This week I feature a really fresh new discovery for me, the Lithuanian composer Zibuokle Martinaityte. It is just a week or so ago that I first heard her music. I'd like to explain the context for how I discovered her.
The American composer Steve Reich has been an important influence on my music. I always look out for new pieces by him. I found a concert online that featured one of his latest works, 'Music for Ensemble and Orchestra', and intended just to watch the Reich piece. By a happy accident I started playing the video a few minutes before Reich's piece. I was fascinated by what I heard. It sounded to me like a very original combination of two of my favourite modern classical composers, Gyorgy Ligeti and John Adams. So I paused the video, found the start of the piece and saw it was 'Saudade' by Ziboukle Martinaityte. I sat back and listened to it, finding myself quickly drawn in by the unfolding, unusual orchestral textures. It is what I'd describe as 'almost tonal' modern classical music, as it wanders from bubbling, minimalistic tonal textures to big climaxes with Ligeti-like dissonant clusters. The music is not conventional in any sense, it is driven by texture rather than melody. If you are not familiar with this kind of music, it may seem strange at first, but give it time and you may find it very exciting by the end. The music moves from the slow textures to fast, rhythmic music that reminds me a bit of John Adams' Shaker Loops. As the piece ended I immediately wanted to find out more about her music, so, instead of continuing to watch the Reich piece, I went to her website http://zibuokle.com/ to listen to more of her music and, more importantly, find out why I'd not heard of her before. It turns out she is building quite a reputation in the contemporary classical scene in the USA, where she now lives, so perhaps it's only a matter of time before she is better known worldwide. Watch Saudade by clicking here If you keep watching after this you'll see the new Reich piece. It is a typical example of his more recent music, almost like a homage to his past glories, but not saying anything particularly new. I'm glad I tuned in though, as, without doing so, I wouldn't have discovered the very talented Ziboukle Martinaityte, who most definitely is saying something new! p.s. Another piece I've recently enjoyed hearing is the haunting and eerie 'Blue', which you can hear on her Soundcloud page.
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 Anyone who's followed my music over the years will know my favourite Irish composer is Paddy Fahey. 15 years ago, as I was developing my Fahey obsession, I was introduced to the unique fiddle playing of Breda Keville. There are literally hundreds, if not thousands. of excellent Irish fiddle players, so it takes something special for one to stand out. Whilst many try to impress with flashy, virtuoso playing, Breda does the opposite. She plays slow, soulful fiddle music in a style that is unlike any other fiddle player I've heard. Her only album to date is 'The Hop Down', from 2006. On it she plays several Paddy Fahey tunes really hauntingly. Breda has a yearning style perfectly suited to Fahey's music and indeed the general music of East Galway and East Clare. To me, no one plays this kind of music better than Breda Keville., yet perhaps because music isn't her profession, she is probably only really known to real aficionados of Irish traditional music. Breda's playing had a strong influence on me when I was making my 2009 album 'Contemporary Traditional Irish Guitar', some Fahey tunes I learnt from her album are on that record. The Hop Down is not available as a download or streaming album, so if you don't have the CD, it can be hard to get to listen to it. The youtube clip below though of Breda playing live in Galway is a great example of her playing. I hope she has another album in the pipeline as it'd be great to see her receive more recognition for her unique style and musicianship.  This week's post is about the South African guitarist/composer Avril Kinsey, who is one of the most inventive composers of modern classical guitar music. She is well known in South Africa, yet isn't as well known as she deserves to be elsewhere. Around 20 years ago I bought her book 'Guitar Music from Africa', a wonderful collection of original compositions and arrangements. Watch this short video below about it. I especially like her composition 'Song of the Water, Mokoro', a piece I learnt and played as a classical guitar student. Avril comes up with very imaginative ways of creating sounds of the South African bush, to create her own unique voice in the classical guitar world. Watch the video below of her playing this piece to see how she recreates bird sounds and the sound of a boat going through the reeds. Avril's approach to recreating natural sounds on the guitar inspired me recently when I was composing the piece 'Dún Laoghaire Harbour'. I adapted her 'boat in the reeds' technique to create the sound of boats creaking in the harbour. When she does the reeds technique she moves her finger up the fingerboard. I got the creaking technique by doing that and coming back down again with my nail hitting off the frets, in a rhythm approximating what a creaking boat sounds like.
