think of a few other pieces of his that I’ve heard. Thus it is a wonderful gift to hear some of his piano pieces so perfectly played by Tilbury on this recording. There is sound and silence and a sense of waiting in these pieces; patient and without any anxiety.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"Blockquote-P\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Blockquote-C\"\u003eIt is music of simplicity and great mystery. There are bar lines, but nothing feels counted: things happen in moments and not measures. There is always time for the resonance of the piano. (Is there any player better at feeling this resonance than John Tilbury?) The sounds drift, suspended in a dense medium of some kind. The shape of a piece emerges gradually, like the hills appearing as the marine layer burns off. Each piece feels like a small even extended in time” – Micheal Pisaro from the liner notes to the Jennings pieces.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"Normal-P\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C11\"\u003eThe bulk of the album is a near forty minute realization of John Cage’s\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Hyperlink-C-C0\"\u003eElectric Music for Piano\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C11\"\u003e, which was written for David Tudor in 1964 as a set of loose instructions for combing several disparate elements. These elements are instructions for use of parts of Cage’s\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Emphasis-C\"\u003eMusic for Piano 4-84\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C11\"\u003e, realized using electronic equipment (the score mentions microphones, amplifiers and oscilloscope) and constellations from an astronomical chart. John Tilbury performs this piece as a duo with Sebastian Lexer handling the electronics. Lexer has developed this system he refers to as\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Emphasis-C\"\u003ePiano+\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C11\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003ewhich is basically the piano captured by microphones and manipulated by\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Hyperlink-C\"\u003eMAX\/MSP\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C11\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003epatches of his own devising. Of course MAX\/MSP manipulation of the piano is an academic trope done enough so that even the most varied of patches share a certain amount of familiarity. Lexer’s solo release\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Emphasis-C\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003eDazwischen\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C11\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003eon the\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Hyperlink-C\"\u003eMatchless\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C11\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003elabel aptly displays these tropes and the kind of digital excess that MSP can lead to. But in the case of this piece, in I think attempting to capture aspect of Tudor’s electronics, which often used cascading amplification, feedback, phase shifting and other simple and frankly abused electronics, these excesses are mostly avoided. Which isn’t to say there isn’t the occasional bit of cheesily delayed tones, autopanning or video game type of sounds, just never to any sort of excess. Most of the time the sounds seem to be more faint crackles, distorted piano tones, restrained feedback and the like. The piece is remarkable in its spaciousness and subtlety with the most dramatic parts coming from the piano: crashes of the lid or bangs on the body or strings. The setup of the electronics itself as well as the excerpts from\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Emphasis-C\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003eMusic for Piano\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C11\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003eand finally the editing of the piece all used overlaid astronomical charts to arrange their construction. This adds additional layers of indeterminacy to the piece and fully succeeds in Lexer’s stated desire to “… go beyond a realisation that comprised of simply adding electronic effects to the piano”. With a piece like this one is always going to be in the shadow of Tudor and I think that Tilbury and Lexer succeeded admirably in creating a realization that is fully their own but acknowledges this influence. Tilbury’s pianism is markedly different from Tudor’s though I’d say they share many a common goal. As an example of how they are different but akin Tudor’s realizations of Feldman’s indeterminate pieces are I think far superior to Tilbury’s but I would definitely rather hear Tilbury handle the late Feldman. The two pianists strengths I think lie in different areas even if their sympathies are closely aligned. Likewise the electronics that Lexer employs, digital simulations of analog effects, are a far cry from the wild, on the edge, virtuoso electronics of Tudor. And he makes no attempt here to cavort in that territory. It is far more restrained and safe then Tudor and yet it nods toward it, acknowledges the sounds if not the application. This makes the piece theirs and it is a remarkable bit of music, something that is simultaneously new and old a piece of music that could really be read as an application of new technology and ideas to older music that is open to such experiments.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"Normal-P\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C11\"\u003eThe beautiful Jennings pieces and the thoroughly engaging Cage realization make for a varied and fantastic CD. One of the best releases yet on\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Hyperlink-C\"\u003eAnother Timbre\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C11\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003eand absolutely well worth picking up.”   \u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C15\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eRobert  Kirkpatrick\u003c\/strong\u003e,\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C16\"\u003eA Spiral Cage\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"Normal-P\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C16\"\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"Normal-P\"\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"Normal-P\"\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Another Timbre","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51400503755066,"sku":"at10","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0740\/3631\/4426\/files\/at10LostDaylight.jpg?v=1749120207"},{"product_id":"variable-formations-johnny-chang-angharad-davies-jamie-drouin-phil-durrant-lee-patterson-john-tilbury","title":"John Tilbury, Johnny Chang, Angharad Davies, Jamie Drouin, Phil Durrant, Lee Patterson","description":"\u003cp class=\"Wp-Normal-P\" style=\"text-align: center;\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C8\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eJohn Tilbury \u003c\/strong\u003e(piano)\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C8\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eJohnny Chang\u003c\/strong\u003e (viola)\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C8\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAngharad Davies\u003c\/strong\u003e (violin)\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C8\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eJamie Drouin\u003c\/strong\u003e (electronics)\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C8\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePhil Durrant\u003c\/strong\u003e (electronics)\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C8\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eLee Patterson\u003c\/strong\u003e (amplified objects)\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"Wp-Normal-P\" style=\"text-align: center;\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C10\"\u003eTotal Time: 41:15\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003e\u003cimg src=\"https:\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0740\/3631\/4426\/files\/john_tilbury_3_3034bdbd-80ff-4fec-9565-75d6722b866a_480x480.jpg?v=1751795246\" alt=\"\" style=\"margin-bottom: 16px; float: none; display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;\"\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"Normal-P\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C10\"\u003eIn February 2013 the Berlin-based musician Johnny Chang visited London as part of a short tour along with his some-time playing partner Jamie Drouin, the Canadian musician and artist who had recently moved to Berlin. The duo constructed an installation at the Soundfjord gallery in Tottenham, and also played at a concert entitled\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C12\"\u003eVariable Formations\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C10\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003eat Cafe OTO in East London. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"Normal-P\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C10\"\u003eIn the first half of the concert the musicians played in their established groupings (Tilbury solo, Chang\/Drouin duo and Davies\/Durrant\/Patterson trio). The trio realised some pages from Eva-Maria Houben’s composition ‘von da nach da’, John Tilbury played a solo entitled ‘Homage to Moriarty’, using themes and sound extracts taken from the early film ‘The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes’, and the Chang\/Drouin duo played a semi-improvised piece which they had developed for their tour.  \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"Normal-P\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C10\"\u003eIn the second half of the concert all the musicians played together as a sextet. The concept for the sextet performance, which Johnny Chang had suggested, was that each group should develop the material that they had presented in the first half of the concert in relation to the work of the other groups. It was left open as to exactly how this development and integration of material should occur, resulting in a degree of uncertainty which was heightened by the fact each musician had never played with at least two of the other musicians before.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"Normal-P\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C10\"\u003eThe CD ‘Variable Formations’ consists of the sextet performance from Cafe OTO.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch2 class=\"Normal-P\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C13\"\u003eReviews\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"Normal-P\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C10\"\u003e“Just about a year ago, these six musicians — from different generations of improvisational or otherwise experimental music — convened at Café Oto. Variable Formations is a single 41-minute piece informed by the ideas generated in smaller groupings earlier in the evening (as well as some prepared materials). It’s a lovely study in incandescence.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"Normal-P\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C10\"\u003eThe limpid notes of Tilbury, along with the subtle drones of Chang and Davies, form the central components of these Formations, taking shape and fading out in momentary settings of hushed but tense electronic crackle and glitch. The sound the musicians create is palpable and airy at once, warm but presenting itself via the distance between notes and shapes as well as their proximity or intimacy. Indeed, one of the piece’s most compelling features is the musicians’ attention to the subtle, at times nearly microtonal range between sounds.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"Normal-P\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C10\"\u003eThis is a creation of not simply colour and grain but considerable tension. The evident drama is located in the layers of sound that emerge from these bundled tensions: those amazing, sub-woofing clouds that Tilbury gathers in the lowest register of his instrument (against which the barely audible high-end sawing creates something spectral), a soft woody rattle, a chorus of overtones, a steady arpeggiation, or a long, unfurling flatulence ensconced in warm electronic coil.