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Historical voices inform contemporary ones in this podcast. We pay our respects to Karl Berger, who bridged Ornette Coleman’s milieu with today’s Downtown improv scene. We celebrate synthesizer pioneer Morton Subotnick for his 90th birthday, and we connect Sun Ra’s contemporaneous synth experiments with the extemporaneous electroacoustic world of London’s Scatter quartet. The Grdina/Maneri/Lillinger trio gives some consideration to the oud and viola as worthy instruments for avant-improvisation. And we espy similarities between Scott Fields’ new text settings and Charles Dodge’s primordial experiments in musicalized computer speech, which are likewise turning 50.
PatKop as a composer? That too is on the docket, showing her affinity for Webern, something true for Feldman too, as revealed by a concerto that he refused to call a concerto and which is celebrating its 50th anniversary this week. New works by Elsa Bergman, Stefano Gervasoni and Philippe Manoury round out the playlist.
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Flotation Device 2023-04-16: Annotated playlist by host Michael Schell
Intro and SET 1: Karl Berger (1935–2023) [0:00]
1. [2:00] John Zorn: Retort (excerpt). From 444 (Tzadik, 2023) with Chaos Magick: Brian Marsella (electric piano), John Medeski (organ), Matt Hollenberg (electric guitar), Kenny Grohowski (drums, percussion), Marc Urselli (recording engineer)
2. [6:01] Sana Nagano: Zoomies. From Anime Mundi (577, 2022) with Sana Nagano (violin, effects), Karl Berger (piano, vibraphone), Billy Martin (drums, percussion), Chris Bittner (recording engineer)
3. [11:41] Elsa Bergman: Heartbeats. From Playon Crayon (Bergman Inspelningar, 2023) with Susana Santos Silva (trumpet), Katt Hernandez (violin), David Stackenäs (guitar), Elsa Bergman (double bass), Matilda Rolfsson (drums), Göran Stegborn (recording engineer)
4. [14:55] Stefano Gervasoni: Clamour (Third String Quartet) [excerpts]. From Gervasoni, Pesson, Poppe (Naïve, 2021) with Quatuor Diotima: Yun-Peng Zhao, Constance Ronzatti (violin), Franck Chevalier (viola), Pierre Morlet (cello). NOTE: Composed 2014–15
5. [19:15] Scott Fields: Sand 4. From Sand (Relative Pitch, 2023) with Scott Fields Ensemble: Daniel Agi, Norbert Rodenkirchen (flutes), Frank Gratkowski (clarinet), Salim Javaid (alto saxophone), Matthias Schubert (tenor saxophone), Udo Moll (trumpet), Matthias Muche (trombone), Melvyn Poore (tuba), Tal Botvinik, Sergio Sorrentino, David Stackenäs (electric guitar), Shiau-Shiuan Hung, Arturo Portugal (percussion), Axel Lindner, Carolin Pook (violin), Annegret Mayer-Lindenberg (viola), Katharina Hoffmann, Scott Roller (cello), Jonas Gerigk, Miles Perkin (contrabass), Tamara Lukasheva, Hanna Schörken, Sophie Tassignon (voice), Scott Fields (conductor), Reinhard Kobialka (recording engineer)
6. [27:00] Charles Dodge: Speech Songs - A Man Sitting in the Cafeteria. From Any Resemblance Is Purely Coincidental (New Albion, 1992). NOTE: Realized 1993 at Bell Telephone Laboratories, Murray Hill, NJ⠀
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SET 2: Electro-explorations 50 years ago and today [28:29]
1. [33:15] Charles Dodge: Speech Songs - The Days Are Ahead (credits as above)
2. [35:16] Sun Ra: Cosmo-Media. From Pathways to Unknown Worlds (Impulse!, 1975, reissued 2019 by Modern Harmonic) with Sun Ra and his Astro Infinity Arkestra: Sun Ra (Minimoog, electric vibraphone, organ), John Gilmore (tenor sax, timbales), Lamont McClamb AKA Kwame Hadi (trumpet), Ronnie Boykins (bass), Clifford Jarvis (drums), James Jacson (Infinity drum), Russell Branch AKA Odun, Stanley Morgan AKA Atakatune, Eugene Brennan (percussion). NOTE: Recorded early 1973
