Music from SEAMUS, vol. 22 continues the organization's series of recordings chronicling the work of its member composers. Featuring music from this 2013 edition by Asha Srinivasan, Paula Matthusen, Eli Fieldsteel, Kyong Mee Choi, Jason Bolte, Andrew Seager Cole, Jeff Herriott, Ed Martin, Jon Appleton and Paul Botelho, this recording provides excellent insight into vanguard practices in electronic and electro-acoustic music.
| # | Audio | Title/Composer(s) | Performer(s) | Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total Time | 75:19 | |||
| 01 | Keerthanata | Keerthanata | Sara Kind, soprano saxophone, Jesse Dochnahl, alto saxophone, Asha Srinivasan, electronics | 9:53 |
| 02 | Sparrows In Supermarkets | Sparrows In Supermarkets | Terri Hron, recorder, Paula Matthusen, electronics | 6:16 |
| 03 | Fractus I | Fractus I | Jared Broussard, trumpet in C, Eli Fieldsteel | 11:05 |
| 04 | Inner Space | Inner Space | Craig Hultgren, Kyong Mee Choi | 7:18 |
| 05 | With My Eyes Wide Shut | With My Eyes Wide Shut | Mauricio Salguero, clarinet, Jason Bolte | 8:18 |
| 06 | Aphorsms On Futurism | Aphorsms On Futurism | Bonnie Lander, soprano, Andrew Seager Cole | 10:13 |
| 07 | Swarms Of Light In Metal | Swarms Of Light In Metal | Trevor Saint, glockenspiel, Jeff Herriott | 9:22 |
| 08 | Swirling Sky | Swirling Sky | Jeri-Mae G. Astolfi, piano, Ed Martin | 6:25 |
| 09 | Die Herrlichkeit Loch In Der Bündelung Born | Die Herrlichkeit Loch In Der Bündelung Born | Paul J. Botelho, voice, Jon Appleton, piano | 6:29 |
Asha Srinivasan’s Keerthanata for soprano saxophone, alto saxophone, and electronics borrows elements from South Indian ragas, and percussive and drone effects. The title is a play on words, merging the word for repeating variations, “keerthanam,” with “sonata.” As the two saxophones mine the modal pitch material, shaping the evolution of the structure through the introduction of new pitches and embellishment of previously introduced notes, the electronics act as a hyper-tabla, punctuating the rhythms with timbral variety and a three dimensional spatial orientation.
Paula Matthusen’s sparrows in supermarkets for recorder and electronics expands on the tradition of setting birdsong in composition. Here, instead of a literal transcription of birdsong, Matthusen captures its repetitive essence, and explores anomalous dichotomies, such as the discovery of a family of sparrows living over the bakery aisle in a supermarket.
Eli Fieldsteel’s Fractus I for trumpet and SuperCollider assigns equally supportive roles to the acoustic and electronics element of the piece. Synthesis techniques expand and contract the pitch content as Fieldsteel establishes an electronics environment which is alternatively immersive and actively in dialogue with the live performer.
Kyong Mee Choi’s Inner Space for cello and electronics delves into an intimate internal region of our psyches. This region is well animated, with poignant passages in the cello echoed in the electronics, at times haunting and at other times unsettlingly tactile. As the piece closes, an extended ascending and then descending glissandi in the cello recedes into whispering harmonics, as cavernous electronics pull inward.
Jason Bolte’s With My Eyes Wide Shut for clarinet and electronics features a soloistic instrumental line with an accompaniment that has a cinematic quality. Expansive and heartfelt, the primary line is melodic and vocal, while the electronics are luminous and enveloping.
Andrew Seager Cole’s Aphorisms on Futurism sets a 1914 text by Mina Loy that is a commentary on the relationship between past, present, and future. The dramatic solo soprano line toggles back and forth between lyrical lines and spoken text. The electronics are an equally active partner, adding glitchy commentary and searing, laser like sustained pitches that grow out from the solo line.
Jeff Herriott’s swarms of light in metal for glockenspiel and electronics establishes a dialogue between instrument and electronics that mirrors the interdependence of different elements in an ecosystem. The work passes through several related but distinct textures, marked by subtle changes in articulation and material in the glockenspiel part.
Ed Martin’s Swirling Sky for piano and fixed media is similarly reflective, inspired by the experience of lying in the grass and gazing up at clouds passing by in the sky. Selected microtonally tuned pitches in the piano create a sense of wonderment and disorientation as weightless electronics are swept through the texture. Swirling Sky takes the shape of a fantasy, culminating in a tempestuous climax of pianist virtuosity.
