We were recently contacted by Tellef from the Gasser-Kochan-Øgrim Trio about their new album, What’s wrong with Now?. After hearing a couple of tracks from the album it was decided that we should definitely do a feature on it. The Gasser-Kochan-Øgrim Trio is Clementine Gasser (5 string cello), Jacek Kochan (drums/percussion) and Tellef Øgrim (fretless guitar/electronics). Tellef describes the trio as playing, “abstract music on the borders of noisy jazz and contemporary art music, sometimes graphically pre-sketched, otherwise not at all pre-planned”.

On 25th September 2010 Gasser, Kochan and Øgrim met in Amann studios in Vienna for a concert recording that is now in the process of being mastered and released on Nottwo Records this summer under the title, What’s wrong with Now?

Here are a couple of tracks from the forthcoming album:

Gasser-Kochan-Ogrim @ Amannstudios by tellefogrim

If you would like to find out more about the Trio on this website, please visit:
Gasser-Kochan-Øgrim Trio – Info

For further information about the forthcoming album and to see/hear more of the Trio’s work, visit:
Gasser-Kochan-Øgrim Trio on Soundcloud
Gasser-Kochan-Øgrim Trio on YouTube

“To draw is to see. Drawing encompasses time. Drawing contains the experience of looking and offers up another view of time. The opera drawings draw on a multitude of moments, they invite us to stop and enter their sense of time. Captured in a static image, the scenes are unfolded, emotions are expressed and memories extracted” (Artist)

There’s a rich history of opera influencing the work of other artists – Wagner is an obvious example.

An exhibition currently showing at the Wales Millennium Centre provides a 21st-century perspective on how artists may be inspired by the rich visual imagery of opera. Nichola and Sarah Hope are twin sisters who have spent the last five years creating drawings at the Welsh National Opera, with unique access to the live rehearsals of the company. The result is a set of drawings reflecting the ‘live’ nature of their composition:

Kovanschina by Sarah Hope

“Elements of theatricality link the works of Nichola Hope and Sarah Hope. In the works, theatricality comes from the subject through the use of composition, gesture, costume and props. Masquerade costume and performance all become elements of identity. On another level, the artist engages with the role of performer through the means in which the figure is represented in an imaginary space.” (from Press Release for the exhibition)

Kovanschina by Nichola Hope

“The theatrical artwork acknowledges reality, it allows the viewer to engage with the art form but on another level it involves the representation of things that could never otherwise be perceived. There is a coexistence of fact and fiction. In the works, theatricality comes from the subject through the use of composition, gesture, costume and props. Masquerade costume and performance all become elements of identity. On another level, the artist engages with the role of performer through the means in which the figure is represented in an imaginary space” (Artist)

Tosca by Nichola Hope

Carmen by Sarah Hope

The exhibition runs until the end of February and has already been featured on the BBC website and S4C’s Wedi 7.

For more information about the artists on this website, please visit:

Hope, Sarah – Info
Hope, Nichola – Info.

To see more of Sarah’s work, visit http://sarahhope.com/index.htm to see more of Nichola’s work, visit http://www.nicholahope.com/index.htm.

This is the final feature of composers/artists performed at Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival this year. It’s taken a while longer than anticipated to get all the features finished, but we got there in the end. We hope you have found this series interesting. As always, you can let us know your thoughts about this by posting a comment…

Stef Conner’s piece, Still Sky Bells was performed alongside Edward Caine’s work (see previous feature) by the Nieuw Ensemble on Monday 22nd November at St Paul’s Hall, Huddersfield (for details about the rest of the programme, click here).

An audio recording of that performance is not available at this point in time, but we do have one of Stef’s other pieces, Laments of the Gorges which you can listen to:

Stef’s programme note for this piece:

“This piece is a setting of short fragments from an anachronistically experimental and uniquely surreal poem by Meng Jiao (751-814 AD). Although there are no voices in the piece, the language of the poem is present throughout, often in indiscernible and occasionally in discernible forms. Intelligibility of text is obviously limited in instrumental music, but certain elements of language, such as prosody, can be retained. In a ‘tonal’ language like Chinese, the potential for meaning to be discerned from prosody alone is greater than in most European languages. Much of the melodic material in this piece is derived from the contour of the spoken poetry and some of the harmonic progressions and timbral techniques intuitively emulate the sound of Chinese phonemes. I have also incorporated some spectral analysis of the human voice into the piece by tracking variation over time of frequency content in various vocal sounds, and then re-synthesizing them using instruments. These experiments in generating musical material from language provided me with a palette of sounds which I was able to drawn on to create an orchestral atmosphere inspired by the eerie sonorities and turbulent cascades of sound in Meng Jiao’s poem.”