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"Normal-P\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C10\"\u003eWhat’s equally effective throughout is the generosity of space and attention to density, as when the strings back off to reveal spare piano and high whines from Patterson, Durrant, or Drouin. Their gorgeously humming electronics, a warm upper-middle range, serve as a kind of pivot for Tilbury’s entrancing chords and intervals. Perhaps because of the pitched qualities of his instrument, and also because of his musical temperament, Tilbury continually seems central to Variable Formations’ motion and transitions: a hard clang that catalyzes a pitch shift or a thickening of ingredients; a descending skulk paired with a laconic major third atop it; or his work inside the piano, contributing to the undercurrent of woody (almost percussive) motion that courses throughout the piece.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"Normal-P\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C10\"\u003eBut the piece is, despite what this observation might connote, far more than simply piano and continuo. Sounds gather and exhale, hum and whine, coalescing every so often in a declamation, ending finally in a fairly stunning moment of close harmony. By the time the piece is concluded, one feels that the previous 41 minutes have been spent in an atmosphere conjured, a ritual evoked.”    \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C12\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eJason Bivins\u003c\/strong\u003e,\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C14\"\u003eDusted\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"Normal-P\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C10\"\u003e“A sextet improvisation realized at Cafe OTO in February of this year, following three prior sets (Tilbury, solo; Chang\/Drouin, duo; Davies\/Durrant\/Patterson trio). A nice notion given that each musician had never before played with at least two of the others. In a way, it still breaks down, in my ears, to three units: Tilbury, Chang\/Davies and Drouin\/Durrant\/Patterson, the strings often combined, in my head, into a duo, the three electronicists similarly in a trio. As in any risky improvisatory endeavour, there's no reason to expect that it will work; much of the interest is simply hearing how this given combination, on this evening, unfolded. Any moments of emergent beauty are almost icing on the cake and there are several scattered through this particular adventure.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"Normal-P\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C10\"\u003eTilbury is, well, Tilbury and he's prominent enough in the mix so that one can, if so choosing, hear it as a mini-concerto of sorts. For the first ten or so minutes, I tend to do that, the pianist patiently doling out two-note figures, the rest scurrying\/droning alongside. At that point, there's a break, the music shifting to a kind of simmering, out of which surface sad string cries and single, sharply struck piano notes. Indeed, after a few minutes, it seems that Tilbury is once again the contributor around which the sounds gather. Perhaps it has to do with the fact that he's inevitably, unavoidably himself, with such a developed personality--a single, well-struck note from him bears much weight. I hasten to say that this doesn't, for me, detract form the music at all, it just casts it in a slightly different light than what you might expect. About halfway through its 41 minutes, a fine low, vibrating buzz enters amidst what sounds like (but can't be) swirling, stroked cymbals and soft flutters--lovely. The sextet really pulls it together over the final ten minutes, generating a fine seethe, Tilbury either laying out or quietly working off the keyboard, until re-entering just before the close with some fantastic, slightly muffled and sour notes.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C10\"\u003e”       \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C12\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBrian Olewnick\u003c\/strong\u003e -\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C14\"\u003eJust Outside\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"Normal-P\"\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"Normal-P\"\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Another Timbre","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51400992457018,"sku":"at67","price":8.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0740\/3631\/4426\/files\/at67VariableFormations.jpg?v=1749132155"},{"product_id":"goldsmiths","title":"Goldsmiths","description":"\u003cp class=\"Wp-Normal-P\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C10\"\u003e1 -\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C11\"\u003eSarah Hughes\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C10\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e ‘A Reward is given for the Best Inframammary Fold No.4’\u003c\/strong\u003e    \u003cbr\u003e      (2015)      13:09   \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"Wp-Normal-P\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C10\"\u003e2 -\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C11\"\u003eJohn Lely\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C10\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e ‘First Page for Five’\u003c\/strong\u003e (2015)   17:59\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"Wp-Normal-P\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C10\"\u003e3 - \u003cstrong\u003eGoldsmiths Improvisation, 31.08.15\u003c\/strong\u003e     19:43               \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"Wp-Normal-P\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C10\"\u003e4 -\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C11\"\u003eJurg Frey\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C10\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e ‘Circular Music No.6’ \u003c\/strong\u003e (2015)   