John Luther Adams' Four Thousand Holes for Piano Percussion (Vibraphone and Orchestra Bells) and Electronic Aura. Composed in 2010 and dedicated to Stephen Drury. Duration: 32 minutes 30 seconds.'Four Thousand Holes is my own effort to re-appropriate and reclaim for myself something of my own musical past. For the first time since my days as a rocker I've chosen to restrict myself to major and minor triads - thosemost basic elements of Western music (both pop and classical). But I've tried to assimilate them fully into my own musical world. Approaching these simple chords as found objects I've superimposed them in multiple streams oftempo to create darker harmonies and lush fields of sound. In recent years I've been fortunate enough to form a close musical partnership with Stephen Drury. Steve's extraordinary gifts inspired me to exploreexpansive forms and textures (similar to those of my orchestral music) with only one or two performers In essence Four Thousand Holes is a concerto. To begin I composed the score for the electronic tracks. Steve recorded all ofthe individual chords that occur in the score. I took these recordings time-stretched them reversed their envelopes and knit the reversed sounds together with their original decays. The resulting waves of sound I layered intoten independent tracks to create the virtual 'orchestra'. Next I composed the Piano part articulating the peaks of all the electronic tracks simultaneously - a feat of coordination that demands considerable virtuosity from thepianist. Finally I composed another multi-layered part for metallic Percussion sounds that I think of as sparks emanating from the Piano. In Four Thousand Holes strong musical currents fall and rise again andagain as points and lines are juxtaposed with heavy hammered chords. The mix of 'live' and electronic sounds blurs the distinction between musical figure and ground. As in much of my recent music I conceive of the entire piece
SKU: HL.234541
9.25x12.0x0.571 inches. English.
'Four Thousand Holes is my own effort to re-appropriate and reclaim for myself something of my own musical past. For the first time since my days as a rocker, I've chosen to restrict myself to major and minor triads - those most basic elements of Western music (both pop and classical). But I've tried to assimilate them fully into my own musical world. Approaching these simple chords as found objects, I've superimposed them in multiple streams of tempo, to create darker harmonies and lush fields of sound. In recent years, I've been fortunate enough to form a close musical partnership with Stephen Drury. Steve's extraordinary gifts inspired me to explore expansive forms and textures (similar to those of my orchestral music) with only one or two performers, In essence, Four Thousand Holes is a concerto. To begin I composed the score for the electronic tracks. Steve recorded all of the individual chords that occur in the score. I took these recordings, time-stretched them, reversed their envelopes, and knit the reversed sounds together with their original decays. The resulting waves of sound I layered into ten independent tracks to create the virtual 'orchestra'. Next I composed the Piano part, articulating the peaks of all the electronic tracks simultaneously - a feat of coordination that demands considerable virtuosity from the pianist. Finally I composed another multi-layered part for metallic percussion sounds that I think of as sparks emanating from the piano. In Four Thousand Holes, strong musical currents fall and rise, again and again, as points and lines are juxtaposed with heavy, hammered chords. The mix of 'live' and electronic sounds blurs the distinction between musical figure and ground. As in much of my recent music, I conceive of the entire piece as a single complex sonority that evolves slowly. As we settle into the sound, we begin to hear longer lines, counterpoint, and maybe even the occasional trace of a tune.' - John Luther Adams.
SKU: HL.234540
9.0x12.0x0.09 inches. English.
'This set of miniatures is based on traditional dance songs of the Yupik Eskimo people of Western Alaska. In their original forms, these melodies would be sung in unison. The first, third and fifth songs would be accompanied by frame drums. The second and fourth are game songs, for jumping rope and juggling pebbles. Aside from the obvious difference in instrumentation, my settings of these songs differ from the Yup'ik originals in other respects. I have extended and varied the melodies, and added countermelodies, ostinato figurations, introductions, interludes and codas. The first four melodies are drawn from the collection Yup'ik Eskimo songs, compiled by Thomas F. Johnston, and Tupou L. Pulu, and published by the University Of Alaska. The fifth was 'loaned' to me by Yup'ik singer and dancer Chuna McIntyre, who learned it in his village of Eek, Alaska. The poems preceding each piece are rough translations of the words to the songs. These verses are often cryptic and enigmatic. Their obscurity is increased because some of the words or their meanings have been lost, over time.' - John Luther Adams.
SKU: HL.263038
UPC: 888680952907. 12.0x16.5x0.565 inches.
“Over the years my orchestral music has become simpler and more expansive. Clouds of Forgetting, Clouds of Unknowing (1991-95) contains four different musical textures. In the White Silence (1998) has three. For Lou Harrison (2002) reduces this to just two. In Dark Waves (2007), I finally got to one. When I first heard that piece I began to wonder if I could sustain a similar sound for a longer span of time. The result is Become Ocean, a meditation on the vast, deep and mysterious tides of existence. The title is borrowed from a mesostic verse that John Cage wrote in honor of Lou Harrison's birthday. Likening Harrison's music to a river in delta, Cage writes: Listening to it we become ocean. Life on this earth first emerged from the sea. And as the polar ice melts and sea level rises, we humans find ourselves facing the prospect that once again we may quite literally become ocean.†John Luther Adams.
SKU: HL.233155
9.0x12.0x0.076 inches. English.
Virtually all my recent music has been composed of four, five or six simultaneous tempo layers. If those ensemble and orchestral pieces are multi-dimensional sculptures, then Among Red Mountains is more like a drawing. In this piece, the challenge I set for myself was to suggest five independent tempo planes, within the limitations of two hands and what Vicki Ray calls 'the Big Black Box'. For three decades I've admired the Piano music of Peter Garland. At last I have a piece that I hope is worthy of this dedication. The title, Among Red Mountains, is the translation of the Gwitch'in Athabascan name for a place in the Brooks Range, north of Arctic Village.'- John Luther Adams.
SKU: HL.236804
UPC: 888680720100. 9.5x12.0x0.632 inches.
Grammy-winning composer John Luther Adams always speaks with reverence about capturing “the tone within the noise,†and if any of his recent work can be said to take that mission directly to heart, it's Ilimaq. A true electro-acoustic recording that channels the energy, passion and precision of Wilco drummer Glenn Kotche, Ilimaq (which loosely translates from the native Alaskan Inupiaq language as “spirit journeysâ€) maps a vivid, phantasmagorical progression through liquid cascades of percussion, otherworldly ambient soundscapes, harmonic dissonance, melodic convergence and almost everything that's musically – and sonically – possible in between.
SKU: HL.284555
UPC: 888680912901. 9x12 inches.
Composers note:I never imagined I would write a string quartet. Then I heard the JACK Quartet, and I understood how I might be able to make the medium my own. The result was The Wind in High Places - a twenty-minute work composed entirely on natural harmonics and open strings.Over the next few years, two more quartets followed. The second quartet, untouched, is a further exploration of the aeolian sound world of the first. Then, in Canticles of the Sky, the musicians finally touch the fingerboards of their instruments.And now comes Everything That Rises.This fourth quartet is more expansive, both in time and in space. It grows out of Sila: The Breath of the World - a performance-length choral/orchestral work composed on a rising series of sixteen harmonic clouds.Everything That Rises traverses this same territory, but in a much more melodic way.Each musician is a soloist, playing throughout. They surround the audience. Time floats.Over the course of an hour, the lines spin out - always rising - in acoustically perfect intervals that grow progressively smaller as they spiral upward... until the music dissolves into the soft noise of the bows, sighing.
