November 25th of this year marked the fifth anniversary of the death of Ann Southam who died of lung cancer in 2010. Although a trained composer, Southam was primarily an intuitive composer. Her works, whether electronic or a 12-tone work for piano, testify to a searching spirit, one who wandered seemingly aimlessly but whose music exhibits a … Continue reading Ann Southam : New soundings
Author: f. d. leone
Songwriter.
Harry Christophers and The Sixteen : Palestrina
The music of Palestrina was described by Wagner as being timeless and spaceless, 'a spiritual revelation throughout'. With polyphony of utter purity, the Palestrina style has been a subject of study by composers for centuries. Long vocal lines flow in a continuous rhythm, imitative and with an original plainchant melodic motive for each phrase of … Continue reading Harry Christophers and The Sixteen : Palestrina
Latest from Francis Dhomont : … et autres utopies
Utopian, these aural mirages surely are — not in the political sense of the Ideal City, but in the etymological sense of ou-topos: belonging to no specific location, except for imaginary territories; creatures of illusion and, in this case, sound. These aural “non-lieux,” these chimeras of perception, resulting from treatments and made from unlikely … Continue reading Latest from Francis Dhomont : … et autres utopies
Kristoff K.Roll : French sound duo
Kristoff K.Roll is a sound art duo born in Paris (France) in 1990 as part of the turntable septet Arènes du vinyle. These two noise musicians — Carole Rieussec and J-Kristoff Camps — are building “a sonic maze with multiple entrances.” Together he/she move from acousmatics to electroacoustic improvisation and sound theatre, also delving in … Continue reading Kristoff K.Roll : French sound duo
Primo Levi : no suicide – his newly published Complete Works
When Primo Levi died in 1987 at age 67, after falling down the stairwell of his apartment building in Turin, Italy, his fellow writer and survivor Elie Wiesel delivered an epigrammatic coroner’s report: “Primo Levi died at Auschwitz forty years later.” The long-delayed suicide of the Holocaust survivor is a story whose outlines we know … Continue reading Primo Levi : no suicide – his newly published Complete Works
Laura Karpman’s “Ask Your Mama” : a grand multitude of American voices
Laura Anne Karpman (born March 1, 1959, in Los Angeles) is an American composer, whose work has included scoring for film, television, video games, theater, and concert. She has won four Emmy Awards for her work. Karpman was trained at The Juilliard School, where she played jazz, and honed her skills scatting in bars. Karpman … Continue reading Laura Karpman’s “Ask Your Mama” : a grand multitude of American voices
Robert Normandeau’s cinema for the ear
Ater a BMus in Composition (Electroacoustics) from the Université Laval (Québec City, 1984) Robert Normandeau moved to Montréal and completed an MMus in Composition (1988) and the first PhDMus in Electroacoustic Composition (1992), under Marcelle Deschênes and Francis Dhomont. He is a founding member of the Canadian Electroacoustic Community (CEC, 1987). From 1986 to ’93, he … Continue reading Robert Normandeau’s cinema for the ear
Jeff Myers : Requiem Aeternam
The music of Jeff Myers (b.1977) has been called “Striking…and harmonically rich” by the New York Times and “…brilliant and powerful…” by The Classical Voice of New England. Many of his works incorporate themes from Asian folk genres (kulintang and gamelan music), visual art (Escher), literature (Poe, Baudelaire, Rimbaud) and acoustic phenomena (overtone harmony and … Continue reading Jeff Myers : Requiem Aeternam
Arve Henriksen : The Nature of Connections
Arve Henriksen is a classically trained musician whose ethereal, Japanese-influenced trumpet playing has placed him in a league of his own. He was born in Stranda, Norway, and educated at the Trondheim Conservatory. It was during his time at the conservatory that a friend gave him a tape recording of the shakuhachi flute. Henriksen was … Continue reading Arve Henriksen : The Nature of Connections
Bruno Martino’s “Estate” : Summer
Estate (Summer) is an Italian song written in 1960 by Bruno Martino (music) and Bruno Brighetti (lyrics). It was a minor hit in Italy when released, but it eventually became a worldwide jazz standard, recorded by dozens of singers and jazz instrumentalists. I first heard the song on the João Gilberto album Amoroso. Amoroso, released in 1976, is an … Continue reading Bruno Martino’s “Estate” : Summer
Musica Kaleidoskopea 