Feb 11, 2018

RhoDeo 1806 Sundaze

Hello, sad news today, Sundaze favorite Johann Johannsson has died in Berlin today, he was just 48 years old, his career was on the up and us humans were robbed of 40 years more music from this great artist, may he rest in peace..



Today's Artist is an independent experimental musician based in Düsseldorf, Germany internationally recognized as a 21st century exponent of prepared piano technique, a tradition dating back to late 19th and early 20th century French composer Erik Satie. The piano is prepared when "preparations" (consisting of nearly any conceivably applicable object or material) are inserted between the strings or onto the hammers of the instrument; a wider application of the term takes in all manner of additional modifications that expand the sonic and operative possibilities of the piano. Hauschka has successfully combined the chamber music aspect of prepared piano (see composers Henry Cowell, John Cage, Christian Wolff, Max Richter, Maurice Delage, and Arvo Pärt) with pop, rock, and electronic sensibilities ........N'Joy

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Volker Bertelmann was born in Kreuztal. He grew up in the village of Ferndorf in the district of Siegen-Wittgenstein, North Rhine-Westphalia. The fifth of six children, he discovered piano playing at the age of nine at church service. He first began to study the piano when he was nine after an epiphany while attending a Chopin performance in his hometown near Düsseldorf, Germany. Despite seven years of classical training at school, and then a further two years with a private tutor, his interests were never as pure as the tutelage he received. Soon he was employing his new musical skills to play along with his favourite records on keyboards and synthesisers – he had a particular fondness for Jeff Wayne’s War Of The Worlds – and, later, to perform with covers bands. After coming of age, he redirected his attention towards a medicine and economic education, but soon turned his back on this to study Popular Music in Hamburg.

By the age of 18, Bertelmann had already composed his first film score, and having picked up a deal with Sony Music in 1994, he spent much of the next few years rapping and playing keyboards with God’s Favourite Dog before forming Nonex, with whom he released two albums in 1997 and 1999. As the 21st Century got underway, he hooked up with Torsten Mauss to form Tonetraeger – who blended post-rock and electronica with significant panache – and also with Luke Sutherland (Long Fin Killie) and Stefan Schneider (To Rococo Rot) to work under the name Music A.M.

It was during this period that he became more and more fascinated with electronic music, developing a particular interest in stripping back anything that he considered redundant within his compositions, until the obsession led to him trying to achieve a similar effect without the use of electricity at all. He discovered that placing material within a piano opened the doors to a whole new sonic world in which he could transform his instrument so that it loosely replicated the sounds of all sorts of others, whether bass guitar, gamelan or the hi-hat cymbal of a drumkit.

The first fruits of this work were released by Karaoke Kalk, with Substantial dropping in 2004 and The Prepared Piano a year later. The combination of Hauschka's classicist training, chamber music sensibilities and pop-cultural interests ensured that the often playful – but never disposable – results were far more than an academic exercise in experimentalism. Critical acclaim was matched by respect from his contemporaries: a second version of the album – Versions Of The Prepared Piano – was released later that year, featuring new interpretations and mixes by the likes of Barbara Morgenstern, Mira Calix and Tarwater.

Hauschka's music might be said to reference (inadvertently perhaps) all of these aspects of the prepared piano equation, and he could even be regarded as a conceptual cousin of Denman Maroney, Erik Griswold, Sylvain Chaveau, and Anthony Pateras. His playfully repetitive constructs, which certainly reflect the influence of Satie, are also at times reminiscent of early keyboard works by Philip Glass or something from out of the minds of Terry Riley and Steve Reich. His best work suggests the achievements of Frank Pahl, Pascal Comelade, Yann Tiersen, and Henry Brant as well as the self-perpetuating modalities associated with gamelan.

In 2007, Hauschka signed with 130701, an imprint of Fat Cat Records, who provided an early home to Sigur Rós and who have also championed artists with a similarly adventurous spirit to Bertelmann’s own, including Max Richter and Sylvian Chameau. He has remained with the label ever since for his solo work, releasing a series of increasingly high profile albums and never afraid to explore beyond his initial parameters. Since 2007’s Room To Expand, he’s integrated both electronic and more traditional instrumentation into his work, with 2010’s Foreign Landscapes finding him working with the Magik Magik Orchestra, and his most recent solo release – 2011’s Salon Des Amateurs – inspired by his experience of Düsseldorf’s club music scene. Collaborators include drummer Samuli Kosminen (from Iceland’s Múm), Calexico’s Joey Burns and John Convertino, and celebrated violinist Hilary Hahn, while the project’s success was underlined in 2012 with the release of remixes by prominent names including techno legend Ricardo Villalobos and Michael Mayer, co-founder of Cologne’s highly influential electronic label, Kompakt.

