Monday 4 July 2022, 8pm
Juliet Fraser and Luke Nickel curate an evening of living scores: scores that definitely aren't 'notes on paper', and may not be on paper at all, but also aren't improvisations. The programme includes a new Davies-Fraser duo, a solo set of microtonal guitar music from Rainier, a new audio-visual performance by Nickel and a nearly new rollercoaster ride constructed and performed by Nickel and Fraser.
*Sadly Cassandra Miller is no longer able to be with us due to ill health. We send her our best wishes. Thanks to Chris for joining us at short notice.
Angharad Davies is a Welsh violinist based in London working with free-improvisation, compositions and performance.Her approach to sound involves attentive listening and exploring beyond the sonic confines of her instrument, her classical training and performance expectation.
Much of her work involves collaboration. She has long standing duos with Tisha Mukarji, Dominic Lash and Lina Lapelyte and plays with Common Objects, Cranc and Skogen. She has been involved in projects with Tarek Atui, Tony Conrad, Richard Dawson, Gwenno, Roberta Jean, Jack McNamara, Rie Nakajima, Tim Parkinson, Eliane Radigue, Georgia Ruth and J.G.Thirlwell.
Most of her records are released on Another Timbre but she also has releases on Absinth Records, Confrontrecords, Emanem, Potlatch and winds measure recordings.Her first orchestral piece was commissioned by LCMF in 2019.
Soprano JULIET FRASER specialises in the gnarly edges of contemporary classical music. She regularly appears as a guest soloist with ensembles such as Musikfabrik, Klangforum Wien, Ensemble Modern, Remix, Talea and Quatuor Bozzini, and is a core member of EXAUDI vocal ensemble, which she co-founded with composer/conductor James Weeks and which celebrates its twentieth anniversary this year. She is an active commissioner of new repertoire and has worked particularly closely with composers Laurence Crane, Pascale Criton, Bernhard Lang, Cassandra Miller and Rebecca Saunders. Juliet’s discography reflects the full breadth of her repertoire: she has recorded early music with Collegium Vocale Gent and EXAUDI for release on Harmonia Mundi, Outhere and Winter & Winter, and solo albums of contemporary repertoire for NEOS, Kairos, HCR and Hat Hut. Juliet is the founder and artistic director of the eavesdropping festival in London and co-director of all that dust, a little independent label for new music.
CHRIS RAINIER is a South-African born performer, improviser and composer from Melbourne, now based in London. Alongside Dutch ensemble Scordatura – led by violist Elisabeth Smalt – he has performed the music of various composers whose practices explore tuning systems outside of Equal Temperament. He has also collaborated with various craftspeople in the UK, Europe and Australia to create replicas of some of Harry Partch’s unique musical instruments, with a particular focus on the composer’s various microtonally adapted guitars. He has performed solo and in collaboration with other performers in a diverse range of concert venues, including the Slade School of Fine Art, the Orpheus Institute [Ghent], the Kunitachi College Of Music [Tokyo], the Sydney Conservatorium of Music and the Harry Partch Archives [University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign].
Rainier's most recent release is “Sorrowful Songs of the Silverswords [2023], a collection of pieces that forge intersections between compositional frameworks and improvisation on his replica of Partch's first Adapted Guitar 1. This year will also see the vinyl release of his interpretations of some of Partch's earliest compositions for voice, Adapted Guitar 1 and Adapted Viola on the Belgian label bwaa.
LUKE NICKEL is an award-winning Canadian audio-visual artist, virtual roller coaster designer and independent researcher currently living in Bristol. Nickel’s work takes the form of experimental sound compositions, videos, simulated roller coasters and illustrations. His work knots together themes of memory, transcription, queer identity and gravity. He has collaborated with internationally established soloists and chamber ensembles such as Mira Benjamin, Juliet Fraser, Heather Roche, Quatuor Bozzini and EXAUDI and has shown work in festivals such as Sound Forms (Hong Kong) and HCMF. About his work, scholar Jennie Gottschalk writes that “there is an unusual quality of rawness” (Experimental Music Since 1970). In addition to his artistic work, Nickel has received a Ph.D from Bath Spa University and actively publishes on topics such as orally transmitted experimental music, Éliane Radigue and roller coasters. Nickel also co-founded and curated the Cluster: New Music + Integrated Arts Festival in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada from 2010-2020.
