If you're within any kind of manageable radius of Bristol, I assume we'll be seeing each other Saturday week. The chance to witness the vast scale & arcing resonances of Ellen Fullman's 'Long String Instrument' - in seemingly its UK debut - isn't one to spurn lightly.
For once, describing the event as "singular" & "transcendent" seems more a reasoned statement of fact than hype froth. LMYE's hat doffed & redoffed (read the 'tech rider'...) to Arnolfini for making it happen as part of the Bristol New Music festival.
Blurb: "A transcendental new music experience that finds singular US composer/inventor Ellen Fullman building and performing on her remarkable self-designed Long String Instrument, in collaboration with German experimental guitarist Konrad Sprenger. A UK premiere.
The Long String Instrument is an installation of dozens of tuned wires fifty feet or more in length, suspended across a space. In performance, Fullman slowly processes across the instrument, 'bowing' the strings with rosin-coated fingers to produce warm, immersive and overtone-rich drones that use the acoustic properties of the space as the body of the instrument itself. The Long String Instrument will be purpose-built on the panoramic top floor of the Arnolfini building, with Fullman joined by long-term collaborator Konrad Sprenger on computer-controlled multichannel electric guitar."
Below some alluring 'collateral', including a hand-crafted (sort of) Fullman playlist...
NB: top photo by John Fago, lower by Judy Dater. Important: LMYE only makes music available that artists/labels have chosen to share freely. Let us know if something here shouldn't be.