Bertelmann’s taste for collaboration is again revealed by his next two projects, the first of which features Hilary Hahn in a more high profile role. Silfra, released by Deutsche Grammophon under the artist name Hilary Hahn and Hauschka, is a remarkable album borne of improvisation and recorded in eminent producer Valgeir Sigurðsson’s Iceland studio. A new album is also in the pipeline, with Bertelmann having recently spent time recording with local musicians in Kenya.

Ever prolific, Bertelmann has continued to work on numerous other projects throughout the last decade, most notably in the fields of film, theatre, dance and art. As well as various short film soundtracks (including one for the winner of the 2007 Akira Kurosawa Short Film Award, Blotsky, in which he also starred) and four film scores – including Doris Dörrie’s Glück, nominated for Best Film Score at the German Film Prize in 2012 – he has also composed for the stage. There his work has included 2006’s remix of Wagner’s Parcifal (in collaboration with Stefan Schneider) for Berlin’s Hebbel Theatre, while in 2011 he composed an 18 minute overture for Rittberger’s Puppen, part of the 2011/2012 theatrical season at Düsseldorf’s Schauspielhaus. He also founded Düsseldorf ‘s Annual Piano Approximation Festival, which features an always-imposing line-up of internationally renowned experimental artists.

Hauschka collaborated with San Francisco's Magik Magik Orchestra on 2010's full-length Foreign Landscapes, while 2011's Salon des Amateurs featured members of Calexico and Múm. Bertelmann returned the following year with Silfra, a collaboration with violinist Hilary Hahn that was inspired by Iceland's Silfra rift. That year, he also composed the score for Doris Dörrie's film Glück. For his 2014 solo album Abandoned City, Hauschka used some of the world's most famous ghost towns as a metaphor for the "sense of hope and sadness" he feels when composing music.

2015 saw the release of A NDO C Y, a collection of Abandoned City outtakes and remixes, as well as the live album 2.11.14. Bertelmann then focused on scoring work, providing music for dance performances such as Swan of Tuonela, which found him collaborating with Finnish circus performer Ville Walo. His film music included scores for 2015's The Boy and 2016's In Dubious Battle and Lion, a collaboration with Dustin O'Halloran that earned Golden Globe and Academy Award nominations. The eighth Hauschka album, What If, arrived in 2017. Inspired by Bertelmann's speculation on what life could be like in the future, it featured a Roland Jupiter synth, an Eventide H3000 Harmonizer and player piano alongside prepared piano for a sci-fi-influenced sound.

Always unpredictable, Hauschka continues to offer only one certainty: that the next step he takes will no doubt be as unexpected as the direction from which he has come.

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Following last weeks post it’s time to get even more intimate with Hildur Guðnadóttir. As if her previous works weren’t full of emotion already, Guðnadóttir invites us to sit even closer to her delicate cello. Except this time Guðnadóttir also sings. Free of any post-production and processing, the thirty-five minute piece, Leyfðu Ljósinu (Icelanding for “Allow the Light”) was recorded in one single take. Performed live at the Music Research Centre in University of York on January 2012, Guðnadóttir layers loops of breathy vocals over the pensive cello strings. The acoustics of the space play an important role on the album, with Tony Myatt as the only member present in the audience besides Hildur herself. Myatt, by the way, has previously contributed his technical assistance to pieces by Taylor Deupree, Irene Moon, and Chris Watson. “To be faithful to time and space – elements vital to the movement of sound – this album was recorded entirely live, with no post-tampering of the recordings’ own sense of occasion.” While the first third of the piece is mostly vocal (something I did not expect from this classically-trained Icelandic cellist), Guðnadóttir manages to slowly weave a hypnotic quilt of frequency rich textures until I am lost in her voice. By the time the cello comes in, I forget all about my original anticipation of the solemn bleakness I’ve expected, as in her previously acclaimed works, Without Sinking, Iridescene, and Mount A – yet here it comes, like a wave of anguish welling up inside my chest. The piece continues to divide: the lower register belonging to the heartache of the cello; the upper to the comfort of the voice, until the cinematic tension peaks at twenty minute mark and slowly recedes in what appears to be full orchestral arrangement. Only that it is Guðnadóttir all alone. A grandiose achievement, experienced best with ones eyes closed at full volume.



