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Reidmeister Move

September 11, 2012

Reidemeister Move

“Borromean Rings” and “Arcanum 17” with Reidemeister Move

A multimedia composition by Christopher Williams and Charlie Morrow based on texts by Andr Breton.

Performed by, Reidemeister Move, Christopher Williams (contrabass) and Robin Hayward (microtonal tuba) with Charlie Morrow (recorded voice and conch shells)and Maija-Leena Remes (recorded voice).

Charles Morrow Productions has issued details of Arcanum 17, an immersive multimedia performance and MorrowSound True 3D sound installation presented in 5 venues across Canada from 6-17 September, 2012. More information at

arcanum17.wordpress.com.

Over a year in the making, Arcanum 17 is a 45-minute, two-part multimedia composition for contrabass and tuba, text, and field recordings based on surrealist Andre Breton’s 1944 book of thesame name, in which he sees love and loss, aggression and war, pacifism, feminism and the occult* through the prism of Rocher Perc, a massive natural arc on the east coast of Quebec. Through his unique blurring of prose and poetry, dream-and waking states, natural and psychological landscapes, and past, present and future, Breton links themes as diverse as Canadian wildlife, the myth of Melusina,fascism, and the ecstasy of newfound love. Williams’ collaboration with Hayward and Morrow amplifies and transforms Bretons imagery, bringing it alive in an immersive musical environment. Around the metaphor of the crumbling Rocher Perc, sustained-tone music in just intonation and delicate noise drifts in and out of recorded wildlife, seascapes, and tourism from the Gasp Peninsula.

Arcanum 17 is created expressly for MorrowSound True 3D, a state-of-the-art modular sound spatialization system which projects sound from above and below the listener. True 3D creates the illusion of an expanded space where sound moves up and down, as well as around, allowing for magical and aradoxical connections to emerge between concrete geographies, abstract sonorities, and visionary concepts.

Each event includes a performance of Robin Hayward’s 40-minute composition Borromean Rings. A double-ringed colour-coded score provides the basis for the spontaneous exploration of harmonic space together with rhythmic, timbral and noisebased variations.

Reidemeister Move is a duo dedicated to exploring and expanding the possibilities of sustained-tone music in just intonation for their instruments, Reidermester Moves performances are based purely on tuned intervals, noise, corporeal rhythms, and spatial resonance. 

Robin Hayward

The tuba player and composer Robin Hayward, born in Brighton, England in 1969, has been based in Berlin since 1998. He has redefined the tuba’s potential both in the areas of noise and microtonality, and his compositions for other instruments reflect a similar experimental, medium-specific approach. He has toured extensively both solo and in collaboration, and been featured in such festivals as Maerzmusik, Fri Resonans, Donaueschingen, TRANSIT festival, Ghent Festival of Flanders, Ostrava New Music Days, Sound Symposium, Kiele Tage fur Neue Musik and Wien Modern. Collaborations include such luminaries as Charles Curtis and Roberto Fabbriciani along with leading composers such as Christian Wolff and Alvin Lucier. His approach to the tuba has been documented in the solo CDs Valve Division and States of Rushing, as well as various collaborative releases. In 2005 he founded the ensemble Zinc & Copper Works to explore brass chamber music from an experimental music perspective.

Christopher Williams

Christopher Williams is a Berlin-based composer, contrabassist, organizer, and researcher originally from San Diego (California), where he studied at the University of California with Chaya Czernowin, Bertram Turetzky, Charles Curtis, and others. He is currently completing a PhD at the University of Leiden (Holland) under the supervision of Richard Barrett and Marcel Cobussen on the subject of notation for improvisers. Performances with Derek Bailey, Justin Bennett, Charles Curtis, LaMonte Young’s Theatre of Eternal Music, Robin Hayward, Hans W. Koch, Maggie Nicols, and dancer Martin Sonderkamp. Collaborations with composers such as Chris Adler, Benjamin Carson, Yoav Pasovsky, Benjamin Patterson, Ana-Maria Rodriguez, Marc Sabat, James Saunders, and Erik Ulman. Currentprojects include COG, with drummer Andrea Belfi and Atari ST player Nat Fowler; and Nidus Nodus, a phonographic project with members of French collective Ouïe/Dire and woodwind performer Chris Heenan.

Charlie Morrow

Charlie Morrow (b 1942 Newark, New Jersey, USA), is a conceptualist whose music and sound work explores many styles and forms, from events for media and public spaces to commercial soundtracks, new media productions, museum installations and programming for broadcast and festivals. Assembling expert project groups, Morrow employs a collaborative style that fuses arts, artists, and environment. Technological expertise creates the basis for much of his work, which often combines newest and oldest technologies.

http://www.robinhayward.de/Reidemeister%20Move.html

Supported by the Berlin Senate Cultural Affairs Department and Charlie Morrow Productions.

Image courtesy of the Artists.