7:00\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"Wp-Normal-P\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C9\"\u003eAngharad Davies - violin                                   Rhodri Davies - electric harp, melodica\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C9\"\u003eMichael Duch - double bass                              Lina Lapelyte - violin, voice\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C9\"\u003eJohn Lely - objects, electronics, melodica         John Tilbury - piano\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"Wp-Normal-P\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C10\"\u003eRecorded at Goldsmiths College, 31\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C13\"\u003est\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C10\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003eAugust 2015\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"Wp-Normal-P\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C10\"\u003eRhodri Davies convened a recording session in London. In the afternoon he, John Tilbury and Michael Duch were due to record some pieces by Cornelius Cardew. But in the morning he invited Angharad Davies, Lina Lapelyte and John Lely to join the trio for an impromptu session recording a number of open scores by various composers, plus a couple of improvisations.  The 'Goldsmiths' CD was the result of that morning session.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3 class=\"Wp-Normal-P\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C10\"\u003eReviews\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"Normal-P\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C15\"\u003e“Another classy release from Another Timbre, which has drifted away from improvisation towards composition – witness their bestselling box ‘Wandelweiser und so weiter’  - while often still featuring the same musicians. ‘Goldsmiths’ offers a nice balance of both music-making methods: a trio of compositions plus a gorgeous 20 minute improve by the whole group.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"Normal-P\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C15\"\u003eFans of odd titles get a treat from Sarah Hughes: ‘A Reward Is Given For The Best Infra-Mammary Fold No4’ sounds like a quote from a junior doctors’ rag mag. Rather than faintly covering the space, like some of Antoine Beuger’s music, Hughes’s piece occupies it fully, as instruments move from melodic events to hovering chords that build in intensity. John Tilbury’s piano adds rich colour to the strings (Angharad Davies and Lina Lapelyte on violins, Michael Duch on bass). Meanwhile John Lely’s electronics hang a backdrop and Rhodri Davies supplies subtle magic of the what-the-heck-is-he-doing kind,\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"Normal-P\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C15\"\u003eLely co-runs the London concert series Music We’d Like To Hear. His ‘First Page for Five’ is a systematic progression of staggered string and melodica chords. It’s a conceptually clear way of writing that connects with the English experimental tradition embodied by Michael Parsons. Beauty is achieved by pitting the slightly inhuman system of the composing against the very human and fragile performance.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"Normal-P\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C15\"\u003eTilbury returns for the flatly titled ‘Goldsmiths Improvisation’, which is maybe the disc’s highpoint. Finally Jürg Frey’s ‘Circular Music No.6’ is a journey through a super-delicate undergrowth of noises. The Swiss composer is an old Wandelweiser hand, and a decade ago his ‘Unhörbare Zeit’ was a cauldron of restraint for string quartet and percussion. The current piece is a deceptively simple mix of circular scraping motions, plus Lapelyte’s beautifully performed, hardly there vocalisation. Quiet but headspinning.”  \u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C16\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eClive Bell\u003c\/strong\u003e,\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C15\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C17\"\u003eThe Wire\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"Normal-P\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C17\"\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"Normal-P\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C15\"\u003e“Goldsmiths is a British college and the great reunion of Angharad Davies, Rhodri Davies, Michael Duch, Lina Lapelyte, John Lely and John Tilbury. Some of them are pretty young, the others play for decades. All of them are interested in composition, improvisation and experimental music, so it was natural to realize Sarah Hughes and Jürg Frey's pieces, a John Lely work and a long time improvisation together. All these works are delicate, quiet, pretty melodic and cyclic, and very well played.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C16\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eJulien Heraud\u003c\/strong\u003e,\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C17\"\u003eImprov-sphere\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"Normal-P\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C17\"\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"Normal-P\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C15\"\u003e“For the last fifty-odd years there’s been a grey area between what is composed and what is improvised. At home, I’ve been listening to some more new CDs from Another Timbre. Goldmsiths is a neat collection of four pieces for an ensemble of exceptional musicians equally adept at playing from a score or making it up. Everything is new, from last year: a piece each by Jürg Frey, Sarah Hughes and John Lely, and an improvisation. The pieces here alternate from being governed by a relatively strict, reductive principle of organisation (Frey, Lely) to music which opens up room for wider interpretation (Hughes). The improvisation is, theoretically, entirely free, but here the situation is not so simple.