#magnus granberg

[hawkmoths17]

Magnus Granberg - Come Down to Earth Where Sorrow Dwelleth

[dustedmagazine]

Magnus Granberg — How Lonely Sits the City (Another Timbre)

How Lonely Sits the City? by Magnus Granberg

“How lonely sits the city that was full of people,” begins the book of Lamentations. In 2019, the ever-resourceful Magnus Granberg accepted the challenge of writing music concerning issues of world crisis. Little did he or anyone else suspect the challenges of 2020 and beyond which would shape the piece now on offer, performed by a modified version of his malleable Skogen ensemble. While the piece is loosely based on Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time, that’s only a metaphysical grounding for music that is, typically, nothing more or less then Granberg’s own.

To suggest that is not to diminish his work in any way, merely to state the originality of his voice. Return to 2017’s Ist Gefallen in den Schnee to hear not so much a progenitor as the continuum along which his music had been developing. Point and line are his gateways, and they can be easily confused as they intersect. Lonely is somewhat louder than the two pieces on that earlier album, but even that is a relative pronouncement concerning a dynamic world of crystalline gentleness rendering the moments of transgression, as at the 20-minute mark, even more poignant.

I wonder about the actual debt paid to Messiaen. Could it be the repetition, which, beyond the stages of dynamic intrigue as the nearly hour-long piece develops, drives the music forward? Messiaen’s own language is rife with it, even as it incorporates various levels of Darmstadt influence along the way. Repetition isn’t even a good descriptor, as it prescribes some sort of regularity. These are returns in continuous and cellular modification, dots forming constantly evolving shapes of increasing familiarity. They’re complemented by the subtle timbre shifts that are Skogen’s prerogative. One generalized description might involve a gradual motion toward sustains over points as the music progresses, but even that fails to capture the spatial counterpoint that is a hallmarkof Granberg’s work. The fluid sound world eventually provides a backdrop for beautifully executed passages of solo strings, most notably near the work’s conclusion.

What emerges, when all is added and subtracted, is a kind of fluid tableau. Just like the title suggests, we are placed above a moving panorama, a bustle as viewed from Brucknerian heights that can be heard either as serene or as continually self-agitating, depending on perspective and choice. As usual, the superb recording ensures that such a choice can easily be made without the effort of ear-straining. Like the label that houses so much of his work, Granberg moves from strength to strength, and this newest disc is no exception.

Marc Medwin

[mermaidinthecity]

haleyreinhart: My new single, 'Roll The Dice' is officially out now!!! Feels like I’ve already hit the jackpot 🎰 with all of the love that I’m receiving from you dolls… 🖤 Thank you for streaming, sharing, & watching the new video I co-directed! I am eternally grateful to my incredible team that I get to call my friends listed below who helped me bring this song & vision to life. 🎲 #rollthedice #newmusic #newsingle

'Roll The Dice' Written by: Haley Reinhart, Anders Grahn, & Magnus Tingsek Recorded & produced by: Magnus Tingsek & Anders Grahn Lyrics by: Haley Reinhart Mixed by: Carl Granberg Mastered by: Hans Olsson Lead vocals and Haley harms engineered by: Rob Kleiner

Haley Reinhart: Lead & Harmony Vocals Anders Grahn: Guitars, Bass & Harmony vocals Magnus Tingsek: Drums, Piano, Mellotron & Harmony Vocals Peter Zimny: Flugelhorn & Baritone Saxophone Tomas Pettersson: B3 organ & Celeste

Video Directed by: Joshua Shultz & Haley Reinhart Editor & colorist: Joshua Shultz & Haley Reinhart Filmed at: Circa Resort and Casino Single cover photo by: Alex Lang This photo by: Joshua Shultz

Starring: Haley Reinhart Ryan Bergeron (Snowbank) Jess Smyth (Biig Piig) Blake Lewis Beverly Lawrence Oliver Padilla

[159sutton]

November / December 2019

November 2019

Atlas of Dreams

New work by Nafis White November 20 – December 13

Opening Thursday November 21, 6-9PM

Atlas of Dreams is an exhibition of new work that centers landscape, ancestry and the interstitial space between dreams and consciousness using accumulation, intricately woven materials, carefully selected ready-mades and densely layered surfaces. White centers the portal as device, using sculpture as a vehicle by which material is intertwined, cast and knotted linking concepts of power and display using color, scale, time and beauty.

