Posts Tagged ‘Valgeir Sigurðsson’
Fractured Air x Blogothèque – S02E03 | March mix
For March’s mixtape we are excited to share two exclusive tracks, by Reykjavík-based composer Valgeir Sigurðsson (Iceland/Bedroom Community) and Berlin-based percussionist and drummer Andrea Belfi (Italy/Float).
Valgeir Sigurðsson releases his hugely anticipated new solo work “Dissonance” (the follow-up to 2013’s mesmerising “Architecture Of Loss” LP) on April 21st via Icelandic independent label Bedroom Community (founded by Sigurðsson in 2006). Recorded and produced between September 2015 and November 2016 at his Reykjavík-based Greenhouse Studios, “Dissonance” confirms Sigurðsson as one of contemporary music’s most gifted and innovative composers in the modern classical realm. “Dissonance” features collaborators Liam Byrne and Reykjavík Sinfonia and features the monumental side-long title-track alongside two separate suites: “No Nights Dark Enough” (in five parts) and the three-part “1875”.
The Italian-born and Berlin-based artist Andrea Belfi releases his sublime full-length “Ore” – excitingly the first for Float – which comprises his finely-honed craft as a gifted drummer and percussionist, using his own trusted sound set-up (a Saari drum-kit from Finland and a Nord modular and sampler). In recent times, Belfi’s name has reached a wider audience while collaborating and touring with the Nils Frahm-led, Berlin-based three-piece Nonkeen (R&S Records). “Ore” will be released on 26 May 2017 via Float.
Numero Group – the ever-indispensable archival and reissue specialists – this month issued the definitive double-album retrospective on The Creation, the short-lived but hugely influential 1960’s mod-rock group. Entitled “Action Painting”, the double-album set features the complete Creation studio recordings as well as tracks from The Creation’s predecessors, The Mark Four (featuring future Kinks bassist John Dalton).
March’s mix also features new releases from: Colin Stetson; Feist; Nathan Fake; Forest Swords; The Shins; Spoon; Demen and Kelly Lee Owens.
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Fractured Air x Blogothèque – S02E03 | March mix
To listen on La Blogothèque:
http://www.blogotheque.net/2017/03/29/fractured-air-x-blogotheque-s02e03-march-mix/
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01. Nick Cave & Warren Ellis – “Mars Theme” (Mars OST, Milan)
02. Andrea Belfi – “Lead” (Float)
03. Blanck Mass – “Rhesus Negative” (Sacred Bones)
04. Moiré – “Auteur (Outro)” (Ghostly International)
05. Lusine – “Witness” (feat. Benoît Pioulard) (Ghostly International)
06. Earthen Sea – “About That Time” (Kranky)
07. Demen – “Niorum” (Kranky)
08. Ben Frost – “Impossibilities” (Fortitude OST, SATV Publishing Limited/Sky, Mute)
09. Valgeir Sigurðsson – “No Nights Dark Enough II. infamy sings” (Bedroom Community)
10. Feist – “Pleasure” (Polydor)
11. The Creation – “Through My Eyes” (Numero Group)
12. Spoon – “Us” (Matador)
13. The Shins – “The Fear” (Columbia)
14. Ennio Morricone – “Un Uomo Da Rispettare” (Un Uomo Da Rispettare OST, Superior Viaduct)
15. High Plains – “Blood That Ran the Rapids” (Kranky)
16. Kelly Lee Owens – “Lucid” (Smalltown Supersound)
17. Forest Swords – “The Highest Flood” (Ninja Tune)
18. Nathan Fake – “HoursDaysMonthsSeasons” (Ninja Tune)
19. Colin Stetson – “In the clinches” (Constellation)
20. Actress – “X22RME” (Ninja Tune)
21. FKA Twigs – “Hide” (Young Turks)
22. Todd Terje – “Jungelknugen” (Four Tet Remix) (Olsen Norway)
23. Peaking Lights – “Little Flower” (Two Flowers)
24. Risco Connection – “Ain’t No Stopping Us Now” (Soul Jazz)
25. Madlib – “Cue 4” (Stones Throw)
26. Little Simz – “No More Wonderland” (AGE 101)
27. Rusangano Family – “Eyedentity” (Self-Released)
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Compiled by Fractured Air, March 2017. The copyright in these recordings is the property of the individual artists and/or record labels. If you like the music, please support the artist by buying their records.
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http://www.blogotheque.net/
https://fracturedair.com/
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Whatever You Love You Are: Nadia Sirota
In celebration of the prestigious Icelandic label Bedroom Community’s tenth anniversary year, we are delighted to present the second in a series of features where the artists share their musical influences, memories and most cherished recordings. Following on from label co-founder Valgeir Sigurðsson, it’s New York’s renowned violist and composer, Nadia Sirota.
Words: Nadia Sirota
Bedroom Community is an Icelandic record label/collective formed in 2006 by Valgeir Sigurðsson, with Nico Muhly and Ben Frost, later adding Sam Amidon, Daníel Bjarnason, Puzzle Muteson, Paul Corley, Nadia Sirota and James McVinnie to the intimate roster. 2015 saw two new additions to the family being: Emily Hall & Jodie Landau and wild Up.
