Author: admin

admin is a mousy little thing who does all the basic work that the rest of the EMC can trust it to do. It likes best to keep its nose and coat shiny and its whiskers quivering. admin is very shy, so you won't see it in the daytime, and rarely at night.

EMC Upgrade/update

Sharp-eyed readers will see a lot of changes slowly appearing to the EMC website. First, there’s a slightly sleeker look. We think that it might be easier to find things with our new menu. We’re placing more pictures on the page, sound file samples of the CDs that we currently sell, and are just starting to put short samples from our scores, with a bit more information about each piece. You can see an example of this last improvement here, with a page for Chris Hobbs’ 24 Preludes for solo piano: http://www.experimentalmusic.co.uk/emc/Hobbs_24_Preludes.html . More — much more — to come. We hope to add many more freebies as we go, so keep in touch!

Fizzle fizzling around with international fizzles

The Lamp Tavern,

Barford St,

Birmingham,

B5 6AH.

Tuesday 20th May, 8:30pm.

Francois Carrier – alto sax

Alexey Lapin – piano

Michel Lambert – drums

This group has released three live albums on Leo Records since their first Russian Tour. Furthermore, FMR Records will soon release a new live double album of our April 2013 russian tour.

More here: http://www.francoiscarrier.com/

Hobbs and Bryars at the London Contemporary Music Festival

Hobbs and Bryars will recreate parts of their album, Ensemble Music (Obscure 2), May 26, 2014, including:

  • Christopher Hobbs, Aran and McCrimmon Will Never Return
  • Gavin Bryars, 1,2,1-2-3-4

plus music by John White and a live improvisation by Maggie Nicols. This is a rare — nay, an unheard-of — recreation of Hobbs’ and Bryars’ pieces using antiquated instruments (reed organs, toy pianos) and (hopefully) live analogue electronics.

http://lcmf.co.uk/26-May-British-Underground

Really worth seeing just for these three pieces.

Centri-fizzle

More free improvisation fun from our friends at Fizzle, Birmingham:

A Centrifuge-Fizzle co-promotion

Centrifuge nos # 26
Tuesday 6th May at The Lamp Tavern, 157 Barford St, Birmingham B5 6AH.
8.15pm, £5/3.

Centrifuge brings an exciting collection improvising musicians based in North and Midlands together in Birmingham. The musicians, with a range of different musical practices, will combine in various small groupings to deliver a program of free improvisations in music.

Featuring the following and more or less:

Andrew Woodhead
Dom Lash
Ian Simpson
Mark Summers
Mike Hurley
Phil Hargreaves
Phil Lucking
Phil Morton
Phil Rowland
Walt Shaw

Phil Morton notes: A tasty line up, good instrumentation, and excellent to see the “Phil’s” are well respresented.

Instruments may include
Accidents & Treatments, Double Bass, Bass Clarinet, Electronics,Flute, Flugelhorn, Guitar, Keyboard, percussion, Sax, Trumpets, Voice,

More at: http://www.improvisersnetwork.co.uk/centrifuge/2014/centrifuge26.htm

 

Bryars at the London Festival of Contemporary Church Music

Big Bryars concert coming up next month in London:

May 17 2014 St Pancras Parish Church, Euston Road, London

  •  Psalm 132  (SATB, organ & trumpet) 6’  (London premiere)
  • Lauda 29 “O divina virgo, flore” 3’ Orlanda Bryars, solo + cello, bass and electric guitar
  • A Time & A Place – organ solo c.5’ (London premiere)
  • Lauda 4 “Oi me lasso” Orlanda Bryars, solo + viola, cello, electric guitar, bass c.4’
  • Psalm 126 (SATB; Gavin Bryars double bass) c.7’ (+ GB bass) (World premiere)
  • St Brendan arrives at the Promised Land of the Saints (SATB; Alex Balanescu, violin & organ) c.8’ (London premiere)