Featuring eight new Afro-Victorian works of art titled Oculus, pairing African and African American hair styling traditions with Victorian Era hair working techniques, White centers divergent themes ranging from topography, botany, interconnectivity, body as site, abstraction and meditation finding harmonious confluence between process and intuition. White will create an active, site-specific sculpture during the exhibition, wherein the public is invited to add plastic cast hair baubles to a large-scale work Untitled (All In, after Tony Feher), paying homage to the late artist, utilizing many hands to generate new pathways in thought and practice. Flanking the entrance to the exhibition is Strand (Double Helix), two large, vertical sculptures composed of rope, hair, cotton, beads and other inclusions, referencing the DNA structure, ancestry, resilience and embodied knowledge through complex knot-work.

The Atlas of Dreams is inspired by the writings of Howardena Pindell in her book titled The Heart of the Question – The Writings and Paintings of Howardena Pindell and in particular her essay titled The Aesthetics of Texture in African Adornment as well as Arnold Rubin’s essay titled Accumulation - Power and Display in African Sculpture. White expands upon the author’s concepts regarding accumulation, highlighting the dynamism and strength of the experiential, ancestral and contemporary using pattern, texture and color to create resonant objects that defy gravity.

See http://www.nafiswhite.com/ for more info

Textures of Time

New works by Morgan Evans-Weiler November 3-16, 2019

Opening and Concert Sunday November 3, 2019 3-6PM

Join the artist for an opening reception and a concert, featuring compositions performed by J.P.A. Falzone, Laura Cetilia, Ashley Frith, Morgan Evans-Weiler and more. 

https://www.facebook.com/events/1361008500724105/

ABOUT THE WORK:

Historically, we have imagined units, containers, and chains to help us make sense of the world and our engagement with it. Things, bodies, and objects have been linked together throughout the building blocks of life. More recently though, our thinking brings us to the potential of the line. At each moment we are putting lines out into the world, hoping for crossings, connections, and knots to be created in our sympathetic and empathetic engagements. The line embodies a commitment to processual thinking. The line attempts to create a way of thinking in which all objects become verbs—we imagine assemblages of motions, connections, and resonances. Built into lines is the potential of our traversing the world, thus we have put upon lines a sense of our temporal concerns. Our directions are agitated by a sense of temporal mobility. This is especially present in considerations of a simultaneity. Each of us in our process is creating lines of flight that are always already in simultaneous connectivity. But our awareness of this is infinitely limited. We are unable to comprehend a simultaneity beyond the ego—we can’t imagine the possibilities of nowness outside of ourselves. The nowness is not just the present moment, but all of the presents that contain within them the meshworks of potentiality that have produced them. Into this place of virtuality, we fold ourselves unknowingly. This is where the inquiry in ‘Texture of Time’ begins. What is it for material, motion, and time to be bound up in a practice of life? How do we imagine the visual affect of a simultaneous now of empathetic connection that exists through our practice of putting out lines? By drawing on and cutting into paper; through making connections and constellations of motion, Morgan Evans-Weiler engages with the process of putting lines out into a world of temporal uncertainty and listening into our connected sociality. Through this accumulation of paths and trajectories, further imaginings of the resonance of traversals and simultaneity can be engaged. For Evans-Weiler, ‘Textures of Time’  is a practice. A practice that can potentially reveal something to us about the totality of a passing-feeling process. Each work is enmeshed in an engagement of social everyday being—each drawing is a patchwork of passage. Works in this way are not ‘works’ in the traditional sense, they are resonant surfaces of a vibrational, affective tone. ABOUT THE ARTIST: Morgan Evans-Weiler (b. 1984) is an interdisciplinary artist based in Ithaca, NY. His work is concerned with issues of time, process, materiality, and the social considerations of cartographic lines. His visual work has shown throughout the U.S. at Rhizome D.C. (Tacoma Park), Washington Street Art Center (Boston), Midway Art Gallery (Boston), Reflection Gallery (Hancock, MI), and Oliver Art Center (Frankfort, MI). His compositions have been performed at venues such as Conrad Prebys Hall (San Diego) and Rhode Island School of Art and Design Museum and by ensembles such as Skogen (Sweden), a.pe.re.od.ic (Chicago), and Extradition Ensemble (Portland, OR). As a performer, he has been featured at venues such as Jordan Hall, Issue Project Room, MIT List Museum, and many others. He is the founder of the New England experimental ensemble, Ordinary Affects, which has performed alongside Jürg Frey, Eva-Maria Houben, Christian Wolff, and Magnus Granberg. Ordinary Affects has received grants from the Foundation of Contemporary Arts and Pro Helvetia, and has been in residence at Avaloch Farm Institute. In 2016, along with Jed Speare, Evans-Weiler founded the concert/book series ‘Standing Waves.’ This series has produced a dozen concerts and three books of artist writings by artists such as Aki Onda, Bonnie Jones, Derek Baron, Sarah Hennies, and Jake Meginsky. Evans-Weiler’s music and performance is featured on record labels such as Another Timbre, Edition Wandelweiser, Elsewhere, Suppedenaum, and Weighter Recordings. He is currently an MFA candidate at Cornell University. 