Like-minded, yet diverse individuals from different corners of the globe all creatively orbit around an inconspicuous building and its inhabitants on the outskirts of Reykjavík Iceland – Greenhouse Studios – where the music is mostly created.
In celebration of the influential record label’s 10th Anniversary in 2016, members of the collective come together in a series of live performances known as the Whale Watching Tour. The inspirational tour is an unusual and ambitious premise. The artists, who are friends and colleagues, present what is more like a musical conversation with aspects of a show-and-tell than a formal concert.
Nadia Sirota, Valgeir Sigurðsson, Nico Muhly, Sam Amidon, Daníel Bjarnason & Jodie Landau are going for several dates on both side of the Atlantic to keep going this Whale Watching Tour 2016, celebrating the tenth anniversary of Bedroom Community. They will also deliver during Iceland Airwaves a very special performance together with the Icelandic Symphony Orchestra in Harpa, Reykjavik.
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The first piece of classical music you fell in love with?
When I was very little I was OBSESSED with the Overture from Bernstein’s Candide. Obsessed.
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A recording whose arrangements floored you?
David Bowie ‘Blackstar’ sounds so bonkers-good.
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A masterful composition which made a huge impact on you?
Olivier Messiaen Quartet for the End of Time
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An unforgettable live performance you have been part of?
My very first BedCom performance at Airwaves, of KIT, in 2006. It was also the first time I’d played a long-ass viola piece for a bunch of drunk and sweaty festival-goers and and I became addicted to it.
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A defining record that led you onto your own musical path?
Kim Kashkashian’s Brahms Viola Sonatas
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Nadia will perform along with Nico Muhly on the album launch concert on September 27th, and during Bedroom Community’s Whale Watching Tour.
WHALE WATCHING TOUR
27.09.2016 New-York, Subculture**
01.10.16 Krakow, Sacrum Profanum **
03.10.16 Copenhagen, Bremen Teater *
04.10.16 Leipzig, UT Connewitz*
05.10.16 Amsterdam, Paradiso*
06.10.16 Bristol, Colston Hall*
07.10.16 London, Barbican **
03.11.16 Reykjavík, Iceland Airwaves **
Nadia Sirota*
Nico Muhly & Nadia Sirota**
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Over the past decade, Sirota has been involved with unique interpretations of new scores and for commissioning and premiering works by some of the most talented composers. The New York Times has heralded Sirota as “a bold new-wave music interpreter and the violist of choice among downtown ensembles these days.” Sirota has been an integral part to luminaries of both the modern-classical scene (Stars Of The Lid, Max Richter, Jóhann Jóhannsson) and indie giants such as Arcade Fire, The National and Grizzly Bear, to name but a few. Similar to her close friend and colleague, Nico Muhly, Sirota graduated from the Juilliard School where she created the Juilliard Plays Juilliard programme for student composers and performers. Furthermore, Sirota is also a founding member of ACME (the American Contemporary Music Ensemble).
‘Keep In Touch’ is the new album from Nico Muhly & Nadia Sirota and features The Detroit Symphony Orchestra and Alarm Will Sound. ‘Keep In Touch’, especially in its original version, was premised on the fear of never quite managing to make that connection. Its two soloists—violist Nadia Sirota and vocalist Anohni, of Antony and the Johnsons—were recorded separately, so that Anohni was virtually present, her part constructed from pass after pass of vocal improvisations, while Nadia’s was added later, all in one long, live take.
Every dimension of the piece accentuates what Muhly calls the “in-betweenness” of these two strange voices: Antony’s singing and the equally sweet falsetto of the viola. The solo part, with its bow-scrapes and awkward passagework, affectionately emphasises the instrument’s flaws, its unevenness’s of tone, and its idiosyncratic character as the neglected middle child of the fiddle family. (Even the percussion on the electronic track is constructed from the little noises a violist usually makes only by accident.) And Antony’s voice, so stately on his own records, is here reduced to abrupt, extemporaneous gestures” mirroring, not alleviating, the viola’s isolation.
– Program Notes, Daniel Johnson (2007)
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‘Keep In Touch’ is released via Bedroom Community on 30th September.
https://bedroomcommunity.bandcamp.com/album/keep-in-touch
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http://www.bedroomcommunity.net/
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Whatever You Love You Are: Valgeir Sigurðsson
In celebration of the prestigious Icelandic label Bedroom Community’s tenth anniversary year, we are delighted to present the first in a series of features where the artists share their musical influences, memories and most cherished recordings. First up is label co-founder Valgeir Sigurðsson.
Words: Valgeir Sigurðsson
Bedroom Community is an Icelandic record label/collective formed in 2006 by Valgeir Sigurðsson, with Nico Muhly and Ben Frost, later adding Sam Amidon, Daníel Bjarnason, Puzzle Muteson, Paul Corley, Nadia Sirota and James McVinnie to the intimate roster. 2015 saw two new additions to the family being: Emily Hall & Jodie Landau and wild Up.
Like-minded, yet diverse individuals from different corners of the globe all creatively orbit around an inconspicuous building and its inhabitants on the outskirts of Reykjavík Iceland – Greenhouse Studios – where the music is mostly created.
