Hear voices as instrument, not carrying text, in work by drummer, composer, and bandleader Tyshawn Sorey, Swedish-Iranian pianist Shida Shahabi, and playful producer Johan Lenox.
Listen to music from pianist and conductor Awadagin Pratt and his album, STILLPOINT, of six newly-commissioned works for the string ensemble A Far Cry and vocal octet Roomful of Teeth. The starting point of these six works was the T.S. Eliot poem, “Burnt Norton”, where each composer was handed a few lines as a jumping-off point, (NPR Music). In drummer and composer Tyshawn Sorey’s piece, the line "the still point of the turning world" leads to quiet spaces sculpted by Untitled Composition for Piano and Eight Voices, where the vocals of Roomful of Teeth and Sorey’s sparingly-deployed piano chords evoke a floating spiritual place, perhaps not unlike a sequel to Morton Feldman’s “Rothko Chapel”.
Hear new work which features choral elements from Stockholm-based composer Shida Shahabi from her album Living Circle. Shahabi stretches the voices of Julia Ringdahl, Nina Kinert, Sara Parkman alongside her own and together with piano, augments the sound with cavernous drones. There’s also ambient music with an unfocused childlike spirit by composer and hip hop producer Johan Lenox featuring The Brooklyn Youth Chorus (a group for whom he has done arrangements) from his 2023 Brassland release, Johan's Childhood Chamber Nostalgia Album.
Also, hear modular work for wordless voices and piano from German pianist and composer Martin Kohlstedt and the Gewandhaus Chor. The album, Ströme, was commissioned by the Gewandhaus zu Leipzig and sees the composer collaborating with the choir and its director, Gregor Meyer, to work with recombinant parts of connected musical ideas. And more. - Caryn Havlik
Program #4784, Wordless Vocal Ensembles (First aired 8/28/2023)
ARTIST: Shida Shahabi
WORK: Aestus [1:00]
RECORDING: Living Circle
SOURCE: 130701 / FatCat
INFO: 130701.com/release/living-circle
ARTIST: Johan Lenox ft. Brooklyn Youth Chorus
WORK: DEEP BREATH [4:27]
RECORDING: Johan's Childhood Chamber Nostalgia Album
SOURCE: Brassland
INFO: https://brassland.ffm.to/johanchamber
ARTIST: Shida Shahabi
WORK: Aestus [3:30]
RECORDING: Living Circle
SOURCE: 130701 / FatCat
INFO: 130701.com/release/living-circle
ARTIST: Martin Kohlstedt feat.-Leipzig‘s GewandhausChor
WORK: AUHEJA [6:24]
RECORDING: STRÖME
SOURCE: Martin Kohlstedt/Parlophone Records
INFO: martinkohlstedt.com/shop
ARTIST: Awadagin Pratt, Roomful of Teeth
WORK: Tyshawn Sorey: Untitled Composition for Piano and Eight Voices [10:36]
RECORDING: Awadagin Pratt: STILLPOINT
SOURCE: New Amsterdam Records
INFO: awadaginpratt.bandcamp.com
ARTIST: Mary Lattimore with Meg Baird and Walt McClements
WORK: And then he wrapped his wings around me [5:23]
RECORDING: Goodbye, Hotel Arkada
SOURCE: Ghostly, due out Oct. 6
INFO: https://ghostly.ffm.to/mary-lattimore-goodbye-hotel-arkada
ARTIST: Brian Eno
WORK: Music for Airports 1-2 [11:34]
RECORDING: Ambient 1
SOURCE: EEG 17
INFO: Available at Amazon.com
ARTIST: Shida Shahabi
WORK: Deep Violet Of Gold [1:55]
RECORDING: Living Circle
SOURCE: 130701 / FatCat
INFO: 130701.com/release/living-circle