[podilatokafe]

awesome jazz: Magnus Granberg, Skogen – Nun, Es Wird Nicht Weit Mehr Gehn (2019) Πηγή: awesome jazz: Magnus Granberg, Skogen - Nun, Es Wird Nicht Weit Mehr Gehn (2019)

[holyjost]

TEAM LISTS OF UNPROTECTED PLAYERS [source] ANAHEIM DUCKS

FORWARDS: spencer abbott, jared boll, sam carrick, patrick eaves, emerson etem, ryan garbutt, max gortz, nicolas kerdiles, andre petersson, logan shaw, nick sorenson, nate thompson, corey tropp, chris wagner

DEFENSEMEN: nate guenin, korbinian holzer, josh manson, jaycob megna, jeff schultz, clayton stoner, sami vatanen

GOALTENDERS: jonathan bernier, jhonas enroth, ryan faragher, matt hackett, dustin tokarski

ARIZONA COYOTES

FORWARDS: alexander burmistrov, shane doan, tyler gaudet, peter holland, josh jooris, jamie mcginn, jeremy morin, mitchell moroz, chris mueller, teemu pulkkinen, brad richardson, garret ross, branden troock, radim vrbata, joe whitney

DEFENSEMEN: kevin connauton, jamie mcbain, zbynek michalek, jarred tinordi

GOALTENDERS: louis domingue

BOSTON BRUINS

FORWARDS: matt beleskey, brian ferlin, jimmy hayes, alex khokhlachev, dominic moore, tyler randell, zac rinaldo, tim schaller, drew stafford

DEFENSEMEN: linus arnesson, chris casto, tommy cross, alex grant, john-michael liles, adam mcquaid, colin miller, joe morrow

GOALTENDERS: anton khudobinn, malcolm subban

BUFFALO SABRES

FORWARDS: william carrier, nicolas deslauriers, brian gionta, derek grant, justin kea, matt moulson, cal o'reilly, cole schneider

DEFENSEMEN: brady austin, mathew bodie, zach bogosian, justin falk, taylor fedun, cody franson, josh gorges, dmitry kulikov

GOALTENDERS: anders nilsson, linus ullmark

CALGARY FLAMES

FORWARDS: brandon bollig, lance bouma, troy brouwer, alex chiasson, freddie hamilton, emile poirier, hunter shinkaruk, matt stajan, kris versteeg, linden vey

DEFENSEMEN: matt bartkowski, ryan culkin, deryk engelland, michael kostka, brett kulak, ladislav smid, michael stone, dennis wideman, tyler wotherspoon

GOALTENDERS: brian elliott, tom mccollum

CAROLINA HURRICANES

FORWARDS: bryan bickell, connor brickley, patrick brown, erik karlsson, danny kristo, jay mcclement, andrew miller, andrej nestrasil, joakim nordstrom, lee stempniak, brendan woods

DEFENSEMEN: klas dahlbeck, dennis robertson, philip samuelsson, matt tennyson

GOALTENDERS: daniel altshuller, eddie lack, michael leighton, cam ward

CHICAGO BLACKHAWKS

FORWARDS: kyle baun, andrew desjardins, marcus kruger, pierre-cedric labrie, michael latta, brandon mashinter, dennis rasmussen, jordin tootoo

