Topic: Cool Britannia

[Mandryka]

For me Skempton is interesting primarily because of the relation to Crane.  Crane seems to me the more interesting composer, and Fox even more interesting. And Walter Zimmermann even more interesting than Fox.

What do you think of this stuff? I know a musician, composer, serious composer with an international reputation . . . who reckons Mark R Taylor's the bee's knees when it comes to piano music today: "Mark's harmonic vocabulary is so  dense and complex  . . .   his expressive world so dark . . . some of the most original and powerful piano music of the present time. "

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/v/4dveuNusNQg&amp;ab_channel=Anothertimbre" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="bbc_link bbc_flash_disabled new_win">https://www.youtube.com/v/4dveuNusNQg&amp;ab_channel=Anothertimbre</a>

[foxandpeng]

Here are two for starters, whose music I greatly admire. Robin Walker for works like 'Great Rock is Dead' which has an, appropriately granitic, monolithic power. (which reminded me a bit of the Icelandic composer Jon Leifs) and Philip Spratley's (great name) Symphony No.3 'Sinfonia Pascale':

This is a great thread, Mandryka! I will get exploring ☺. I need to prod Robin Walker if he is anything like Jon Leifs, although I listened to his SQ 2 in the car last week, which seemed like the SQ for Silence and Megaphone! I had to do more knob twiddling than a teenager's late Saturday evening with the Emmanuel films.

[T. D.]

This is a great thread, Mandryka! I will get exploring ☺. I need to prod Robin Walker if he is anything like Jon Leifs, although I listened to his SQ 2 in the car last week, which seemed like the SQ for Silence and Megaphone! I had to do more knob twiddling than a teenager's late Saturday evening with the Emmanuel[le] films.

 

[Mandryka]

The first thing I want to say about this is that Finnissy is an excellent pianist, the best of the British bunch IMO. More timbre.

The second thing is that the CD gives a glimpse into the variety of music which was happening in Britain in the last 20 years or so of the last century. Finnissy still unable to quite shake off the vestiges of new complexity - his music still has a lot of notes - but it has started to acquire a sort of lyricism, and he’s a master of contrats, this period may well be his most interesting. Skempton’s music is sparse and IMO owes a huge debt to Feldman and Cage. Skempton is about sounds, letting sounds resonate. There’s also sense of closure in Skempton - not CPT cadences probably, but still that sense of coming safely and securely to an end . Finnissy plays Skempton better than anyone else on record. Newman’s explicit quotations are fun, and Weir - well I haven’t managed to get into her music yet I’m afraid.

But basically this is a valuable recording I think, a glimpse into yesterday’s leading edge in this sceptred isle. More than that, there are some piano masterpieces here I think - Finnissy’s  Stanley Stokes for example.

[Mandryka]

Strangely moreish music, this sequence by Oliver Leith, I mean, it is kind of impossible to stop listening when you start. It’s a bit like Angelo Badalamenti/Twin Peaks music with some cool percussion providing spice, a triangle here and there sort of thing. And than percussion stops it from being smug and pompous. Worth a listen - nice ambient relaxing music, with a disturbing edge.

[Mandryka]

Strangely moreish music, this sequence by Oliver Leith, I mean, it is kind of impossible to stop listening when you start. It’s a bit like Angelo Badalamenti/Twin Peaks music with some cool percussion providing spice, a triangle here and there sort of thing. And than percussion stops it from being smug and pompous. Worth a listen - nice ambient relaxing music, with a disturbing edge.

And the new one is seriously good, this guy’s the real deal.





http://www.anothertimbre.com/oliverleithmehollywood.html

[T. D.]

And the new one is seriously good, this guy’s the real deal.





http://www.anothertimbre.com/oliverleithmehollywood.html

Agreed, after reading your previous post I listened to the clips from the new one and was impressed.
Much (most?) of the Another Timbre catalog seems to consist of quiet solos/duets or ambient-type music, which I'm pretty full up on these days, so I'm pleased to see the chamber works with relatively large ensembles.

[Mandryka]

Buy it NOW!

(On the other hand, the new one from James Weeks seems a bit disappointing.)

[Mandryka]

http://www.richardemsley.com/index.php/barrett-article/

Essay on Richard Emsley by Richard Barrett. I’m very much enjoying some long solo piano pieces on soundcloud, e.g. For Piano 13.

[Mandryka]

https://www.jtilbury.com/howard-skempton/

Above is a link to four CDs by John Tilbury of solo piano music by Howard Skempton. I’ve just downloaded the third, largely because of the comments by Skempton about two of the pieces on it.


The CD is a revelation, that’s the only word for it. Much much more interesting than any Skempton piano I’ve heard before - including Tilbury’s commercial CD on Sony. Howard Skempton has a serious following here in London, and I’ve met composers who rate his music very highly indeed. These recordings by Tilbury are helping me to finally see why.

I’m coming to the conclusion that Tilbury really flowered around 2010 - all the recordings I hear from him from around that time are exceptional.

(I’m not convinced that the sound quality really justifies flac - these recordings are fine, but not SOTA!)

[Mandryka]

And here's one for starters -- James Clarke -- new complexity maybe, but this guy's got soul and he's got brains. Three recordings, all fabulous IMO, especially the first two


              

And there’s the Arditti recording of his third quartet, and other music on his soundcloud. This guy is so impressive not just for the freshness and fecundity of his ideas, but also for their concision. I am going to make a big claim - James Clarke is a great composer.

https://soundcloud.com/james-clarke-01

[Mandryka]

Bryn Harrison is a prof at Huddersfield. I think his music is pretty cool, and in fact I think his writing is cool too.

http://www.brynharrison.com/


This morning I’m listening to  Dead Time, played by Wet Ink. This music seems very much in the same vein as Bernhard Lang’s - I mean, I expect there’s something in the processes which produce the near repetitions and articulations which is technically different from Lang’s monadologies, but as a listener it kind of has a very similar effect. Like it. It’s on a CD called Smoke, Airs, but here’s a concert recording, which I haven’t heard


https://vimeo.com/449315887