A Present for You, Unhidden

Composer/Bassoonist/Improviser Katherine Young is a good friend to the quartet, having written a suite of four ringtones for our Mobile Miniatures project and a fascinating arrangement of an Arthur Russell tune for our Chambers album release party this fall.  The arrangement of the coy "Hiding Your Present From You" is a joy to perform, both for its easy groove and satisfying sonic detail.  So, we're releasing it in a home-made recording on Soundcloud - a little mid-winter single for you.

We hope you enjoy the tune. If you want to learn more and hear the original Katherine has some great things to say about the song and her work in an interview from this fall.

Ringmasters: Collin J Rae

Collin J Rae is one of the most multi-faceted artists I know. We met, virtually-speaking, when Collin was working for Naxos Records where among his many responsibilities, he was creating box sets and collections of some of the weirder (translation: more compelling) music at the label. Rather than the usual Beethoven sonata or Mahler symphony release, Collin was championing new-music talent like Gloria Coates, Nicholas Repac and Frank Bretschneider. Needless to say, we became fast friends and colleagues.

Collin is also one of the world's most highly-regarded foot fetish photographers. Bet you didn't see that one coming.

Spektral recently partnered with this boundary-hopping composer for his F O N E (an un-performable symphony) project. Like the other collaborators, we left Collin a voicemail, playing one of the gnarlier passages of Elliott Carter's Quartet No. 2. All of these voicemails will be mined and restructured to create a brand-new work. It sounds fantastic and bizarre, right?

We are really lucky to have Collin on board for Mobile Miniatures, and can't wait to hear what shenanigans and tomfoolery he gets up to with his ringtone!

Ringmasters: Nomi Epstein

I met Nomi Epstein while she was curating Chicago's John Cage festival in the spring of 2012.  At the end of each day's events, she somehow still had the energy to indulge me on all things Cage (try putting on Variations V, I dare you).  Our mutual admiration for the composer seems to find its way in nearly ever conversation we've had since the festival, whether it's talking about the most recent Cage conference she attended or geeking out over the latest staging of HPSCHD that we heard about that is obviously in New York and why is it not in Chicago HEY WE SHOULD BRING THIS TO CHICAGO.

I have a feeling Nomi thinks about Cage just as much when she's composing.  Her works run the notational gamut, from traditional scores to interpreted spatial scenarios, yet each set of means searches for the same ideal: to let sounds be themselves.  There is an objectivity in her music that can be comforting to an audience; there's nothing to "get," there's only something to listen to.  And that's okay.

Ringmasters: Shulamit Ran

Shulamit Ran is one of the most artistically generous composers I know. While preparing her Perfect Storm (for solo viola) for a performance at University of Chicago last year, she invited me to her home for a coaching. What took me by surprise that day is Shulamit's deftness in verbally articulating what she's after, gesturally and emotionally, in her music. Composing a brilliant and virtuosic passage is one thing, but guiding the performer there expediently, getting him to "hear" exactly what you "hear" is something else entirely.

 

Shulamit's music is expertly crafted, demonstrative and poignant. She's also in high demand around the world, so we were delighted when she came on board for Mobile Miniatures. One of her reasons, she explained, is that the challenge of "saying something" in 3-30 seconds was too perplexing to pass up. 

 

It should tell you all you need to know about Shulamit's work ethic and drive as a composer that in a recent correspondence, she informed us that she had written not one, but an ENTIRE SUITE of ringtones! I feel like we just won the composer commission lottery!

Ringmasters: Erin Gee

Erin Gee is a unique composer and performer...not to mention a truly bold collaborator. Her work represents a striking deconstruction of the sounds of language alongside a luminous harmonic language.  Plus, her vocal performances are unlike anything I've ever seen.  Watching her manipulate the elements of human speech and vocal technique in such seamless and nuanced ways as you'll see below is truly unparalleled.

The striking sonorities of this piece shimmer on the edge of the borders of society and history.  Where are we in our travels that finds us in this strange place?  Allow your mind to delve into the depths of its associations along with this music:

What might such a virtuosic vocal performer and composer do with your text message alert or ringtone?

Ringmasters: Marc Mellits

Marc Mellits is a force to be reckoned with in the contemporary music world, having composed a huge number of works for the full range of classical ensembles.  He's frequently commissioned for major works by orchestras and top chamber groups, including Kronos Quartet, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and the Bang on a Can All-Stars just to name a few.

His style is marked by a driving rhythmic style that still has no shortage of soaring melodies and arrestingly intimate moments.  But, he describes himself as frequently a "miniaturist" so he seemed like a perfect fit for our Mobile Miniatures project.  We couldn't be happier to have him on board.

His energetic style and puckish spirit are on full display here:

Ringmasters: Nathan Davis

My first introduction to Nathan Davis' music was ICE's performance of his piece Bells at Chicago's Museum of Contemporary Art.  Performers, dispersed around the museum's lobby and atrium, played material that was manipulated electronically while the audience processed around, cell phones in hand.  We were asked to call various numbers which would receive those same electronic manipulations being sent from a ring modulator that Nathan was operating in the museum, creating a sort of ambulatory speaker system.  The hazy textures from wandering phones superimposed onto the live instruments was fascinating.

Nathan's penchant for electronics is undeniable; I think I've yet to see a work of his that was strictly acoustic.  Yet he does such an amazing job of tricking the listener into believing there are no computers present; instruments are electronically processed only to highlight their idiosyncrasies, to accentuate themselves with themselves.  Nathan is able to find the little quirks that define an instrument and develop them organically through digital means.  The result is at times corporeal and human, at other times meditative and spiritual.  His work for bassoonist Rebekah Heller, On Speaking One Hundred Names, seems to demonstrate both: 

Ringmasters: Matt Marks

Matt Marks is one of my favorite composers on Twitter. To give you a taste of his particular brand of humor, his 2010 debut album is titled, The Little Death, Vol. 1. Feel free to go look that phrase up, if you aren't already chuckling.

Little Death is emblematic of why I am drawn in by Matt's music. Sugary pop sequences intermingle with praise music, gospel and hip-hop in a subversive narrative about (among other things) navigating sexual tension in a fundamentalist community. Matt is skilled at holding up that proverbial mirror, and nails it with an ecstatic and charming aural delivery system. Give "He Touched Me" a listen and get a taste...

 

Matt is particularly suited to writing a ringtone for Mobile Miniatures, and based on our email correspondence, his will inevitably cause spontaneous eruptions of smiles when your phone goes off in the elevator.

Ringmasters: David Lang

I first fell in love with the music of David Lang while reviewing his Little Match Girl Passion, and have been a fan ever since. David has a way of instantly depositing you into a space both enigmatic and at the same time uncannily familiar. Those lucky enough to have caught his Whisper Opera at MCA last year will remember how transportive was the multi-dimensional treatment of sound...while the traveling proximity of vocalist Tony Arnold created an intimacy usually reserved for secretive exchanges between confidants.

 

 

I'll be honest, we figured David for a long shot when we approached him about Mobile Miniatures, so it was thrilling to get a "yes" in response. He is one of the busiest composers in the biz, and yet this project seems particularly suited to his borderless approach to music. My favorite example, and one that literally sends chills down my spine every time I think of it, is his Départs project for a hospital morgue in Garches, France. David developed this piece to sonically accompany grieving families about to view their departed loved one. Imagine the artistic responsibility involved in taking on such a delicate moment...perhaps the most difficult of anyone's life. If you'd like to know more, RadioLab covered the project.