DEFENSEMEN: brian campbell, dillon fournier, shawn lalonde, johnny oduya, ville pokka, michael rozsival, viktor svedberg, trevor van riemsdyk

GOALTENDERS: mac carruth, jeff glass

COLORADO AVALANCHE

FORWARDS: troy bourke, gabriel bourque, rene bourque, joe colborne, turner elson, felix girard, mikhail grigorenko, samuel henley, john mitchell, jim o'brien, brendan ranford, mike sislo, carl soderberg

DEFENSEMEN: mark barberio, mat clark, eric gelinas, cody goloubef, duncan siemens, fedor tyutin, patrick wiercioch

GOALTENDERS: joe cannata, calvin pickard, jeremy smith

COLUMBUS BLUE JACKETS

FORWARDS: josh anderson, alex broadhurst, matt calvert, zac dalpe, sam gagner, brett gallant, william karlsson, lauri korpikosko, lukas sedlak, t.j. tynan, daniel zaar

DEFENSEMEN: marc-andre bergeron, scott harrington, jack johnson, kyle quincey, john ramage, jaime sifers, ryan stanton

GOALTENDERS: oscar dansk, anton forsberg, joonas korpisalo

DALLAS STARS

FORWARDS: adam cracknell, justin dowling, cody eakin, ales hemski, jiri hudler, curtis mckenzie, mark mcneill, travis morin, patrick sharp, gemel smith, matej stransky

DEFENSEMEN: mattias backman, andrew bodnarchuk, ludwig bystrom, nick ebert, justin hache, dan hamhuis, patrik nemeth, jamie oleksiak, greg pateryn, dustin stevenson

GOALTENDERS: henri kiviaho, maxime legace, kari lehtonen, antti niemi, justin peters

DETROIT RED WINGS

FORWARDS: louis-marc aubry, mitch callahan, colin campbell, martin frk, luke glendening, darren helm, drew miller, tomas nosek, riley sheahan, ben street, eric tangradi

DEFENSEMEN: adam almquist, jonathan ericsson, niklas kronwall, brian lashoff, dylan mcilrath, xavier ouellet, ryan sproul

GOALTENDERS: jared coreau, petr mrazek, edward pasquale, jake peterson

EDMONTON OILERS

FORWARDS: david desharnais, justin fontaine, matt henricks, roman horak, jujhar khaira, anton lander, iiro pakarinen, tyler pitlick, zach pochiro, benoit pouliot, henrik samuelsson, bogdan yakimov

DEFENSEMEN: mark fayne, andrew ference, mark fraser, eric gryba, david musil, jordan oesterle, griffin reinhart, kris russell, dillon simpson

GOALTENDERS: laurent brossoit, jonas gustavsson

FLORIDA PANTHERS

FORWARDS: graham black, tim bozon, jaromir jagr, jussi jokinen, derek mackenzie, jonathan marchessault, colton sceviour, michael sgarbossa, reilly smith, brody sutter, paul thompson, shawn thornton, thomas vanek

DEFENSEMEN: jason demers, jakub kindl, brent regner, reece scarlett, mackenzie weegar

GOALTENDERS: reto berra, sam brittain, roberto luongo

LOS ANGELES KINGS

FORWARDS: andy andreoff, justin auger, dustin brown, kyle clifford, andrew crescenzi, nic dowd, marian gaborik, jarome iginla, trevor lewis, michael mersch, jordan nolan, teddy purcell, devin setoguchi, nick shore

DEFENSEMEN: matt greene, vincent loverde, brayden mcnabb, cameron schilling, rob scuderi, zach trotman

GOALTENDERS: jack campbell, jeff zatkoff

MINNESOTA WILD

FORWARDS: brady brassart, patrick cannone, ryan carter, kurtis gabriel, martin hanzal, erik haula, zack mitchell, jordan schroeder, eric staal, chris stewart, ryan white

DEFENSEMEN: victor bartley, matt dumba, christian folin, guillaume gelinas, alexander gudbranson, gustav olofsson, nate prosser, marco scandella, mike weber