The collection closes with Jon Appleton and Paul Botelho’s collaborative composition and performance piece, Der Herrlichkeit Loch in der Bündelung Bord for voice, piano, and electronics. It features a plethora of extended vocal techniques, watery piano textures, and electronics which color and enter into a dialogue with the voice part. The work has the affect of an expressionist lament, closing with a humorous tossed off aside in the piano that evokes the macabre fatalism of Weimar cabaret. Regretfully, Jon Appleton passed away in 2022.
– Dan Lippel
Produced by SEAMUS
Remastered by Scott A. Wyatt at the University of Illinois Experimental Music Studios
Original graphic design: David Colley
Revised design: Mark Hileman
Indian-American composer Asha Srinivasan draws from her Western musical training and her Indian heritage to create her compositional language. Her music has been presented at various venues including SEAMUS, ICMC, June in Buffalo, SCI, and the National Flute Convention. In addition to teaching composition and electronic music, she has always enjoyed teaching music theory. She received a Master's in Music Theory Pedagogy at the Peabody Conservatory of Music. At Lawrence, her primary theory teaching includes the first year of the core music theory curriculum (MUTH 201/211, and 202/212). Ms. Srinivasan is currently an Associate Professor of Music at Lawrence University and recently she joined the board of the American Composers Forum.
Paula Matthusen is a composer who writes both electroacoustic and acoustic music and realizes sound installations. She has written for diverse instrumentations, such as “run-on sentence of the pavement” for piano, ping-pong balls, and electronics, which Alex Ross of The New Yorker noted as being “entrancing”. Her work often considers discrepancies in musical space—real, imagined, and remembered. Awards include the Walter Hinrichsen Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, a Fulbright Grant, two ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composers’ Awards, and the 2014 - 2015 Elliott Carter Rome Prize. Matthusen is currently Associate Professor of Music at Wesleyan University of the Music Department.
Dr. Eli Fieldsteel, Assistant Professor of Composition-Theory and Director of the University of Illinois Experi- mental Music Studios, is a composer specializing in music technology with a diverse history of cross-disciplinary collaboration. Fieldsteel's music and research engages with the intersection between music technology and contemporary instrumental practice, focusing on topics such as human-computer improvisation, interactivity, and generative music. Utilizing new technologies and real-time environments, his works are highly gestural, expressive, and richly detailed. As an active collaborator, he has worked closely with dancers, choreographers, lighting designers, architects, and video artists, resulting in a variety of unique and site-specific installations and performances. Fieldsteel was born in Middletown, CT and holds degrees from Brown University (BA, 2008), The University of North Texas (MM, 2010), and The University of Texas at Austin (DMA, 2015).
Kyong Mee Choi, composer, organist, painter, poet, and visual artist, received several presti- gious awards and grants including John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship, Robert Helps Prize, Aaron Copland Award, John Donald Robb Musical Trust Fund Commission, Illinois Arts Council Fellowship, First prize of ASCAP/SEAMUS Award, Second prize at VI Concurso Internacional de Música Eletroacústica de São Paulo among others. Her music was published at CIMESP (São Paulo, Brazil), SCI, EMS, ERM media, SEAMUS, and Détonants Voyages (Studio Forum, France). She is the Head of Music Composition at Roosevelt University in Chicago where she teaches composition and electro-acoustic music.
Jason Bolte is a composer and educator. He currently resides in Bozeman, Montana with his wife Barbara, two beautiful children, and friendly dog Allie. Jason teaches music technology and composition at Montana State University where he is the Interim Director of the School of Music. Jason earned a B.M. with an emphasis in Music Engineering Technology and a M.M. in Music Composition from Ball State University where he studied with Cleve Scott, Michael Pounds, Jody Nagel, Keith Kothman, Eleanor Trawick, and Ernesto Pellegrini. He holds a D.M.A. in Music Composition from the University of Missouri - Kansas City Conservatory of Music and Dance, where he was a Chancellor’s Doctoral Research Fellow, a Dean’s Doctoral Fellow, and an Ovation Scholar. At UMKC, Jason studied with James Mobberley, Paul Rudy, and Chen Yi. His music has been performed by Ensemble Dal Niente, A/Tonal Ensemble, Maverick Ensemble, Elektramusic, junctQín, NewKeys, Alcome, and the NYU New Music Ensemble, among others. Jason’s music has received awards and recognition from junctQín, International Competition for Composers "Città di Udine,” ISCM Miami Section/World New Music Days, Concurso Internacional de Miniaturas Electroacusticas, International Electroacoustic Music Contest – CEMVA, Electroacoustic Composition Competition Música Viva, Bourges International Competition of Electroacoustic Music and Sonic Art, ETH Zurich Digital Arts Week Soundscape Competition, Music Teachers National Association/Missouri Music Teachers Association, International Society of Bassists Composition Competition, and ASCAP/SEAMUS Student Commission Competition. Jason's music explores the North American Mountain West, modular synthesis and live performance, intersections of music, art, and science, and other areas he finds compelling. Jason’s music is available on the New Focus, ABLAZE, Beneficence, Thrmnphon, ELECTRO<>ACÚSTICO, SEAMUS, Irritable Hedgehog, Vox Novus, SoundWalk, SoundCrawl, and Miso Records labels.
