Being Dufay
2009
ECM Records
Mixed at Rainbow Studio, Oslo.
Being Dufay is an exploration of new musical territories that can result when old and new are combined. Four years in the making, the composition is a new setting of vocal fragments by Flemish master Guillaume Dufay (1397-1474), sung by tenor John Potter. Rather than try and ‘update’ Dufay (for his music requires no updating), the concept of this album is to place Dufay’s music in the present tense. In Being Dufay, the fifteenth century lives alongside newer compositional methods. The soundworld is lush and harmonic, with a beautiful production by Manfred Eicher.
Further information and availability from: ECM records
Amazon Being Dufay reached No 1 on Amazon’s ECM album chart during summer 2009.
Press
A stunning tour-de-force. Chicago Classical Review.22.4.10
Compelling. 5/5 Performance, 5/5 Production. BBC Music Magazine. 06.09 edition
Mesmerising and quite beautiful (5/5) ClassicFM Magazine. 06.09 edition
One of the most hauntingly beautiful records of the year. AllaboutJazz.com 14.05.09
All About Jazz – John Kellman’s Best Releases of 2009
Ambrose Field and John Potter in the studio
Being Dufay is currently touring internationally as a live performance: see ‘Live Dates’ for details.
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Storm!
2006
Sargasso, London
Storm! is a gritty and impactful album which sets out to challenge the design of music with processed sound. Described as a hard hitting, post-industrial soundcape(*), Storm! fuses together synthesizer performance and processed field recordings.
The 2006 Prix Ars Electronica awarded Storm! an honourary mention in the Digital Music awards, and an extract is presented on the Ars Electronica Dvd (together with notes in the International Compendium Prix Ars Electronica ISBN 3-7757-1835-4 ).
The full album is available Sargasso, London (SCD 28054) with artwork by Jac Depczyk.
Press
The UK’s Guardian newspaper commented “Storm! is a riveting, futuristic action-pic for the blind. And perhaps most disturbing of all, the future still seems to have metal guitar solos… If you need to thank the RAF in the sleeve notes of a CD, you have probably gone further than most to collect your sounds.”
In concert
Storm! played to a capacity audience at Montreal’s Elektra festival, 2005 in 6.1 Surround Audio. Whilst making the record, tracks were also performed at Cryptonal Festival (Berlin), and at the Los Angeles Convention Centre.
Storm!’s world is seen from a post-modern perspective - more real than real, tiny details from our contemporary culture are isolated from their surroundings and magnified beyond all expectation to become new experiences in their own right.
*music.barnesandnoble.com