GOALTENDERS: johan gustafsson, darcy kuemper, alex stalock

MONTREAL CANADIENS

FORWARDS: daniel carr, connor crisp, jacob de la rose, bobby farnham, brian flynn, max friberg, charles hudon, dwight king, stefan matteau, torrey mitchell, joonas nattinen, steve ott, tomas plekanec, alexander radulov, chris terry

DEFENSEMEN: brandon davidson, alexei emelin, keegan lowe, andrei markov, nikita nesterov, zach redmond, dalton thrower

GOALTENDERS: al montoya

NASHVILLE PREDATORS

FORWARDS: pontus aberg, cody bass, vernon fiddler, mike fisher, cody mcleod, james neal, p.a. parenteau, adam payerl, mike ribeiro, miikka salomaki, colton sissons, craig smith, trevor smith, austin watson, colin wilson, harry zolnierczyk

DEFENSEMEN: taylor aronson, anthony bitetto, stefan elliot, petter granberg, brad hunt, matt irwin, andrew o'brien, adam pardy, jaynen rissling, scott valentine, yannick weber

GOALTENDERS: marek mazanec

NEW JERSEY DEVILS

FORWARDS: beau bennett, michael cammalleri, carter camper, luke gazdic, shane harper, jacob josefson, ivan khomutov, stefan noeson, marc savard, devante smith-pelly, petr straka, mattias tedenby, ben thomson, david wohlberg

DEFENSEMEN: seth helgeson, viktor loov, ben lovejoy, andrew macwilliam, jon merrill, dalton prout, karl stollery, alexander urbom

GOALTENDERS: keith kinkaid, scott wedgewood

NEW YORK ISLANDERS

FORWARDS: josh bailey, steve bernier, eric boulton, jason chimera, casey cizikas, cal clutterbuck, stephen gionta, ben holmstrom, bracken kearns, nikolay kulemin, brock nelson, shane prince, alan quine, ryan strome, johan sundstrom

DEFENSEMEN: calvin de haan, matthew finn, jesse graham, thomas hickey, loic leduc, scott mayfield, dennis seidenberg

GOALTENDERS: jean-francois berube, christopher gibson, jaroslav halak

NEW YORK RANGERS

FORWARDS: taylor beck, chris brown, daniel catenacci, jesper fast, tanner glass, michael grabner, marek hrivik, nicklas jensen, carl klingberg, oscar lindberg, brandon pirri, matt puempel

DEFENSEMEN: adam clendening, tommy hughes, steven kampfer, kevin klein, michael paliotta, brendan smith, chris summers

GOALTENDERS: magnus hellberg, antti raanta, mackenzie skapski

OTTAWA SENATORS

FORWARDS: casey bailey, mike blunden, alexandre burrows, stephane da costa, christopher didomenico, nikita filatov, chris kelly, clarke macarthur, max mccormick, chris neil, tom pyatt, ryan rupert, bobby ryan, viktor stalberg, phil varone, tommy wingels

DEFENSEMEN: mark borowiecki, fredrik claesson, brandon gormley, jyrki jokipakka, marc methot, patrick sieloff, chris wideman, mikael wikstrand

GOALTENDERS: mike condon, chris driedger, andrew hammond

PHILADELPHIA FLYERS

FORWARDS: pierre-edouard bellemare, greg carey, chris conner, boyd gordon, taylor leier, colin mcdonald, andy miele, michael raffl, matt read, chris vandevelde, jordan weal, dale weise, eric wellwood

DEFENSEMEN: mark alt, tj brennan, michael del zotto, andrew macdonald, will o’neill, jesper pettersson, nick schultz

GOALTENDERS: steve mason, michal neuvirth

PITTSBURGH PENGUINS

FORWARDS: josh archibald, nick bonino, matt cullen, jean-sebastien dea, carl hagelin, tom kuhnhackl, chris kunitz, kevin porter, bryan rust, tom sestito, oskar sundqvist, dominik uher, garrett wilson, scott wilson

DEFENSEMEN: ian cole, frank corrado, trevor daley, tim erixon, cameron gaunce, ron hainsey, stuart percy, derrick pouliot, chad ruhwedel, mark streit, david warsofsky