3. [42:21] Morton Subotnick: 4 Butterflies - Butterfly No. 4. From 4 Butterflies (Columbia, 1974, reissued 2011 by Mode as Electronic Works 3). NOTE: Realized 1973
4. [49:28] Ewa Trębacz: Metanoia - Part 3. From Sound Chronicle of the 2020 Warsaw Autumn (Polmic, 2022) with Adam Bałdych (violin), NFM Leopoldinum Orchestra, Christian Danowicz (conductor), Paweł Hendrich (live electronics), Ewa Trębacz (fixed media), Julita Emanuiłow and Joanna Popowicz (recording engineers). NOTE: Source material recorded at Fort Worden (Port Townsend, WA) and Satsop Nuclear Plant (Grays Harbor County, WA) by Ewa Trębacz and Josiah Boothby
5. [56:47] Outro with Agata Zubel, Cezary Duchnowski: Whims for desemantric verbaphone
6. [1:01:04] Sun Ra: Friendly Love III. From Pathways To Unknown Worlds/Friendly Love (Evidence, 2000) with Sun Ra and his Astro Infinity Arkestra: Sun Ra (organ), Danny Davis (alto saxophone), John Gilmore (tenor saxophone), Danny Ray Thompson (baritone saxophone, Neptunian Libflecto), Kwame Hadi (trumpet, congas), Akh Tal Ebah (flugelhorn), Harry Richards (drums), Atakatune (congas). NOTE: Recorded early 1973⠀
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SET 3: More whims [1:07:33]
1. [1:09:46] Scatter: On A Clear Day (excerpts). From On A Clear Day Like This (577, 2023) with Phil Minton (voice), Pat Thomas (piano, electronics), Dave Tucker (electric and acoustic guitars), Roger Turner (drums, percussion), Shaun Crook (recording engineer). NOTE: Recorded live July 27, 2017 at Cafe Oto, London
2. [1:15:59] Patricia Kopatchinskaja AKA Patkop: Ghiribizzi. From Creation (Alpha, 2022) with Vilde Frang (violin), Nicolas Altstaedt (cello), Andreas Ruge (recording engineer)
3. [1:21:43] Philippe Manoury: Argumenta (excerpt). From Argumenta (Gateway Music/Ekkozone, 2023) with Mathias Reumert, Anders Elten (marimba, vibraphone, percussion), Alma Hede (recording engineer). NOTE: Composed 2021
4. [1:25:14] Grdina | Maneri | Lillinger: Ballistic. From Live at the Armoury (Clean Feed, 2023) with Gordon Grdina (oud), Mat Maneri (viola), Christian Lillinger (drums). NOTE: Recorded 2018 at The Armoury Studios, Vancouver, BC⠀
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SET 4: 50 years ago in the avant-garde [1:30:34]
1. [1:33:58] Morton Feldman: Cello and Orchestra. From Coptic Light (Argo, 1998) with Robert Cohen (cello), New World Symphony, Michael Tilson Thomas (conductor), Krzysztof Jarosz (recording engineer). NOTE: Premiered April 19, 1973 in Royan, France by Siegfried Palm (cello), Sinfonieorchester des Saarländischen Rundfunks, Hans Zender (conductor)
2. [1:55:05] Outro with Horatiu Rădulescu: Small Infinities’ Togetherness (premiered April 15, 1973 in Royan, France)
Photo credits: Scott Fields by Helmut Hergarten, Gordon Grdina via the artist, Karl Berger in Music Mind, Ewa Trębacz via the artist, Stefano Gervasoni via the artist, Quatuor Diotima (Franck Chevalier, Yun-Peng Zhao, Leo Marillier, Pierre Morlet) by Ralph Benoit, New York State Council on the Arts party 1983 (Morton Feldman, Charles Dodge, Morton Subotnick) by George Hirose, Elsa Bergman by Petra Cvelbar, Patricia Kopatchinskaja by Marco Borggreve, Sun Ra in Space Is the Place, Horatiu Rădulescu via his estate, Agata Zubel and Cezary Duchnowski via ElettroVoce, Philippe Manoury by Pauline de Mitt.