Saturday, November 8, 2014 8:00 pm Littlefield Concert Hall
TIM HODGKINSON AND DANS LES ARBRES
English clarinetist, composer, and improviser Tim Hodgkinson and Dan les arbres, an improvising quartet of Xavier Charles, Ivar Grydeland, Christian Wallumrød, Ingar Zach, share a program of improvised and composed music.
Program
Tim Hodgkinson:
GUSHe for clarinet and tape
For the Ghosts of Departed Quantities for solo clarinet
Improvisations
Dans les arbres:
Improvisations
Tim Hodgkinson
Born in 1949, Tim Hodgkinson is self-taught as a composer and has always worked outside the established institutions of music. He graduated in social anthropology at Cambridge in 1971, having co-founded the Henry Cow group in 1968. He regards his membership of this group, with the opportunity to work closely and collectively with other instrumentalists in developing new sound worlds, as the foundation of his musical education. The group's major appearances included Bath International Music Festival 1973, Bordeaux Sigma 1975, Lugano Festival 1977, Arts Council Contemporary Music Network, 1977, many commissions for theatre and dance and a lasting collaboration with Mike Westbrook and Frankie Armstrong in the Orckestra.
Exceptionally for a composer, he performs as an improviser and considers the practice of improvisation as an important aesthetic form in contemporary music. From 1979 onwards he has been involved in numerous solo and collective improvisation projects taking place in countries all over the world and documented on many recordings. He also initiated several projects in experimental rock music - amongst them The Work - and played alto saxophone in the group God.
From 1990, his anthropological interests have been rekindled by a series of study trips to Siberia with percussionist Ken Hyder, which led him to work closely with musicians and ritual specialists from other cultures. In 1997 he set up Radical Transcultural Initiatives, with the aim of taking experimental art into remote rural communities. This resulted in a first tour of Altai villages in summer 1998 with Gendos Chamzyryn, from Tuva, and Ken Hyder.
In concert, he plays clarinet, alto saxophone, bass clarinet, lap steel guitar, keyboards, vocals & electronics. In the studio he also works with percussion, viola and sampler.
Dans les arbres
Xavier Charles (FR) – clarinet, harmonica
Ivar Grydeland (N) – guitar & banjo w/ preparations, sruti box
Christian Wallumrød (N) – prepared piano, harmonium
Ingar Zach (N) – bass drum, percussion
This quartet stems from work that Ivar Grydeland and Ingar Zach began in duo toward the end of the twentieth century. Grydeland and Zach established the label SOFA, performed as a duo, and started several ensembles in which the two worked with musicians from the European improvised music scene. The duo passed through several stages, but their music really took shape while Grydeland and Zach were studying for their Master’s degree in Chamber Music at the Norwegian Academy of Music between 2001 and 2003. Those studies focused exclusively on their own compositions and improvisations. Around the time they gave their graduate concerts, Christian Wallumrød’s “Sofienberg Variations” (ECM 1809) was released. Grydeland and Zach felt that Wallumrød’s music was related to their own. Seeing a possibilty for musical cooperation, they invited Wallumrød to participate in rehearsals and concerts. This work led Grydeland and Zach to record with Wallumrød.
Parallell to their duo, Grydeland and Zach were also working with bassist Tonny Kluften in a project-based ensemble with the obscure name, No Spaghetti Edition. The core of that ensemble was originally Zach and Kluften, but Grydeland gradually became an equal member. The ensemble core invited guest musicians from diverse genres to join their CD releases, tours and concerts, with a constant focus on large-ensemble improvising. Wallumrød took part in one of the earlier projects. In 2003, No Spaghetti Edition released their third CD (“Real Time Satellite Data”, SOFA513). On this release and on the following tour and concerts, French clarinettist Xavier Charles was a guest. Grydeland and Zach were impressed by Charles’ music. Feeling he could enhance the work that began with Wallumrød, they invited him to rehearsals.
In early July 2004 they had their first meeting as a quartet. Though it was successful, they weren’t able to meet again until 16 months later. That time, they met for another project with No Spaghetti Edition—recording the CD “Sketches of a Fusion” (SOFA520) with Tonny Kluften and the Canadian improviser, Martin Tétreault. Although the focus on “Sketches of a Fusion” is clearly different from “Dans les Arbres,” working with “Sketches of a Fusion” and playing concerts with this material and this lineup inspired them to continue their work as a quartet.
In July 2006 Charles, Grydeland, Wallumrød and Zach met again. This time to work on a band sound and to compose music for their first release called “Dans les arbres” – which also is the introduction of the quartet by the same name: Dans les arbres. Since then the band has been touring in Europe, North America and Japan as a quartet. Dans les arbres have also performed with guest musicians such as Yumiko Tanaka, Otomo Yoshihide, Jim O´Rourke and the young Norwegian duo Vilde & Inga.
Cost: $15 general, $10 seniors and students