GOALTENDERS: marc-andre fleury

SAN JOSE SHARKS

FORWARDS: mikkel boedker, barclay goodrow, micheal haley, patrick marleau, buddy robinson, zack stortini, joe thornton, joel ward

DEFENSEMEN: dylan demelo, brenden dillon, dan kelly, paul martin, david schlemko

GOALTENDERS: aaron dell, troy grosenick, harri sateri

ST. LOUIS BLUES

FORWARDS: kenny agostino, andrew agozzino, kyle brodziak, jordan caron, jacob doty, landon ferraro, alex friesen, evgeny grachev, dmitrij jaskin, jori lehtera, brad malone, magnus paajarvi, david perron, ty rattie, scottie upshall, nail yakupov

DEFENSEMEN: robert bortuzzo, chris butler, morgan ellis, carl gunnarsson, jani hakanpaa, petteri lindbohm, reid mcneill

GOALTENDERS: jordan binnington, carter hutton

TAMPA BAY LIGHTNING

FORWARDS: carter ashton, michael bournival, j.t. brown, cory conacher, erik condra, gabriel dumont, stefan fournier, byron froese, yanni gourde, mike halmo, henri ikonen, pierre-luc letourneau-leblond, tye mcginn, greg mckegg, cedric paquette, tanner richard, joel vermin

DEFENSEMEN: dylan blujus, jake dotchin, jason garrison, slater koekkoek, jonathan racine, andrej sustr, matt taormina, luke witkowski

GOALTENDERS: peter budaj, kristers gudlevskis, jaroslav janus, mike mckenna

TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS

FORWARDS: brian boyle, eric fehr, colin greening, seth griffith, teemu hartikainen, brooks laich, brendan leipsic, joffrey lupul, milan michalek, kerby rychel, ben smith

DEFENSEMEN: andrew campbell, matt hunwick, alexey marchenko, martin marincin, steve oleksy, roman polak

GOALTENDERS: antoine bibeau, curtis mcelhinney, garret sparks

VANCOUVER CANUCKS

FORWARDS: reid boucher, michael chaput, joseph cramarossa, derek dorsett, brendan gaunce, alexandre grenier, jayson megna, borna rendulic, anton rodin, drew shore, jack skille, michael zalewski

DEFENSEMEN: alex biega, philip larsen, tom nilsson, andrey pedan, luca sbisa

GOALTENDERS: richard bachman, ryan miller

WASHINGTON CAPITALS

FORWARDS: jay beagle, chris bourque, paul carey, brett connolly, stanislav galiev, tyler graovac, garrett mitchell, liam o’brien, t.j. oshie, zach sill, chandler stephenson, christian thomas, nathan walker, justin williams, daniel winnik

DEFENSEMEN: karl alzner, taylor chorney, cody corbett, darren dietz, christian djoos, tom gilbert, aaron ness, brooks orpik, nate schmidt, kevin shattenkirk

GOALTENDERS: pheonix copley, philipp grubauer

WINNIPEG JETS

FORWARDS: marko dano, quinton howden, scott kosmachuk, tomas kubalik, jc lipon, shawn matthias, ryan olsen, anthony peluso, chris thorburn

DEFENSEMEN: ben chiarot, toby enstrom, brenden kichton, julian melchiori, paul postma, brian strait, mark stuart

GOALTENDERS: michael hutchinson, ondrej pavelec

[fileunder]

Magnus Granberg - 'How Deep is the Ocean...'

[dustedmagazine]

Magnus Granberg and Skogen — Let Pass My Weary Guiltless Ghost (Another Timbre)

