Cut And Splice 2010 [Hear And Now]

This year's theme is 'Transmission': the use of radio in avant garde music and sound-art. Performances will include Nicolas Collins live-sampling radio in his Devil's Music; Resonance Radio Orchestra's new dramatic work called Spiral, inspired by radio phone-ins; and Keith Rowe and ensemble playing Earle Brown's seminal graphic composition 4 Systems, using radio sounds.

(Recorded on Thursday at Wilton's Music Hall, London).

Playlist:

Nicolas Collins: Devil's Music

Nicolas Collins (electronics)

Ed Baxter: The Spiral (Sketch For Overheard)

Resonance Radio Orchestra:

Veryan Weston (pno)

Adam Bushell (perc)

James Dunn (snare drum, electronics)

Chris Weaver (electronics, radio)

Emma Dudley (voice - in auditorium and via mobile phone)

Peter Blegvad (voice via mobile phone),

Jim Perrin (voice via mobile phone)

Tetsuo Kogawa: Inductancies (extract)

Tetsuo Kogawa (electronics)

Earle Brown: 4 Systems

Keith Rowe, Robert Worby, Lee Patterson, Kjell Bjorgengeen (shortwave radios)

Programme Note:

Four Systems is dated 'Jan 20, 1954' and is dedicated to the pianist David Tudor. It is scored for 'piano(s) and/or other instruments or sound-producing media'. This performance utilises radios and radio derived sources, along with radio generated video fed into a monitor. Each performer has developed their own approach to the score which is completely graphic and not dissimilar to Brown's most famous piece December 1952. Referring to these scores and what he termed 'mobile form' Earle Brown wrote: 'This is not an abandonment of composer responsibility but the musical result inherent in a provoked, multicreative, 'synergistic' interaction of the composer's concept, the graphic score, the performer's realisation and the audience. Not one of them is independent of the others'.

©2010 Robert Worby

Music from 2010's Cut & Splice Festival: Nicolas Collins and Resonance Radio Orchestra.

Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions

This year's theme is 'Transmission': the use of radio in avant garde music and sound-art.

Performances will include Blood Stereo and The Bohman Brothersplaying amplified objects, tapes, and radios;

a classic early John Cage piece, Radio Music, played by Apartment House;

and a solo performance by Danish sound-artist Jacob Kirkegaard.

(Recorded last week at Wilton's Music Hall, London).

Dylan Nyoukis, Karen Constance (Blood Stereo)

Jonathan and Adam Bohman (The Bohman Brothers)

(amplified objects, tapes, vocals, shortwave radios)

Report on Installation: ‘Beating Tones and Flapping Wings' by John Wynne and Denise Hawrysio

John Cage: Radio Music

Simon Limbrick, Anton Lukoszevieze, Philip Thomas, Kerry Yong, Richard Whitelaw, Frank Gratkowski, Tim Steiner, Andrew Sparling (radios)

Programme Note:

John Cage didn't like radios. He owned a small pocket transistor that he used for listening to the news each morning. And that was the entirety of his wireless listening. His response to his dislike of radios was to write pieces for them. The first of these was Imaginary Landscape No.4 for 12 radios and 24 performers, composed in 1951, although he had included a radio in Credo in Us, in 1948, the first piece to use a radio as a musical instrument. Radio Music was composed in 1956. It is scored for one to eight performers. Cage gives 'time brackets' and numbers that refer to 'tunings' - an appropriate musical term - he doesn't mention frequency or wavelengths.

©2010 Robert Worby

Report on Installation: ‘Analogue Kingdom' by Esther Johnson

Jacob Kirkegaard: Celestial Road

Jacob Kirkegaard (laptop)

Ma la Pert (excerpt)

Jennifer Walshe (voice, electonics)

Tony Conrad (violin, electronics)

Music from 2010's Cut & Splice festival: Blood Stereo and the Bohman Brothers.

Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions

This year's theme is 'Transmission': the use of radio in avant garde music and sound-art.

Performances will include Stockhausen's classic works for radios and instruments, Kurzwellen and Poles For 2, played by Apartment House; a new 4-channel electronic piece, 'Like Radio', by Robert Normandeau; and the improvising duo of Ma la Pert (vocalist Jennifer Walshe and violinist Tony Conrad)

(Recorded at Wilton's Music Hall, London).

Karlheinz Stockhausen: Kurzwellen

Simon Limbrick (tam-tam, shortwave radio)

Andrew Sparling (microphone)

Philip Thomas (piano, shortwave radio)

Kerry Yong (synth, shortwave radio)

Anton Lukoszevieze (cello, shortwave radio)

Tim Steiner (sound diffusion)

Programme Note:

Kurzwellen (Shortwaves) was composed in 1968. It is scored for four instrumentalists (each of whom has a shortwave radio), one assistant (the tam tam player's 'microphonist') and a 'sound director'. Shortwave 'events' are culled from the airwaves, emulated by the instrumentalists and then 'processed' according to the score. These processes, performed by the players, are entirely musical and acoustic. Pitches are transposed, durations are elongated, dynamics are shifted and 'segments' (number of attacks in an event) are multiplied and divided. When asked why he was attracted to shortwave radio, Stockhausen shrugged his shoulders and answered 'Instant electronic music.

©2010 Robert Worby

Robert Normandeau: Like Radio

Robert Normandeau (4 channel electronic sound)

Karlheinz Stockhausen: Poles For 2

Frank Gratkowski (sax, shortwave radio)

In 1970 Stockhausen represented Germany, performing in the German pavilion, at the Expo world fair in Osaka. This was a huge event involving several performances a day for several weeks. So, he needed pieces to perform. Poles for 2 was one of the pieces he composed for that occasion. Using similar principles to Kurzwellen, this piece is scored for two players with shortwave radios and a 'sound director' whose part is very detailed compared with Kurzwellen and the other pieces composed for Osaka. Stockhausen referred to these pieces, composed around this time, as 'process' pieces (not to be confused with Steve Reich's idea of process) because the scores notate musical activity rather than precisely what is heard.

Ma la Pert (excerpt)

Jennifer Walshe (voice, electonics)

Tony Conrad (violin, electronics)

Music from 2010's Cut & Splice festival: Apartment House, Robert Normandeau, Mal la Pert.

Radio 3's primary contemporary music programme, featuring live performances and sessions