Hildur Guðnadóttir ‎– Leyfðu Ljósinu (flac 182mb)

01 Prelude 4:11
02 Leyfðu Ljósinu 35:14

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This is an exceptional set of pieces for violin and prepared piano that manage to both please and provoke. Hahn's playing is excellent, as you would expect, and it feels like she has met her ideal creative foil in the different sounds of Hauschka's altered piano. This is as joyful and as interesting as "modern classical" gets without being deliberately difficult. A really great record and well worth your attention. It's not often that modern classical is this creative, engaging and accessible.



Hauschka and Hilary Hahn - Silfra (flac  262mb)

01 Stillness 1:45
02 Bounce Bounce 2:29
03 Clock Winder 2:43
04 Adash 5:30
05 Godot 12:37
06 Krakow 2:46
07 North Atlantic 6:49
08 Draw A Map 2:28
09 Ashes 3:17
10 Sink 2:06
11 Halo Of Honey 3:00
12 Rift 6:31

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As its name suggests, Abandoned City's tracks draw inspiration from deserted metropolises, but Bertelmann doesn't rely on drones or space to describe these ghost towns. Even the most somber tracks, such as the bittersweet wondering of "Who Lived Here?" or the decaying grandeur of "Craco," teem with musical life. Bertelmann's piano populates Abandoned City with sounds akin to the harp and koto on "Sanzhi Pod City" and even pizzicato violin on "Agdam." Hauschka couples this ingenuity with an urgency that makes the album unique among his work. Whether it came from his need to work quickly when he wasn't needed by his newborn son or from the mixture of "hope and sadness" he experiences when writing music, an unsettling melancholy fills these pieces. Nowhere is this clearer than on Abandoned City's opening trio of songs: "Elizabeth Bay," a portrait of a Namibian mining town that Bertelmann describes as a "reinvention" of Wagner's Flying Dutchman, is a gorgeous ruin that encompasses dubby bass and fragmented techno rhythms in its sweep; the equally beautiful and nightmarish "Pripyat," inspired by an abandoned city near Chernobyl, balances flurries of insistent melodies and percussion and screeching noise; and "Thames Town" feels like a sadder-but-wiser cousin to Salon des Amateurs with its surprisingly funky rhythm and brooding piano melody. These tracks are so striking that the album feels a bit top-loaded, but Abandoned City is still another fine example of Hauschka's combination of inspired musicianship and almost palpable emotion.



Hauschka - Abandoned City (flac  223mb)

01 Elizabeth Bay 5:40
02 Pripyat 7:20
03 Thames Town 4:01
04 Who Lived Here? 4:49
05 Agdam 4:55
06 Sanzhi Pod City 3:56
07 Craco 3:32
08 Barkerville 3:55
09 Stromness 5:34

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A NDO C Y is a continuation of the Abandoned City story, told as a tale of two sides. Side A features five tracks conceived during the Abandoned City sessions, a suite of songs that together form an exceptionally resonant whole. As with Abandoned City, these songs owe as much to minimalist techno as modern composition, which makes them particularly conducive to remixes. On Side B, experimental folk icon Devendra Banhart distills Abandoned City standout, "Agdam", to barely-there, fractured clusters of solitary piano strikes and swelling synths. By comparison, Eluvium's transformation of "Stromness" sounds almost shockingly euphoric, all cascading waves of distortion washed over a plethora of plucked piano pings. Included as a special bonus download is a stunning live album recorded in Yufuin, Japan in late 2014. The 40-minute performance is split into two 20-minute improvisations built on themes from Abandoned City. It's a gorgeous glimpse of live Hauschka, a world where songs you think you know become entirely new works of art at the mercy of Bertelmann's whims.



Hauschka - A NDO C Y (flac  384mb)

01 Varosha 4:18
02 Palace in the Sky 3:46
03 North Brother Island 5:21
04 Hashima Island 4:13
05 El Hotel del Saito 4:41
06 Agdam (Devendra Banhart Remix) 7:22
07 Stromness (Eluvium Remix) 8:16
08 Yufuin 1 22:09
09 Yufuin 2 20:59

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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Such sad news about Jóhann, hadn't heard till I checked your blog, thanks for info. graham

T. S. said...

Dear Rho:

Hi again. This is my second request of the week. Can you please reup the expired links? By the way, I am wondering if you will write something about Robert Mueller soon. I am wondring what your thoughts are.

Thanks a lot!

T.S.