In celebration of the influential record label’s 10th Anniversary in 2016, members of the collective come together in a series of live performances known as the Whale Watching Tour. The inspirational tour is an unusual and ambitious premise. The artists, who are friends and colleagues, present what is more like a musical conversation with aspects of a show-and-tell than a formal concert.
“The Whale Watching Tour is an opportunity to manifest what we, as a record label and a collective of disparate musical personalities, do behind the closed doors of the studio. To create something uniquely belonging to the live experience from source material that is very familiar to us. These shows are fuelled by joyful energy and appreciation for each other but also tension, blood and sweat that makes it all the more rewarding at the end of the day.”
– Valgeir Sigurðsson
Valgeir Sigurðsson, Nico Muhly, Nadia Sirota, Sam Amidon, Daníel Bjarnason & Jodie Landau are going for several dates on both side of the Atlantic to keep going this Whale Watching Tour 2016, celebrating the tenth anniversary of Bedroom Community. They will also deliver during Iceland Airwaves a very special performance together with the Icelandic Symphony Orchestra in Harpa, Reykjavik.
Running alongside this, though, is a commitment to releasing new music. The label has launched the Hvalreki series, a platform for inquisitive producers to group together and focus on fresh innovation. The title means ‘beach whale’ in Icelandic, and it aims to become a regular showcase for ideas that sit outside the norm. The Hvalreki series launches with material from Nico Muhly and Valgeir Sigurðsson. ‘Scent Opera‘ owes its origins to a project at the Guggenheim back in 2009, and it’s a lengthy, hypnotic work.
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‘Scent Opera’ by Nico Muhly & Valgeir Sigurðsson is available now:
For full dates of Bedroom Community’s forthcoming Whale Watching European Tour, visit HERE
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First piece of classical music you fell in love with?
Air on G string – Johann Sebastian Bach
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A recording whose arrangements floored you?
Talk Talk Spirit of Eden
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A masterful composition which made a huge impact on you?
Piano & String Quartet – Morton Feldman
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An unforgettable live performance you have been part of?
A disastrous gig in Magdeburg on a joint tour with Ben Frost in the early days.
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A defining record that led you onto your own musical path?
The Clash London Calling
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Composers/records/musical voices you feel you have learned the most from?
Nico Muhly / Selmasongs / Mark Bell
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Most cherished moment(s) from Bedroom Community’s first ten years?
WhaleWatching Tour 2010
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Favourite film score(s)
Bernard Herrmann Vertigo
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One musical philosophy that has always remained true for you?
“It doesn’t matter what you can, only what you do” – Einar Örn Benediktsson 1982
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A piece of music / recording / song that speaks to you like no other
Nick Drake River Man
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‘Scent Opera’ by Nico Muhly & Valgeir Sigurðsson is available now:
For full dates of Bedroom Community’s forthcoming Whale Watching European Tour, visit HERE
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Whatever You Love You Are: Emily Hall
Earlier this year marked the release of ‘Folie à Deux’, a highly ambitious concept album detailing a modern-day relationship of love and loneliness by the award-winning British composer Emily Hall. Commissioned by Mahogany Opera Group, the album’s lyrics were written by long-term Björk collaborator Sjón, while the album was released by world-renowned Iceland independent Bedroom Community. ‘Folie à Deux’ was written for two singers – Swedish vocalist Sofia Jernberg and British tenor Allan Clayton – while a specially created electro-magnetic harp was also made for the recordings. Emily Hall studied composition at York University and the Royal College of Music, London. She has written for many different ensembles and orchestras including the London Sinfonietta, LSO, BBCNOW, the Brodsky Quartet, Opera North, LCO, Hungarian Radio Choir.
Words: Emily Hall
Grisey: Partiels
I couldn’t believe my ears and my eyes when I first heard this. Grisey deconstructed sound then reconstructed it with a live orchestra to this insanely beautiful effect. I took a lot from Grisey for a long while and it’s stayed with me.
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Owen Pallet: Heartland
Here’s a great concept album which can be appreciated on so many levels and which has a narrative you have to work to discover (in a good way). It was definitely a reference when I decided to create my own opera/concept album in Folie.
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Dido and Aeneus: When I am laid in earth: Henry Purcell
The harmony of the suspended vocal line against the strings in this aria is probably perfect. I love the zoomed in and heightened emotional state he creates.
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Tracey Emin: words
I see Tracey Emin as a benchmark for honesty in art – the transparency of her art and words has a direct hit for me which I always aspire to.
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Debussy: Pelléas et Mélisande
I saw this in my early 20s and it had a massive impact on me. It has a really distinct dreamy atmosphere and a good production will fold you into Debissy’s dreamy world and keep you there. I think it is the kind of opera that can only be felt live.
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Olivia Chaney
Voices are always a major inspiration for me. Here’s Olivia Chaney one of my favourite singers and someone I’ve had the pleasure to write for.
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‘Folie à Deux’ is available now on Bedroom Community.
http://www.emilyhall.co.uk/
http://bedroomcommunity.net/
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