#3889: With Lukas Ligeti

For this New Sounds, hear music from percussionist and composer Lukas Ligeti, who is also now a curator at National Sawdust. His music has somewhat disparate influences, like West African music, architecture of the Bauhaus legacy, the presence of his composer-father, György Ligeti, and the tapestries of South African artist William Kentridge. Architecture is an influence in everything Ligeti does, and had he been able to draw, he tells John Schaefer, he would have been an architect instead of a percussionist and composer.

Hear a portion of Ligeti’s super-challenging piece for marimba, which stretches the limits of the instrument - “Thinking Songs,” Part III. Then, sample from Ligeti’s chamber orchestra work, “Surroundedness” – where a piano line, reminiscent of a West African melody, is painted over in gradations. That idea has much in common with the work of artist William Kentridge, where old maps are copied onto a tapestry, and then he paints over the map. Also, hear some of Ligeti’s music as an improviser, from a record, called “Pattern Time,” which features his drumming, along with marimba, piano, saxophone and bass, combining African polyrhythms, jazz and experimental music.

Listen to Ligeti’s “Delta Space,” where Kathleen Supove and a computer within a Disklavier explore uncomfortable conflict; the computer plays piano keys, and Kathleen Supove is inside the piano, muffling strings, or otherwise preparing the piano. Plus, hear some of Ligeti’s buoyant West African-rooted music as Burkina Electric.

PROGRAM #3889, with Lukas Ligeti (First Aired 8-11-2016) 

ARTIST: Ji Hye Jung
WORK: Lukas Ligeti: Thinking Songs, Part III(6:30)
RECORDING: Live, 9.23.15
SOURCE/INFO: Not commercially available.  

ARTIST: Die Reihe
WORK: Lukas Ligeti: Surroundedness(4:30)
RECORDING: Live, 9.23.15
SOURCE/INFO: Not commercially available.  The full piece will be performed at National Sawdust on Sunday, August 14, 2016.

ARTIST: Benoit Delbecq –prep pf; Gianni Gebbia, sax; Aly Keita - balafon; Michael Manring – bass; Lukas Ligeti
WORK: On Patterned Time, excerpt [4:30]
RECORDING: Pattern Time
SOURCE: Innova  732
INFO: innova.mu

ARTIST: Kathleen Supove
WORK:  Lukas Ligeti: Delta Space, excerpt [13:30]
RECORDING: Mystery System
SOURCE: Tzadik 7099
INFO: tzadik.com

ARTIST: Burkina Electric  
WORK: Mdole, excerpt [4:30]
RECORDING: Paspanga
SOURCE: Cantaloupe Music
INFO: bangonacan.org