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"Normal-P\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C15\"\u003eThe musicians take the same “hazardous course” described by John Tilbury in yesterday’s post (and Tilbury is the pianist on this disc.) They respond to the immediate circumstances of the musical situation with keen awareness of mood and a sureness of touch. Their performances of Frey’s Circular Music No. 6 and Lely’s First Page for Five are subtly coloured with a sustained sense of atmosphere.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"Normal-P\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C15\"\u003eAlthough it is more diverse in its material, the improvisation could easily be taken as a composed work, of a piece with the rest of the programme. This feeling is compounded by the opening work, Sarah Hughes’ A Reward is given for the Best Inframammary Fold No. 4, which sounds as though it may be a companion improvisation. The piece is in fact composed, with a determined structure, contrasts, gestures and harmonic material all specified. How the contents of this structure are to be presented is left to the musicians. Here, the music flows and ebbs as though through a spontaneous collective activity, even though these elements and overall scheme were determined in advance by the composer.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"Normal-P\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C15\"\u003eIn the improvisation, with no hierarchy, the musicians must find their own constraints. They do a remarkable job of falling into the background when needed, providing tiny but essential shading that gives the music life. This becomes particularly clear in the strange, affecting coda.”   \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C16\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBen Harper\u003c\/strong\u003e,\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C17\"\u003eBoring like a drill\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"Wp-Normal-P\"\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Another Timbre","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51401271738682,"sku":"at92","price":9.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0740\/3631\/4426\/files\/at92Goldsmiths.jpg?v=1749136791"},{"product_id":"terry-riley-keyboard-studies-john-tilbury","title":"Terry Riley","description":"\u003cp class=\"Wp-Normal-P\" style=\"text-align: center;\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C11\"\u003e1 \u003cstrong\u003eKeyboard Study No.1\u003c\/strong\u003e   (1964)   piano           \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"Wp-Normal-P\" style=\"text-align: center;\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C11\"\u003e2 \u003cstrong\u003eKeyboard Study No.2\u003c\/strong\u003e   (1965)   electric organ, piano, harpsichord \u0026amp; celeste\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"Wp-Normal-P\" style=\"text-align: center;\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C11\"\u003e3 \u003cstrong\u003eDorian Reeds\u003c\/strong\u003e   (1964\/5)    \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C10\"\u003eelectric organ\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"Wp-Normal-P\" style=\"text-align: center;\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C10\"\u003eRecorded in Hamburg, some time between 1975 and 1995 - details forgotten\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003e\u003cimg src=\"https:\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0740\/3631\/4426\/files\/Terry_Riley_480x480.jpg?v=1751531502\" style=\"margin-bottom: 16px; float: none; display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;\"\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"Wp-Normal-P\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C13\"\u003eTerry Riley and John Tilbury are both giants of experimental music. They were friends from the late 1960’s onwards, and John has performed Terry’s Keyboard Studies several times in concert, as well as recording them for BBC Radio in 1971.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"Wp-Normal-P\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C13\"\u003eHowever, the recordings on the CD are not the BBC recordings.  In fact John can’t remember exactly when the recordings were made, though he thinks they took place in Hamburg, Germany, probably about 30 years ago. He can’t recall the details, except that everything was recorded in one day - which was quite a feat given the amount of over-dubbing in Keyboard Study No.2.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"Wp-Normal-P\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C13\"\u003eWhat is clear is that John was at the height of his considerable powers at the time the recordings were made.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"Wp-Normal-P\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C13\"\u003eAside from the legendary ‘In C’, the Keyboard Studies are probably the most frequently performed of Terry Riley’s works. Written almost 60 years ago, virtually at the same time as ‘In C’, the Keyboard Studies are like  short sketches for the performer to develop. At the time Terry was developing a semi-improvisational practice as a young keyboard player in San Francisco, and it is his music from this era which shot him to prominence in the late 1960’s. He has continued to work as both a performer and composer, and has had a particularly close relationship with the Kronos Quartet, writing many works for them, and for his son, the guitarist Gyan Riley.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"Wp-Normal-P\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Normal-C-C13\"\u003e\u003cimg src=\"https:\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0740\/3631\/4426\/files\/john_tilbury_3_060146e2-c2f1-4eca-af11-cc4fbc4b1aa3.jpg?v=1751531639\" alt=\"\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Another Timbre","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51428997103930,"sku":"at193","price":11.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0740\/3631\/4426\/files\/at193frontcover.png?v=1749648304"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.anothertimbre.com\/collections\/john-tilbury-cds.oembed","provider":"Another Timbre","version":"1.0","type":"link"}