I was also inspired by the way she gets bird sounds, however I don't use the same left-hand finger-nail technique she uses, instead I use a spoon! In 'Song of the Water, Mokoro' she also uses bell-like string harmonics to create an atmospheric texture, harmonics are a very common technique used by everyone from Segovia to The Edge, but Avril's way of composing with harmonics is quite distinctive. I use harmonics in 'Dún Laoghaire Harbour' in my own distinctive way to recreate the sound of ship halyards clanking in the harbour. My Mum always said to me, you should always give credit where credit is due, so that's partly what this post is about. Without Avril's inspirational and inventive music I wouldn't have composed 'Dún Laoghaire Harbour'. She's a treasure of the classical guitar world that deserves a wider audience. Learn more about Avril on her website here - www.avrilkinsey.net
Who's the greatest living guitarist in the world? Eric Clapton? Mark Knopfler? John Williams? Pat Metheny? Eddie Van Halen?
None of the above! They are all excellent in their genres, but to be the best guitarist in the world you need to be ultra-versatile. I've seen many guitarists in my lifetime and none of them can match the versatility, virtuosity and musicianship of Niwel Tsumbu. Niwel can literally play anything he puts his mind to and he's just about the nicest person you could meet. So why isn't he world-famous? It's a mystery to me! That's not to say Niwel isn't very highly regarded by lots of people. He is well known among musicians in Ireland since moving there from his native DR Congo in 2004. He has worked with some world-famous people including Irish star Liam O'Maonlai (Hot House Flowers), minimalist composing legend Steve Reich and one of Africa's greatest voices Baaba Maal. Yet he's not a household name himself and that is very strange to me! I'm honoured to call Niwel a friend and to have worked with him many times including with Crash Ensemble and my ensembles The Irish Memory Orchestra and D.F.F. However my friendship with Niwel has no bearing on the fact that I think he's the greatest living guitarist on the planet. That is based on the fact that I've never met or seen anyone who so thoroughly understands how to play the guitar in so many ways and to do that with passion, invention and musicality. Niwel Tsumbu is a genius that the world needs to hear! His beautiful instrumental 'Tears of Joy' showcases this beautifully, however to understand the full range of his talents you need to listen to a lot of the music he has played. Better still, go see him live anytime you see his name! Read more about Niwel here. - https://www.improvisedmusic.ie/artists/details/niwel-tsumbu Follow him on Facebook here
Linda is one of the best living composers in the world, not just Ireland, and this is but one of many works of hers worth your time. Linda has had many successes, she was RTE Lyric FM composer-in-residence and, as you can see, the renowned BBC Symphony Orchestra have played her music, as have many other great artists. Despite this, her work is not so well known outside of the small Irish composition scene. Hopefully that will change later this year with the release of her first album-proper on UK label NMC Recordings. This album has been too long a time coming, as Linda herself explains;
"While being active as a composer for many years in live performance contexts, there has been little opportunity for presentation of this work in a tangible form through professional recording. I am delighted to have been selected for a Debut Disc - I feel it is the right time in my journey as a composer to make this album, which brings my music to a more wide-reaching pool of listeners, and as a milestone to showcase a body of diverse and cross genre work. Much of my work is rooted in landscape and atmosphere, exploring sonic connection between acoustic instruments and electronics, as well as being strongly connected to the voice and the Irish tradition of Sean-nós singing." Linda Buckley is one of Ireland's brightest composition stars, her work deserves a much wider audience. Find out more about her work here - http://www.lindabuckley.org/ Disclaimer: Though I've met Linda a few times, I don't know her very well, so this is a very unbiased recommendation! |
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