Tennis courted

Two modern masters in ravishing first-time live collaborations for the increasingly vital Cronica: Philip Jeck crowns the recent Crossovers set of baton-passing duos in a bucolic, filigreed pairing with lever harpist Rebecca Joy Sharp, while Stephan Mathieu combines with violinist/shruti boxer David Maranha on the radiant, richly groaning Strings (as "sun-drenched yet gusty" as the Porto day of its performance...). 


Crossovers was initiated by Simon Whetham (a sometime Bristol neighbour of LMYE's, though the collection grew out of time in Tallinn). "During the residency he met and worked with many artists who were all working with sound and music in different and interesting ways, prompting him to exhibit the work he composed alongside work created by those he met and worked with throughout his time in Estonia and Latvia.


Performing at events a number of times during the residency became an 
integral part of the project, so when Whetham came to exhibit the works 
in the UK, each exhibition began and ended with a live performance event, 
drawing on a pool of diverse local artists and musicians. The format for 
each performance was that artists were organised into pairs, with one 
artist beginning to play solo, would then be joined by the second for a 
short collaborative crossover section, and then the first would end their 
performance, leaving the second to play their own solo piece.


Gathered on this compilation are a number of the crossover sections, where 
artists who had not met or collaborated before are captured performing 
together for the first time."


Oh, & it's free (though donations welcome)...

Blurb: "“Strings” documents the long awaited first encounter of David Maranha and Stephan Mathieu, taking place in the Tennis Court of the Parque de Serralves, in Porto, on a sun-drenched yet gusty late-afternoon in July 2011. Having discussed in advance which instruments, tuning and notes to use, the piece was accomplished as an improvisation on the violin, shruti-box and virginals, reflecting both players love for classic minimalism, but also their ability to transform this language and make it their own. The acoustic instruments were amplified through a quadrophonic system to captivating volume, that nevertheless allowed environmental sounds to permeate."

Predictably thoughtful Liminal review...

Rebecca Joy Sharp + Philip Jeck: Crossover


Stephan Mathieu & David Maranha: Strings (Excerpt)

Photo above by Pascal Savy (from a lovely Fluid Radio review). Important: LMYE only makes music available that artists/labels have chosen to share freely. Let us know if something here shouldn't be.