INTERVAL

  • The Flower of Friendship 10’ viola, cello, electric guitar, bass
  • Jesus’ Blood Never Failed Me Yet 30’ choir, organ and ensemble
  •  The Addison Singers, conductor David Wordsworth
  • Orlanda Bryars, soprano; Gavin Bryars Ensemble
  • Violins: Alex Balanescu; Morgan Goff;
  • Violas: Nick Barr; Katie Wilkinson
  • Cellos: Sophie Harris, Audrey Riley, Ziella Bryars, Orlanda Bryars
  • Bass: Gavin Bryars, Yuri Bryars
  • James Woodrow: guitars
  • Woodwind: Roger Heaton
  • Horn/Keyboard: Dave Smith
  • Percussion: Martin Allen

For information, see: http://www.gavinbryars.com/calendar/london-performance-jesus-blood-plus-other-choral-works

New Book about John White!

We had been meaning to put this announcement up for all to attend, but we understand that it sold out almost immediately. This is the launch of Dave Smith’s book, The A-Z of John White, sponsored by the Intitutuum Pataphysicum Londiniense, Sunday, 6 April, at Charlie Wright’s International Bar and Jazz Lounge, in London from 4 pm. John White is also 78 years old this week, so the theme of the activities — a lot of performances! — is 78.

White, who is pretty much the ‘Godfatha’ of British Minimalism, has created Machines, systems, electronic symphonies and his own diary-like series of piano sonatas (near 200 these days — it’s hard to keep up with him!) over the years, as well as founding some of the great British groups: the Promenade Theatre Orchestra, Hobbs-White Duo, The Garden Furniture Ensemble, Farewell Symphony Orchestra, Live Batts!!, among others. White’s music (as you might guess from the band titles) is inventive and delightful. Dave’s book is a compendium of all things White, including types of music, performances, and reviews. Important stuff. Here’s the announcement: we’ll let you know how to get the book and hopefully send news of what happened at this event next week. (the pictures are those of all sorts of guys named John White).

White Event flyer final 3

In C at 50

For those of you in Birmingham, the Frontiers Festival has a whole lot of music from Downtown New York and Britain — and from Texas and California (though now based in New York), Pauline Oliveros. We haven’t shared this before because the festival web site is clumsy to load and uninformative once there, with a number of events that are absent or hard to find.

But here’s an offering: a free lunchtime concert celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of Terry Riley’s In C, in the rotunda of the new Birmingham Library, on Friday, 4 April from 12.15–1.15. It’s directed by Simon Peacock, with the Thallein Ensemble and Surge, with special guest star Christopher Hobbs. Hobbs is there because he mounted the first performance of In C in Britain. The story, quite cute, is here: http://www.frontiersmusic.org/events/event/terry-rileys-in-c/

Seeing and hearing better with a lot of Glasses

If you’re hanging around Paris — who doesn’t? — this April, you might want to see Nicolas Horvath’s pianistic tribute to Philip Glass. Not only is Horvath playing a load of Glass, he’s also commissioned many, many pieces in tribute to Glass from composers all over the world, including Kyle Gann, Paul Epstein, and the EMC’s founder, Christopher Hobbs. You can find out all about it here: http://nicolaspaulhorvath.wix.com/glassworlds#!-propos1/cm9j. A Glass a day keeps the doctor away, so this must be the healthiest concert, ever!

Sound Out Resonance Radio Tribute to Alec Hill

Carole Finer contacted us to share news that the show tribute to Alec Hill, Promenade Theatre Orchestra and Scratch Orchestra member, composer and clarinettist, is now available on Soundcloud. There are some lovely moments in this rather funny and very heartfelt tribute: Alec Hill’s whistle solo on the performance of Paragraph 1 (and 2) of Cornelius Cardew’s The Great Learning at the BBC Proms concert at the Albert Hall in 1972; the PTO playing Hill’s Large Change Machine (1972), and other pieces. Here’s where you can find it: https://soundcloud.com/resonance-fm/14-00-00-sound-out-320kbps-4?utm_source=soundcloud&utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=facebook