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Disc one
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1. Scratch Overture
Keith Rowe - guitar, radio
Sandy Ewen - guitar
Damon Smith - double bass, field recordings
2. Gooseberry Marmalade
Sandy Ewen, Rebecca Novak, Megan Easley, Rachel Orosco, Carol Ann Sandin, Sam Rowell, Jenny Hoyston, Mars Varela, Erin Joyce, Regina Agu
PROGRAM:
Gooseberry Marmalade
CFIRNTFM145 - Flowers Scratch Orchestra
Nature Study Notes
Stones Christian Wolff
CJ81 – Piece in Five Parts Scratch Orchestra
For Strings Howard Skempton
Wave
Shingle
Seagulls
Treatise, p. 80 Cornelius Cardew
Six Categories of Playing Scratch Orchestra
Arid
Spectral
Fertile
Unknown
Soft
Remote
Desire Scratch Orchestra
Want to do something; Do it.
Do something without wanting to.
Do something wanting not to.
Be done to.
Be done.
Recorded 10/10/2012 at 14 Pews, Houston, TX by Ryan Edwards
Lady Band (of Various Fruit Names) is an all-female experimental music ensemble founded by Sandy Ewen in 2009. Performances are singular, often site-specific events, featuring a rotating lineup (and different fruit-themed name for each show), with members contributing graphic and text-based scores for structured improvisation. Drawing parallels between Ewen’s group and Scratch Orchestra, the 1960s-70s London experimental music ensemble Rowe was involved in, Smith hatched a plan for Rowe to collaborate with the group on a concert of Scratch Orchestra scores in 2012: “During a previous trip of Keith’s to Houston, we were at the Alabama IceHouse and talking about Fluxus, the (Ben) Patterson was up or had been up (at CAMH), and (Keith) talked about Scratch Orchestra. So I made the connection to have him do those pieces with Sandy’s group when he wanted to play with Sandy and me.” Gooseberry Marmalade was up for the task. Meeting over tea the night before the show, Rowe’s quiet intensity opened an infinite world of possibilities for staging the works. Seven scores were chosen to be performed as an uninterrupted suite, some of the titles bearing code names devised for inclusion in Nature Study Notes, a compendium of scores and “Draft Constitution of the Scratch Orchestra” published in 1969. Also chosen were Christian Wolff’s Stones and p. 80 from Cardew’s Treatise – realized here as a chorus line of pantomimed gestures and pedestrian movements, heard only on the audio recording as an extended silence punctuated with the padding of footsteps across the polished wooden floorboards of 14 Pews, the converted chapel/cinema/performance space where Ewen and Smith were in residency. Moments of physical-visual-experiential magic abounded. Marilyn, Cressandra Thibodeaux’s then 80-year old mother and bartender of 14 Pews, handed each performer a flower to begin CFIRNTFM145 - Flowers. Chewing on a rose, thorns and all, Regina Agu languidly paced the aisles while carnations were sung to, bits of poetic verse drifted into consciousness and petals were strewn about the stage. The performance ended with Desire, its thought-provoking text echoing in our minds intently as recited by Rowe the night before: “Want to do something; Do it. Do something without wanting to. Do something wanting not to. Be done to. Be done.”
- Rebecca Novak
All three musicians represented on this release share an intimate connection with and have a great love of contemporary visual art. Rowe studied Fine Art in Plymouth, England in the late 50s, eventually seeking to integrate what he learned there with musical concepts. Dissatisfied with his experiences in the Mike Westbrook band of the early 60s, he would sometimes surreptitiously substitute a print of, say, a Paul Klee painting (or pie advertisement!) for the score and use it as a “graphic score for improvisation. In later years, he was able to play in the Rothko Chapel in Houston, using the surrounding paintings as a kind of atmosphere from which to generate sound. Here, on ‘Compacted Shields’, the trio uses a reproduction of Cy Twombly’s ‘Fifty Days at Iliam’, a large set of work on ten panels based on Pope’s translation of The Iliad, as a kind of reference point, not as a “score” but as a creation to respond to. There is also, at least in Rowe’s mind, an understanding of Twombly’s appreciation of the continuum of Western art and his (greater or lesser) place in it, Rowe seeking to ascertain a similar sense of history, of where, if at all, his music fits. But this is a recording of three people, each with their own history, musicality and desire for creation arising from improvisation; though Ewen counts Rowe as a major influence, the difference in their approaches are easily discernible and complimentary. In both sections, the live set and the Twombly-imbued studio session, a deep sense of communality, mutual respect, profound listening and, in the former, not a little bit of humor, can be clearly heard. The latter session, perhaps influenced by Twombly, has a beautiful gravitas, anchored by Smith’s deep and connective bass work, casting a wide variety of strands that anchor the proceedings with huge strength. There is both a strong sense of marks on wide swatches of canvas and a tenuous though very apparent congruence, even a feeling of narrative throughout, an echo of an echo of an echo of some classic form, still vital, still informing, still revealing.
- Brian Olewnick
credits
released June 1, 2021
Keith Rowe - guitar, radio
Sandy Ewen - guitar
Damon Smith - double bass, field recordings
Gooseberry Mamalade
Sandy Ewen, Rebecca Novak, Megan Easley, Rachel Orosco, Carol Ann Sandin, Sam Rowell, Jenny Hoyston, Mars Varela, Erin Joyce, Regina Agu
1 & 2 Recorded 10/11/2012at 14 Pews by Ryan Edwards
3 & 4 Recorded 10/12/2012 at KUHF by Ryan Edwards
Mixed & Mastered by Ryan Edwards
Performance photographs by Shaun Sandor
Cover Art: Brushes, Gaeta 2005, polaroid by Cy Twombly
The Artist's Shoes, 2009 polaroid by Cy Twombly
Thanks to Nicola Del Roscio & the Cy Twombly Foundation
www.cytwombly.org
Liner notes by Rebecca Novak & Brian Olewnick
Design by Alan Anzalone
An experimental guitarist, artist and architect based in Brooklyn NY, Ewen's guitar playing playing is centered around found
objects and extended techniques. She performs solo and in many diverse musical and multi-media collaborations. Ongoing projects include duo with a Damon Smith, an all-female large ensemble, the trio Etched in the Eye, and a duo with Tom Carter called Spiderwebs....more
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