Projects

MINIMALIST DREAM HOUSE

To be musically avant-garde in the 1950s meant to be difficult. Not by the end of the 1960s. That decade saw a group of American beatniks overthrow the musical givens of postwar Europe. In a series of disobediently straightforward compositions La Monte Young, Terry Jennings, Terry Riley, Steve Reich and Philip Glass declared that music could be clear, honest, pretty and experimental. Turning their backs on the conventional centres of musical power, the earliest minimalist works got their first public audience in La Monte Young's 1960-61 Chamber Street Series in Yoko Ono's New York loft. Through the 1960s in art galleries and alternative spaces, the minimalists slowly demystified, democratised and Americanised European modernism. They rejected the angst (what Philip Glass would call "crazy creepy music"). They rejected the invisible games. They rejected the theatricality. "I don't know any secrets of structure that you can't hear," wrote Steve Reich in his 1968 minimalist manifesto, Music as a Gradual Process. Minimalism claimed that there was enough interest in the sounding process itself and enough new territory to be explored in rhythmic patterning to sustain a work. If one removed the Baroque complications - the harmonic story-telling and thematic cleverness - that were obscuring the natural beauties of rhythm and sound, what would be revealed and discovered could provide classical music with a new lease of life. They were right. Minimalism was the last great musical revolution of the 20th century. And it became the most influential and successful ism of them all. In the spirit of the loft concerts we also present new works by David Chalmin, Raphael Seguinier and Nicola Tescari.

Cité de la Musique/Facebook/events

LINKS

cité de la musique
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kingsplace.co.uk
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MUSICIANS

Katia & Marielle Labèque
David Chalmin
Alexandre Maillard
Raphaël Séguinier
Nicola Tescari

KALAKAN

The KML Foundation supported Basque Trio Kalakan to help them bringing the traditional music to classical concerts hall since 2008 and producing their first album who was released in February 2011.

They are touring regularly with Katia and Marielle Labeque in their unique version of Ravel's BOLERO for two pianos and basque percussion. The two pianos score is by Ravel himself when the arrangement of added basque percussions has been done by Kalakan.

Read more here

ROUNDHOUSE
Collaboration with young video artists

Katia and Marielle return to the Roundhouse – the venue where they made their UK debut – on Sunday 31 January as part of Reverb Roundhouse Concerts, a series which explores the many sides of music. As part of the concert, the Labèque sisters will collaborate with young video artists from the pioneering Roundhouse Studios on a new film.

Aspiring video artists, aged 17-25, will be working with SDNA, the leading creative digital agency, on a project which explores myriad ways to create visual imagery and video content for music. The film will be developed in a series of intensive creative sessions in advance of the concert, using the music by Satie, Debussy and Stravinsky that Katia and Marielle will perform at the Roundhouse. Live footage of the concert itself will also be integrated into the final work, with the film shown as part of the concert on 31 January.

The Roundhouse is one of London’s leading performing arts venues and, as a charity, it helps thousands of young people every year.

Following an extensive refurbishment in 2006, more than half a million people have been to music, theatre, dance and circus events, and 15,000 11-25 year olds have developed their talents in the Studios. The Roundhouse delivers creative projects for many of London’s young people from all backgrounds including radio (with a dedicated radio station run by and for young people), music production, drama, poetry, TV, sound engineering, photography, VJ skills and much more.

Reverb also features collaborations between young musicians from Roundhouse Studios and the Main House, with a particular focus on the work of the Roundhouse Choir and Roundhouse Collective. Roundhouse Choir is a vocal ensemble for young people which performs at the Roundhouse and at arts venues across London. The Roundhouse Collective, a group of talented young musicians, champions new music at the Roundhouse, and features musicians from different musical backgrounds, styles of music and ranges of instruments.

with :

- Krystle Torio
- Meng Valeria
- Roman Knipping-Sorokin
- Paria Kamyab
- John Lung
- Dannielle Harper
- Sinead McCarthy
- Mubarak Ahmed

www.roundhouse.org.uk
www.facebook.com
buy tickets here

RED VELVET

(David Chalmin)

