Giacinto Scelsi, Chris Watson & Joe Browning
Scelsi EP
SN Variations is proud to announce the release of a new EP curated around the primordial and enigmatic music of Giacinto Scelsi. Alongside a new recording of his intimate Duo for Violin and Cello, the EP features a new work by Chris Watson inspired by Scelsi's explorations of 'pure sound' and a breathtaking shakuhachi honkyoku performance by Joe Browning. The Duo for Violin and Cello dates from Scelsi's most fertile period and was composed at the same time as seminal works such as Anahit and Elegia per Ty. Despite a modest combination of just two instruments, the innovative use of double stopping and extended playing techniques creates a huge, vibrating microtonal form. In this new recording, Aisha Orazbayeva and Lucy Railton execute a meticulous performance of this complex score. Chris Watson responded to the piece with sculpted field recordings of insects made originally on a boardwalk in the middle of the Borneo jungle. Invertebrate Harmonics imaginatively links the pure sound world of Scelsi to pure sound worlds found in nature. This piece is from a larger installation work Notes from a Forest Floor, which was played first at the ICA last June as part of the event 'MusICA -Exploring Sound and Authorship'. Finally Chris records a traditional shakuhachi honkyoku piece - Honshirabe - one of the pieces forming the historic repertoire of the wandering Zen Buddhist monks known as the Komuso. This performance by Joe Browning is one of exquisite subtleties, resonating with Scelsi's mature work while pointing to its widespread historical antecedents.
| 12inch | SN Variations: SN2 | out of stock |