Let Pass My Weary Guiltless Ghost by Magnus Granberg & Skogen

Magnus Granberg has drawn on sources as diverse as songs by English Renaissance composers John Dowland and William Byrd, the 1930s popular song “If I Should Lose You,” Schubert song cycles, Frank Sinatra’s interpretation of “None but the Lonely Heart” and Irving Berlin’s “How Deep is the Ocean.” So, it should come as no surprise that for “Let Pass My Weary Guiltless Ghost,” he mused on “O Death Rock Me Asleep,” a song attributed to Anne Boleyn (assumed to have been composed whilst she was imprisoned in the Tower of London) along with Bill Evans’ interpretation of Michel Legrand’s “You Must Believe in Spring.” As always with Granberg, these are just starting points. He talks about this approach as “letting preexisting musical materials (rhythmic fragments, tonal materials) serve as a creative impulse which then are interbred with certain methods which transform the original materials and turn them into something quite different… Without perhaps being able to grasp these musics in their totality, I can at least approach fragments of them, getting more intimately acquainted with the music via these smaller fragments, and letting them become part of a new music which in turn is very much informed by fragments of other musics. And all these fragments together are formed into a new whole where the different impulses may not always be immediately traceable, but are still in some way present in the subtext of the music.”

The piece, commissioned by the Berlin-based Splitter Orchester for their 2019 music festival, was written for an extended version of the group Skogen, featuring Anna Lindal on violin, Leo Svensson Sander on cello, Rhodri Davies on harp, Ko Ishikawa on sho, Simon Allen on vibraphone and amplified springs, Erik Carlsson on percussion, Henrik Olsson on objects, friction and piezo, Petter Wästberg on contact microphone, credit card, mixing board and loudspeaker, Toshimaru Nakamura on no-input mixing board and the composer on prepared piano. Granberg has been tapping this pool of musicians for over a decade and they are acutely keyed in to his approach toward compositional frameworks built around strategies of constant flux. It is left to each participant to navigate tempo, timbre and the fragmentation and repetition of the materials while adhering to the overarching form of the piece. Central to the framework is a thorough integration of tonal and timbral instruments, amalgamating the harmonic resonance of strings, the percussive attack of prepared piano and vibraphone, the quavering, reedy oscillations of sho and the abraded and gritty textures of amplified surfaces and electronics into an active fields of striated simultaneity and ever-shifting detail.  

Listening to “Let Pass My Weary Guiltless Ghost” is a bit like sitting and listening to a marsh at dusk. Individual voices prick out and recede against a freely evolving tranquil sonic field. Each of the musicians progress along their own arcs, informed by what is transpiring around them without ever being directly swayed from their individual trajectories. Granberg talks about having spent time listening to Javanese Gamelan music and Gagaku, and while he doesn’t draw specific techniques or forms from those traditions, their approaches to ensemble structures is certainly evident. The piece starts out sparely, with Granberg’s prepared piano, plucked strings, metallic percussive plinks and sputters of electronics sounding across each other. While the voices slowly accrue, there is a constant balance of density and dynamics which maintains a transparency to the ensemble sound throughout. The choice of tonal material creates pools of harmonic fragments which play off of each other interwoven with the breathy microtonality of the sho and the abraded and scuffed textures of amplified surfaces, electronics and no-input mixing board. It is that changeable mix, in particular, that gives Skogen’s readings of Granberg’s music an unmistakable sound.  

This performance was recorded in Stockholm in November 2019, with performances at the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival directly before the session and at the Splitter Music Festival in Berlin directly after (captured on video here). Watching the Berlin performance and listening to this recording, one is struck by the balance of form and freedom that Granberg creates, and the sympathetic focus that Skogen so fully embraces. Each performance encapsulates the overarching composition while displaying the spontaneous tacks of the ensemble. This marks Granberg’s seventh release on Another Timbre, and his fourth with Skogen, clearly a fruitful relationship that continues to deliver captivating results.  

Michael Rosenstein

[dustedmagazine]

Jürg Frey and Magnus Granberg—Early to Late (Another Timbre)

Musical connections are often made via circuitous routes. I found myself thinking about this recently when attending a performance of Renaissance composer William Byrd’s music composed for virginal (a transverse plucked keyboard instrument similar to a harpsichord) played instead on a concert piano. I was drawn to the concert by the utilization of Byrd’s music by Jürg Frey and Magnus Granberg in two new pieces, rather than by any particular passion for music of the late 16th century. With that listening background, the transposition of the pieces to an instrument suffused with rich sustain and expansive decay brought a focus to the variegated polyphony that readily connected back to the recordings captured on Early to Late, a recent release on the Another Timbre label.