Excerpts from the poem:

Xiá āi kū yōu hún, jiăo jiăo fēng chuī lái.
Laments of the gorges, shadowy spirits mourning. Winds howl.

Sān xiá yī xiàn tiān, sān xiá wàn shéng quán.
Triple Gorge one thread of heaven over ten thousand cascading thongs of water,

Shàng zì suì rì yuè, xià zhì kuáng yí lián
Slivers of sun and moon sheering away above, and wild swells walled in below,

Pò hún yī liăng diăn, níng yōu shù băi nián
Splintered spirits glisten, a few glints frozen how many hundred years in dark gorges

Xìng mìng rú făng jì, dào lù suí suŏ yuán
here, your life like fine-spun thread, its road a trace of string travelled away.

Diàn lèi diào pō líng, pō lĭng jiang shăn rán
Offer tears to mourn the water ghosts, and water ghosts take them, glimmering.

Shàng tiān xià tiān shuĭ, chū dì rù dì zhoū.
Water all heaven-above, heaven-below, a boat leaves earth entering here.

If you would like to find out more about Stef Conner, visit her info page on this site: Conner, Stef – Info

You can also see/hear more of Stef’s work by visiting the following:

Stef Conner’s website: www.stefconner.com
Stef Conner on myspace: www.myspace.com/stefconner

I recently saw this film at the Arnolfini, Bristol as part of the Animated Encounters Film Festival. It was shown along with nine other short animations as a programme of award winning experimental animation from the UK. The films were selected from the 100 films commissioned through Channel 4 / Arts Council England AnimateTV project. For further information about AnimateTV, please visit www.animateprojects.org.

We will be featuring as many of the ten films that were programmed as we can (and maybe more) over the coming months. I am starting with Stephen Irwin’s film, The Black Dog’s Progress because it particularly appealed to me, including the excellent soundtrack to the film which was produced by Sorenious Bonk. I hope you enjoy it.

The Black Dog’s Progress from small time inc. on Vimeo.

Programme note from Arnolfini Screening:
“Over fifty flipbook animations, assembled within a single shot, each representing a different scene, and continuing to play on a loop as the narrative develops.”

For further information about Stephen on this website, go to: Irwin, Stephen – Info
You can also see more of Stephen’s work at: www.smalltimeinc.com

This is the first of several features on composers whose work has been a part of Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival this year. Edward Caine’s piece, Madrigale II: Qu’est devenu ce bel oeil was performed by Nieuw Ensemble on Monday 22nd November at St Paul’s Hall, Huddersfield (for details about the rest of the programme, click here). Although we don’t have a recording of this piece in performance, we do have one of Edward’s other pieces, [squeezeBox]². Enjoy…

©Copyright 2010 Edward Caine

See below for Edward’s programme note for this piece:

[squeezeBox]² for two Accordions by Edward Caine
Premiere performance by TOEAC Accordion Duo, Cheltenham Festival 14/7/10

This piece was commissioned by Sound and Music and Cheltenham Festival. While writing it I was given a trip to Copenhagen, where the performers are studying at the DKDN (Danish conservatoire of music). Apologies for the poor quality of the video.

Other ideas I explored in the piece are the beating produced by having a “tone gliss” in one hand and keeping the note steady in the other – a beautifully clear rhythmic idea which I use in canon in the piece, and logical extensions of the “bellow shake” and “vibrato” techniques. The title [squeezeBox]2 refers to a british colloquialism for accordion that evokes to me both the bellow motion at the heart of the pieces structure and also the sweet but troubled nature of the material, something I associate with the gentle evocations of a homeless person on the side of the street playing an old broken accordion.

If you would like to see/hear more of Edward’s work and to find out about news/upcoming performances, please visit www.edwardcaine.com

You can also find out more about Edward on The Medium of at: Caine, Edward – Info

Finally, you can follow Edward through the following social networks:

Edward Caine on facebook
Edward Caine on twitter
Edward Caine on YouTube
Edward Caine on Sound Cloud