s t a r g a z e
‘One’
CD / download / stream
25th November 2022
Transgressive
On 25th November Transgressive records present ‘One’ – a remotely recorded orchestral suite which combines classical and current production methods. The album was especially composed for the s t a r g a z e ensemble by Tyondai Braxton (Battles), Nik Colk Void (Factory Floor / Carter Tutti Void), Greg Saunier (Deerhoof), Arone Dyer (Buke+Gase) and Aart Strootman (s t a r g a z e).
s t a r g a z e was founded in Berlin and Amsterdam as a musical collective devoted to crossing the borders of classical and modern music. They are helmed by Merle Scheske, Emanuel Florakis, and conductor André de Ridder, who has worked with Damon Albarn, Max Richter, These New Puritans, Mouse On Mars and Efterklang.
Since its inception in 2012, s t a r g a z e have worked with Terry Riley, Steve Reich, John Cale, Bill Frisell, Nils Frahm, Poliça, Julia Holter, Villagers, Matthew Herbert, Soap&Skin, Iceage, The National, Bon Iver and Anna Calvi. They have performed works by Mica Levi, Boards Of Canada, Bryce Dessner, Fugazi, and Dirty Projectors’ David Longstreth, and also performed for Boiler Room.
With s t a r g a z e’s member scattered across the globe, ‘One’ is the outcome of solutions to Covid-related travel restrictions, which prevented the age-old tradition of an orchestra recording together in the same room. Designed so that the individual musicians could be recorded separately, across whichever home or local studio they could access, this cloud-based approach to production can be commonplace in other genres, but is still new to the classical world.
Rather than the standard pre-prepared and pre-ordained method of orchestral recording, whereby players unwaveringly follow sheet music, here unfamiliar, unpredictable and flexible scenarios birthed fresh results. The studio took centre stage, with the recording process and post-production becoming integral to the creative process.
On the record’s inception, Merle Scheske explains, “the new works were developed partly through notation, but also through individual contact between the composer and the musicians. Ultimately, the mission is that of a collaboration between all involved, dividing the creative work into roughly three equal parts:
- Composition / concept
- Development of the individual parts and recording
- Editing / mixing / 'remixing’”
“We tried to think of composers who knew s t a r g a z e’s musician well from previous live interactions, who had an appreciation of classical music, and who are known as innovative, flexible producers”, states André De Ridder. “We wanted those who could think of the recorded parts as something that could also be 'processed' afterwards and manipulated. These tracks were open to development at every step, and no two pieces followed the same method or style. The only constant was remote collaboration.”
Landing somewhere between smooth jazz and the grandeur of golden era Hollywood scores is Greg Saunier’s ‘Metaphor’. “The other pieces were recorded to a click track, but this was scored; it was especially unusual and fun for me, as I had to conduct the piece in silence for a camera - hearing it only in my head and imagining it being played,” recalls De Ridder. “Greg sent each player their part, and they had no idea what the other parts sounded like. Each musician then all recorded individually in isolation to the film of me conducting in my kitchen. Greg mixed them all together, and miraculously, not only did it fit, but it sounded like s t a r g a z e played it together in one place.”
A leaping, effervescent piece full of humanity combining the choral and the orchestral is ‘Voicecream’, on which Arone Dyyer comments, “it was such a foreign process to create - I typically write in real time, improvising with others, but this piece I wrote alone on Ableton, mostly with my vocals and MIDI, creating what I thought sounded like a realistic arrangement. Then, knowing nothing of the range or key of the instruments, I worked with trumpet / horn player Romain Bly to arrange the piece for s t a r g a z e, and we sent individual parts along with a click track to each of the performers to record on their own. Without a conductor some interesting twists and turns came about which I had to correct in post production. I tried to make all the individually recorded instruments sound like they were coming from the same place. I learned so much in the process and it was really fun.”
With serious form in contemporary and avant garde circles, it’s unsurprising that Tyondai Braxton cooked up something of singular brilliance with s t a r g a z e; fully scoring ‘Vacancy’, but then heavily mixing and editing it. A playful stop-start procession of assorted instruments, it somehow not only maintains cohesion but is also enthralling - at points coalescing into moderately more familiar arrangements of strings, piano, brass and woodwind.
Characteristically rhythmic and repetitive, Nik Colk Void’s organic-motoric ‘Recollection Pulse #3’ builds to a cathartic, intense climax. It was already fully composed in preparation for the 2017 Spitalfields Music Festival, then recorded remotely several years later. “Working alongside this collective of classically trained musicians brought me out of my comfort zone as a modular synth artist. I lean towards assertoric compositions built via the appreciation of chance happenings through improvisation, and the recording it was a challenge too; feeling blindfolded to the outcome, we began to naturally bend our known rules and experience a crossing which was far more reliant on emotion rather than direction”, Void recalls.
Ending on a transcendental drone tip, is Aart Strootman’s ‘Descend’, which was written for a large open ensemble in 2019. “It was one of the scores I shared with s t a r g a z e cellist Alistair Sung when he contacted me to collaborate”, recounts Strootman. “He recorded many many tracks, but the piece wasn’t completed. In the spirit of the pandemic I kept on multitracking with the ensemble and added scraping percussion, a clarinet choir and a subtle groove to complemented the work. The title of the work is self-explanatory; sit back and zone out.”
Track-list:
- ‘Metaphor’
- ‘Voicecream’
- ‘Vacancy’
- ‘Recollection Pulse #3’
- ‘Descend’
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