Hear new music by British composers Pete M. Wyer, Errollyn Wallen, and Alison Cotton. Pete Wyer joins Schaefer from London to discuss his latest, For Love and Only for Love, opening at the New York Botanical Garden.
London composer Pete M. Wyer, like many composers has been fascinated with birdsong. Back in the early 2000’s he used the ability to create sound and play it back via iPod (early 2000’s) in a multi-speaker surround sound kind of way, with anywhere from 18 to 72 channels. These iPods became the creative infrastructure called Immersive Forest, or iForest, and launched a series immersive sound installations, meant to be experienced outdoors, in harmony with the sounds of nature. His latest piece in conjunction with Make Music NY, is a work in 24 channels of surround sound called, For Love and Only for Love: Letters to New York and it opens on Sat., Dec. 19 at the New York Botanical Garden. Wyer joins Schaefer remotely to discuss the piece.
Wyer describes his process of sitting in the woods and mapping out the physical distance and time for when and where the sounds should go, and the challenge of scoring these ideas for singers and musicians who are not Pete M. Wyer. He also focuses on the movement of sound in his 18-72 channel installations, which may hearken back to the antiphonal music of Giovanni Gabrieli of the Venetian school, as the Renaissance gave way to the Baroque. Hear selections from the recording of For Love and Only for Love: Letters to New York, including the movement dedicated to Shigeru Miyagawa, the MIT Professor of Linguistics whose theory that human speech evolved in part from birdsong.
Also, there's music by Belize-born, British singer-songwriter and composer Errollyn Wallen, who has been commissioned by the BBC, the Royal Opera House, as well as the London 2012 Paralympic Games. Listen to her latest music for The Choir of King’s College, Cambridge, a contemporary carol, Peace on Earth, where voices sing of the hope for light and peace.
Hear contemporary psychedelic folk and viola trance-out from British viola player, singer-songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist Alison Cotton, who is half of acclaimed songwriting partnership The Left Outsides, a member of The Trimdon Grange Explosion, and occasional contributor to the United Bible Studies collective. From her album of tone-poems called Only Darkness Now, listen to her stretched-out and brooding interpretation of Dorothy Carter’s song, “Shirt of Lace.” [Carter is a folk troubadour, and a co-founder of Mediæval Bæbes.]
#4443, With Pete M. Wyer: iForest (First Aired 12/18/2020)
ARTIST: Voices of the Ancient Woods
WORK: Pete M. Wyer: For love and only for love [7:17]
RECORDING: For Love and Only for Love
SOURCE/INFO: petemwyer.bandcamp.com
ARTIST: Voices of the Ancient Woods
WORK: Pete M. Wyer: Mannaz [10:47]
RECORDING: For Love and Only for Love
SOURCE/INFO: petemwyer.bandcamp.com
ARTIST: Voices of the Ancient Woods
WORK: Pete M. Wyer: How Beautiful You Are [4:14]
RECORDING: For Love and Only for Love
SOURCE/INFO: petemwyer.bandcamp.com
ARTIST: The Choir of King’s College, Cambridge; Dónal McCann organ; Sir Stephen Cleobury, conductor
WORK: Errollyn Wallen: Peace on Earth [3:39]
RECORDING: Peace on Earth
SOURCE: Kings College Cambridge
INFO: kingscollegerecordings.com
ARTIST: The Choir of King’s College, Cambridge; Dónal McCann organ; Sir Stephen Cleobury, conductor
WORK: Errollyn Wallen: Pace [6:01]
RECORDING: Peace on Earth
SOURCE: Kings College Cambridge
INFO: kingscollegerecordings.com
ARTIST: Alison Cotton
WORK: Dorothy Carter: Shirt of Lace [4:52]
RECORDING: Only Darkness Now
SOURCE: Bloxham Tapes
INFO: bloxhamtapes.bandcamp.com