The alternative musical scene has given birth to an outstanding rock duet. Red Velvet features the subtle balance of intense songwriting and sharp arrangements.
David Chalmin’s pure and poignant voice, sustained by his genuine guitar playing, encounters Reeks creative drums, analog bass and electronics.
Red Velvet has produced its debut album released worldwide by Sonic Invaders in march 2009.

www.sonicinvaders.com
www.redvelvet.fr

(Reeks & David Chalmin)

De Fuego y de Agua, Mayté Martin

de fuego y de agua'
. . . how it was born . . .

i think it was in april 2005 that i was told the labèque sisters were looking for me to do a project on Spanish music my heart swelled when i realised that, of all the voices that katia and marielle could have chosen to carry out their ideas, they had chosen mine. and, what’s more, i swear that if i’d had to choose between knowing the human or the artistic side of the labèque sisters, i would have chosen the former. for i met two absolutely delightful women, generous and honest, of quite extraordinary quality and warmth joan albert amargós wrote the most amazing arrangements, and the three of us began seducing each other the old way: slowly, with respect and subtlety. we created the repertoire and style of the show without a single problem of understanding or conflict of interests. all three of us wanted the same thing, and we found it by working hand in hand, taking advantage of each moment in which we could see our project growing and becoming more beautiful each idea, each proposition, each rehearsal and each tisane was a great event for me. and in each minute that i shared with them i was conscious of how lucky i was, of the fact that all my life i had wanted something like this to happen to me. because i have always felt close to classical music and opera. in fact, katia and marielle had heard me singing some of my own music on compilation recordings. they asked me to include in the programme some pieces i’d composed myself, and i showed them unpublished themes i had written in totally and deliberately classical arrangements. they chose three which are recorded on our cd i hope that what is heard on this record will reflect all the love and excitement of those who nurtured this project; because if that is so, i’m sure you will enjoy it almost as much as i do

Mayté Martin

B For Bang
Across the Universe of Languages.

A re-interpretation of the Beatles’ songs and universe in a blend of classical, pop instrumentation and visual performance.

"An organic creature, with communicating vessels between impressionism and expressionism, poetry, the sounds of the city in the 20th century, the windrose of the band from Liverpool...".
Luis Martin

First came the razing of genre walls. Now come the celebrations. Experimental rockers, B for Bang, return to The Beatles for their vivid second album, exposing twelve more of the Fab Four's works to a firestorm of modern styles. Classic songs collide with the kinetic beats and bounce of the worlds of drum 'n' bass, trip hop, alternative rock and contemporary classical music to form a 21-st century forest fire of sound.

We swing from exotic tree to exotic tree, roused to a fast-running euphoria in Get Back, lulled by a trip-hop simplicity in the clearing that is I Me Mine and rushed out of a jungly reality in the infectious and offbeat tangle of When I'm Sixty-Four, to name just three. It's a kind of musical alchemy.

So now meet the alchemists: alternative rocker David Chalmin, composing bassist Massimo Pupillo, contemporary classical maestro Nicola Tescari, electronic wizard Fabio 'Reeks' Recchia, and avant-garde virtuoso Katia Labeque, whose resonant grand piano roots this medley of styles. Singers Chalmin, Meg and Nadeah guide us through the alchemical jungle.

B for Bang:

Katia & Marielle Labèque
David Chalmin
Alexandre Maillard
Raphaël Séguinier
Nicola Tescari

Dimension X
....a journey of the incredible …

The path-treading encounter of Massimo Pupillo, Chris Corsano and David Chalmin –rock/noise/experimental improvisers - with the universe of the 50s cult science-fiction radio show Dimension X.
Based on stories from the show, each track unfolds the strange world of thinking machines, robots, chaos, Martians, madness ... and humankind’s quest for emotion, truth and hope.

www.sonicinvaders.com
www.dimensionx.org