Andrew Seager Cole is a composer and media artist. His work explores the intersection of eco-acoustics, noise, and technology, and he regularly collaborates with artists, filmmakers, and choreographers. Andrew's music has been presented at festivals such as June in Buffalo, SoundSCAPE, SEAMUS, and the International Computer Music Conference. His compositions have been recorded on the OCD Media, Vox Novus, and Music from SEAMUS CD Series labels. Awards include a 2013 Fulbright Fellowship to New Zealand, a Lilburn Trust Student Composition Award, First place in the 2008 National Association of Composers USA Young Composer's Competition, the 2006 Prix d'Ete Competition, and the Robert Hall Lewis and Otto Ortman Awards. Andrew holds degrees from the University of Missouri-Kansas City, Peabody Conservatory, and Goucher College, and a graduate diploma in music from the New Zealand School of Music.
Jeff Herriott is a composer whose music focuses on sounds that gently shift and bend at the edges of perception. His works, which often include interaction between live performers and electronic sounds, have been described as “colorful...darkly atmospheric” (New York Times) and “incredibly soft, beautiful, and delicate” (Computer Music Journal). In addition to the Barlow Endowment commission for The Stone Tapestry, Jeff’s works have been supported by the MATA Festival, Jerome Composers Commissioning Program through the American Composers Forum, the McKnight Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts. Jeff’s music is recorded on Albany, Innova, clang, SEAMUS, SoundSet, and Lakeshore labels. Jeff is Professor of Music at UW-Whitewater. (http://jeffherriott.com)
Ed Martin is an award winning composer of concert music - ranging from band and orchestra works to music for solo piano - with a strong interest in electronic music. He is Professor of Music at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh where he teaches courses in music composition and theory and curates the annual WIRED electronic music concert.
Jon Appleton was a composer and author born in Hollywood, California in 1939. He was educated at Reed College, the University of Oregon and Columbia University. His works include both instrumental, choral and electro-acoustic music. Appleton is best known for latter, much of it composed for the Synclavier, a digital performance instrument he helped develop. Appleton has been awarded Guggenheim, Fulbright, National Endowment for the Arts and American-Scandinavian Foundation fellowships. He has taught at Dartmouth College, Stanford University, Keio University (Japan), University of California, Santa Cruz and each year at the Theremin Center at the Moscow Conservatory of Music.
The work of Azorean-American composer and performer Paul J. Botelho includes acoustic and electro-acoustic music, multimedia installation pieces, visual art works, vocal improvisation, and several one-act operas. He performs as a vocalist (countertenor) worldwide primarily through extended vocal techniques. His recent work explores vocal responses to composed and prerecorded sonic environments and includes In Moscow We Marched (Moscow, Russia; 2019-20), Visby Project (Visby, Sweden; 2017-18), and Walmart 3 AM (Lewisburg, PA, USA; 2016). His work has been performed, presented, and exhibited in concerts, festivals, galleries, and museums across the Americas, Europe, Oceania, and Asia. Botelho received a Ph.D. and M.F.A. in Music Composition from Princeton University, an A.M. in Electro-Acoustic Music from Dartmouth College, and a B.F.A. in Contemporary Music Performance and Composition from the College of Santa Fe. Botelho has taught at Tulane University and Loyola University New Orleans. He currently teaches music composition at Bucknell University where he is Associate Professor of Music.
New Focus Recordings is an artist led collective label featuring releases in contemporary creative music of many stripes, as well as new approaches to older repertoire. The label was founded by guitarist Dan Lippel, composer Peter Gilbert in 2004, and composer/engineer Ryan Streber in 2004, formed …Read More …
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