02/11/22: Ensembles Outside America
Featuring Alireza Farhang, René Wohlhauser, Niels Rosing-Schow, and Ramon Lazkano
Welcome to Keeping Score, this week I have four new releases, all from composers outside of America. Let’s dive in.
The Music
Something Blended
Iranian and France-based composer Alireza Farhang released Pegāh, performed by the Ensemble Court-Circuit. Slow rhythms and lots of harmonics creates a unique atmosphere, with interesting timbres. The release notes state:
Farhang's music must be understood as a combination of multiple heritages, with all the tension and paradoxes that this creates. His work traces a very personal path between the variability of oral traditions and the rigor of the written score, between the mysticism of Persian art and the rationality of Western music.
Listen on Spotify, Apple Music, Pandora, etc.
Something Varied
Swiss composer René Wohlhauser released Im Lauteren Sein, for “various ensemble combinations”. With two solo works, a trio, three vocal works, and more, Wohlhauser manages to retain his own style while still presenting a wide variety of interesting and diverse ideas. He also set his own poems to music in “Geworf'ne Akrobaten”, “Klumpengesang”, and the title piece, “Im lauteren Sein”.
Listen on Spotify, Apple Music, Tidal, etc.
Something Timbrel
Danish composer Niels Rosing-Schow released A Talk of Our Time, with pieces where “timbre and colour are as important as theme and harmony”. This goal is achieved in this release, with a great use of contrasts and specifically chosen sounds. The pieces move in waves from extremely minimal to loud unison, and are very interesting, contemporary but not overly harsh.
Listen on Spotify, Apple Music, Youtube Music, etc.
Something Sung
Basque composer Ramon Lazkano released Diptyque Jabès, for voices and ensemble. The pieces have a great sense of rhythm and unique harmony, but not so experimental or atonal as to be incomprehensible. The release notes state:
The album is unified by the enigmatic, elusive poetry of Edmond Jabes, a French writer of Egyptian origin. Lazkano sets two volumes of short poems by Jabes: 'Main douce la blessure mme' and 'Ceux a qui'. The isolated, withdrawn voice of 'Main Surplombe' is submerged within the instrumental texture, while the six voices of 'Ceux Qui' provide a response, conversing and exclaiming before the text dissolves as the music fades away.
Listen on Spotify, Apple Music, Youtube Music, etc.