Trish Clowes writes about Emulsion II – Kings Place Hall Two on 12th May at 4:00pm. The musicians are supported by the Jerwood Charitable Foundation and the works by the PRS for Music Foundation.
Emulsion began as an idea.
The thing I love about Jazz is the coming together of minds, ideals, genres, influences. A great freedom of expression, an emphasis on experimentation. Room for all.
Like with most musicians in London, I am very passionate about my art and spend vast amounts of time every day thinking about how to take forward the music I write and play, how to try to innovate, finding new sounds etc etc. Of course the results of these musings and workings are different for each musician, which is the whole point and the beauty of our diverse scene.
When I first had the idea to put together a festival, it came out of a desire to bring together musicians/ensembles I admired, but also had a similar ethos to my own group Tangent – irrelevant of genre perhaps… Luke Styles – Musical Director of Ensemble Amorpha – and Rory Simmons – MD of Fringe Magnetic (who were part of the slighter larger Emulsion I and will be involved in Emulsion 3) – are contemporaries of mine. But I felt that it was important to involve musicians from different generations, and Iain Ballamy was the obvious choice for me.
I first met Iain Ballamy when I was about 17. I remember right from that first lesson he instilled in me some of the most important principles about being a musician. And to this day, as I go along my own path, I still have moments when I think “so THAT is what Iain meant…” So it was very important to me that Iain was involved in the Emulsion.
Classical music has had such a big influence on the music I write, it was inevitable that I would find kinship with a contemporary classical ensemble – and Ensemble Amorpha was that group. And let’s not forget how much improvising played a role in classical music in the past – it’s only in the last century or so that this incredible skill has all but disappeared from the classical tradition – although it is definitely making a comeback thanks to the wealth of forward thinking musicians in the capital on both the jazz and classical scenes.
And so… Emulsion is about bringing genres together in one space, either to exist separately or to interact with each other.
In a world where contemporary art of any context is suffering due to lack of support, Emulsion suggests we share our audiences, our understanding and knowledge of different musics, our passion, and that eternal search for a perfection we know we will never reach, but are happy in the knowledge that it is the trying that brings us joy.
This is just the beginning, we are only on Emulsion 2… And we are evolving all the time…
Line Up:
Julia Crowell – flute
Tom Lessels – clarinets
Lauren Weavers – oboe
Louise McMonagle – cello
Kira Doherty – horn
Iain Ballamy – saxophone
Trish Clowes – saxophone
Chris Montague – guitar
James Maddren – drums
Calum Gourlay – double bass
Programme:
Luke Styles – Chasing The Nose (TSx, Bs, Gtr, Dms, BCl, Ob, Vcl)
Alasdair Nicolson – The Twittering Machine (Fl, Cl, Ob, Vcl)
Kaija Saariaho – Oi Kuu (Bcl, Vcl)
Stockhausen – Aus den sieben Tagen (all)
Trish Clowes – Small Pieces of Wood (Soprano sax, B ass clarinet, Oboe, Drums)
Chris Mayo – Birchfield Close (Bcl, Hn, Vcl)
Tickets
Soundcloud
More information at Trish Clowes’ website, Ensemble Amorpha, and at the Jerwood Charitable Foundation‘s site
Categories: miscellaneous
Looks amazing. Will be there!