Thursday 18 May 2017, 7.30pm
Plus-Minus Ensemble and guest soprano Juliet Fraser present three recent works. Matthew Shlomowitz’s Popular Contexts series combines recognisable real-world recorded sound with live instrumental music. In Volume 6, with recordings of both the world and the world of music, the sampler joins vibes and kit to expand the sonic and conceptual horizons of a jazz-pop trio. The Cold Trip is part of Bernhard Lang’s ongoing Monadologies cycle, which presents ‘meta-compositions’ based on well-known scores from music history. Part 2, for voice, piano and laptop, deals with the second half of Winterreise, creating palimpsests of Schubert’s original textures. Marko Ciciliani’s Black Horizon was inspired by trips the composer made to the western deserts of the USA. Ciciliani treats the electric guitars as resonant spaces, subdividing the strings to transform each one into a virtual instrument with its own acoustic properties.
Bernhard Lang’s The Cold Trip, part 2 was commissioned by Arts Council England, Berliner Festspiele with support from the Austrian Cultural Forum Berlin, Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival and Hinrichsen Foundation, with development time by the PRS Foundation For Music.
PROGRAMME
Matthew Shlomowitz – Popular Contexts, Volume 6 (2013) UK premiere
Trio for vibraphone, drum kit and sampler
1. Saxophone Sequences
2. Basic Bass Patterns
3. Air Drums
4. Chromatic Crowds
Bernhard Lang – The Cold Trip, part 2 (2015) London premiere
A song cycle for piano, voice and laptop
Marko Ciciliani – Black Horizon (2009) UK premiere
Quartet for two table-top electric guitars
PERFORMERS
Soprano - Juliet Fraser
Piano & Laptop - Mark Knoop
Plus Minus Ensemble
Elsa Bradley
Mark Knoop
Tom Pauwels
Serge Vuille
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.
Plus-Minus Ensemble is a UK based ensemble committed to commissioning new work and placing it alongside recent and landmark modern repertoire. Formed in 2003, Plus-Minus is distinguished by its interest in performative, electroacoustic and conceptual pieces, and experimental open works such as Stockhausen’s 1963 classic, from which the group takes its name. Plus-Minus is directed by Matthew Shlomowitz, Vicky Wright and Mark Knoop.