The genesis of this project took its own circuitous route. In the autumn of 2015, Simon Reynell met with Frey and Granberg to discuss commissions for pieces with a relation to Renaissance music to be performed by the two along with Grizzana Ensemble at the 2017 Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival. Reynell was completely open as to how this would manifest itself, other than a desire that this hint of a connection be a guiding influence. The two centered in on two pieces for source material, “How Vain Are All Our Frail Delights” by Byrd and “Déploration sur la mort de Binchois” by Johannes Ockeghem. Each absorbed and refracted the foundational material in ways that underline their respective approaches to compositional forms and group interplay. Granberg’s piece coopts the title of Byrd’s piece, while abstracting it into a changeable temporal framework for clarinet, piano, strings, celesta, dulcimer, glass harp, flute and electronics. Frey’s “Late Silence,” instead makes direct use of the melodic lines of the source material as ephemeral melodic and harmonic threads for an acoustic ensemble.  

In an interview on the Another Timbre site, Granberg reflects that “my piece basically consists of a few different pools of materials (containing melodic and rhythmic fragments, extended melodies, single notes, chords, suggestions regarding timbre etc.) notated in conventional staff notation, along with some suggestions as to how to treat them, as well as a temporal structure which regulates when to play from which group of materials. Within these groups or pools of materials the musicians are free to choose what to play and when to play it, and the final outcome is very much a result of the superimpositions, juxtapositions and interactions of the musical materials, as well as of individual and collective processes of listening, deciding (intuitively or consciously), acting and interacting, or not interacting, with one another.” Granberg’s choice of instrumentation and performers, a component long central to his practice, is the key to the potency of the piece. Running throughout are grains of a melodic thread (a ‘cantus firmus’) played by Frey on clarinet, derived from melodic fragments of the source material as well as Jerome Kern’s “In Love in Vain,” which reappears and morphs through the ensemble during the course of the piece.  

The score specifies that “the Cantus Firmus is (...) to be played very softly, almost silently. And later: (...) the Cantus Firmus at times only being present within the mind of the performer.” These instructions and the textural range of instrumentation provides a plaint, ever-shifting focus of attack and sustain, with pizzicato pops and sharply articulated knocks countered by arco scrims and quavering overtones. The tonal elements mix effectively with subtle, abraded electronics which add an additional layer of timbral depth. Over the course of the 40-minute piece, the ensemble navigates these wafts of thematic memory with an assured conviction. In the interview noted above, Dominic Lash, a member of the ensemble, explains that “the process of playing required great attentiveness, but was actually a calm and comfortable experience as long as you trusted the group and the music – in a sense the fragility seemed to lie more in the sounding result than the execution.” Listening, one is struck by the way that the strata and gradations of the parts continually intersect, break apart and overlap informed and guided by patience and careful listening.  

In his program notes for the Huddersfield premiere Frey describes “Late Silence” as follows. “The material is raw but delicate. The language is non-rhetorical and precise. The form has a clear architecture; sounds and sections become present and disappear but don’t dissolve. The work of the composer is elemental – as is its absence when the composer lets the music go on without interference. Tonality is vaguely touched on, a soft, slightly wavering light in the music. Silence, memory, presence – this triad shimmers in the background and keeps the piece in a balance of clear decisions and wide horizons.” In writing the piece, Frey utilized phrases and themes from Byrd and Ockeghem with minor transformations, adding in his own melodic lines. He lays out these kernels with his usual resolute lucidity, plying instrumental lines against each other with measured composure.  

The ensemble traverses the score with assiduous resolve, as various instrumental groupings reveal themselves. Tonal relationships and melodic line play a far more central role in Frey’s piece than in Granberg’s with calm pools of silence serving as central compositional elements. Just as central to the score is Frey’s usual attention to the slow, unrushed passage of time.  While tonality and harmonic relationships are paramount, Frey calls on Granberg and John Lely to use stones (a possible homage to Christian Wolff) to add in hints of abraded textures at points along the way. But it is still the way that Frey places the long, drawn string arcos, crystalline piano part (played with command by Phillip Thomas,) pairing of clarinet and harmonicas, or the resonance of double bass within the unfolding sound field that define this piece.  

Hearing these two pieces together makes for an entrancing listen. The Granberg piece edges out Frey’s for me, but with patient attention, each listener will find their own way to navigate these absorbing readings.  

Michael Rosenstein