In the lead up to the festival this week we’ll be providing you with a number of different ‘Festival Routes’, giving you tips on things to check out during the festival weekend. Today we shift in focus to some of the projects which touch upon jazz, improvisation, and contemporary music. From legendary artists who have mastered their instrument to the point of virtuosity, to those who seek to break with compositional norms and design their own, get familiar with some of them below.
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Iconic Brazillian vocalist Elza Soares works with Brooklyn-based avant-garde trumpet player jaimie branch in residency, creating a new piece for Rewire 2021. A legend of Brazilian music, Elza has an incredible musical oeuvre that stretches back over seven decades mixing samba with jazz, soul, funk, rap and electronics. branch is a versatile performer, who is constantly exploring ways to expand the technical limitations of her instrument, and deepen her personal musical language. Check out music from both of them here:
Visionary composer, saxophonist and producer Yasuaki Shimizu joins Canadian electronic composer and multi-instrumentalist Kara-Lis Coverdale in residency for the Rewire 2021 online edition. With their brand new piece 'Wood Fathers', Shimizu and Coverdale explore the phenomena of trans-genealogical continuity, the harmonic potentials of call and response, and sound as an extension of self. Listen to some of their previous work here:
With a body of work exploring the instability of listening and the disorientation of memory, the Hague-based artist Leo Svirsky will present a preview of his expansive project Leo Svirsky & The River Without Banks with a select group of musicians. With the preview being adapted for Rewire 2021’s online edition, the project was originally commissioned for Rewire 2020. The Russian-American composer unpacks the vision behind his acclaimed Unseen Worlds debut, ‘River Without Banks’, which you can listen to here:
In 2009, Japanese sound artist FUJI|||||||||||TA hand built a unique pipe organ with eleven pipes, a blacksmith's air pump and no keyboard. Instead of being just another musical instrument, Fujita intended his organ to evoke rich landscapes inspired by the Japanese classical form GAGAKU. FUJI|||||||||||TA presents a performance specially recorded in Japan for the Rewire 2021 online edition. Check out some of his work here:
An award winning violinist, composer and improviser, Kazakh/British artist Galya Bisengalieva’s cinematic, brooding music evokes a personal and poignant sense of loss. At Rewire 2021 she debuts a recording of her new live show that centres on the themes of environmental devastation covered in her stunning debut album ‘Aralkum’, which you can listen to here:
Maria W Horn is a composer hailing from the north of Sweden, based in Stockholm since 2011. She is interested in the manipulation of time and space through sonic extremes – oscillating between minimalist structures and piercing power electronics utilizing both digital and analog synthesis as well as acoustic instruments and audiovisual components. At Rewire 2021 she presents 'Dies Irae', a piece composed for female vocal quartet and electronics. Listen to her latest release here:
Brooklyn based multidisciplinary artist and composer Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe collaborates with New York harpist and electro-acoustic pioneer Zeena Parkins in residency for Rewire 2021. They present a new piece entitled ‘Psi Lane Work’ for Prepared Harp, Sonambient and modular synthesizer. With this as the palette they crafted a new work together, remotely due to the pandemic, but still feeling quite organic. Lowe conceived and created the visual component exploring almost Calderesque forms by way of analogue video synthesis to reflect the slow shifts in tones and textures of the audio. Listen to some of their work here:
Levy Lorenzo works at the intersection of music, art, and technology. On an international scale, his body of work spans custom electronics design, sound engineering, instrument building, installation art, free improvisation, and classical percussion. With a primary focus on inventing new instruments, he prototypes, composes, and performs new electronic music. At Rewire 2021 he performs ‘Aphasia’ by Mark Applebaum. Aphasia, conceived originally for singer and two-channel tape, was commissioned by the GRM, Paris. Check out some of his work:
Bristol based British band Tara Clerkin Trio use looped and layered clarinet, vocals, synth and percussion to evoke atmospheres in turns solemn, smokey or beatific. Borrowing from jazz, dub, trip hop & minimalist sounds and sensibilities, their music is experimental without aiming to challenge the listener, but rather to bring them along into their sound world. Listen to their excellent eponymous debut from last year:
Pulling influence from gnostic and alchemical texts and early renaissance music, Polish-born audiovisual artist Wojciech Rusin inhabits an impressively far-off musical cloister. Using digital modeling technology, he reworks ancient designs for reed instruments, 3D printing them to harness in his productions. 2019's ‘The Funnel’ was a startling example of this, overlaying eerie woodwind sounds with Greek-Egyptian philosophy, fizzing synthesized electronics and haunting atmospheres. Listen to ‘The Funnel’ here:
Check out the full line-up here.