6/12/16 Amsterdam
Acoustic session with the guitarist Henk Zwerver exploring small and quiet sounds, while maintaining big energy.
Sarah Claman – Violin
Henk Zwerver – Acoustic guitar
Pau Sola – Cello
Fishy Business in Groningen
Fishy Business playing free in Atelier “Il Sole la Cantina”, Groningen (NL).
As the leader of the band, Jonathan Nagel, says: “a night of old favorites, new favorites, non-favorites and free improvisation. We do what string players do, the cheesy stuff, the squeaky stuff, plucking, stroking, you know…fishy business.”
Listen to the overture of the concert. 21/01/2017
Jonathan Nagel – Double bass
Sarah Claman – Violin
Pau Sola – Cello
Exercise Tisra in Adi Tala (konnakkol)
Last year I became interested in Carnatic music, especially in Carnatic rhythm and konnakkol. In this category I will post some transcriptions of exercises and little solos that the incredible musician B.C. Manjunath shares on his Facebook profile. I’m not an expert of Carnatic music, so some of the explanations could be wrong. I will just share some transcriptions that I made for my own personal practice.
12 to 1 – 1 to 12 – 12 to 1
This exercise is really good to work in Tisra Gati (triplets/sixtuplets). It’s a phrase of twelve 16th notes that every time it is repeated it is reduced by one 16th note.
Tala (cycle/bar): Adi Tala – L4 D D (4 – 2 – 2 beats)
Gati (subdivision): Tisra – sextuplets (3/6 matras per beat)
Original Tempo: 1/4 note = 85
Practice tempo: From q.n. = 44 to q.n = 60 (my maximum)
Syllables: Ta-ki-ta Din Gi-ra-tha-ka (through all the exercise)
Here you can watch the exercise explained by B.C. Manjunath himself.
This exercise was posted on Facebook by Manjunath B.C. on the 3rd of January of 2017.
Oorsprong Curators Series
‘Promoting, feeding, challenging and questioning Improvisation Tradition by presenting monthly 3 different blind date+instant composing lineups curated by 3 different curators from movement, electronics and acoustic improvisation background. These lineups represent by definition uncompromising and ongoing social and artistic experiments’.
Organized by Raoul van der Weide, George Hadow and Lali. In Dokzaal, Amsterdam.
This was a really nice night improvising with all of the great musicians that I met there for the first time.
Mary Oliver – viola
Il Hoon Son – piano
Wilfrido Terrazas – flute
Nicolas Caiola – doublebass
Pau Sola – Cello
Exercise Khanda (konnakkol)
Last year I became interested in Carnatic music, especially in Carnatic rhythm and konnakkol. In this category I will post some transcriptions of exercises and little solos that the incredible musician B.C. Manjunath shares on his Facebook profile. I’m not an expert of Carnatic music, so some of the explanations could be wrong. I will just share some transcriptions that I made for my own personal practice.
This exercise is to work Khanda Gati (quintuplets). Once you can do this exercise you really improve the internal feeling of quintuplets. It’s not an easy exercise and it can take some time to get it perfect.
Tala (cycle/bar): Khanda Chapu – one beat per bar (5/8)
Gati (subdivision): Khanda (quintuplets — 5 matras per beat)
Tempo: Every 5/8 bar=44-60
Syllables: Ta Di Gi Na To – Through all the exercise
This exercise is working in 4 speeds of quintuplets: 5/1 (bar 1); 10/1 (bar 5); 10/3 (starting in bar 6, but it only appears half cycle 5/1.5); and 5/2 (bar 13). The idea is to start in every speed with a whole quintuplet and then reduce every note of the quintuplet to a 16th note until the original quintuplet is transformed into the other speed.
Here you can watch this exercise starting from minute 0.54
This post was shared by B.C. Manjunath on the 24th of December 2016.
Instant Music Day – Duet Claudàtor
Instant Music Day is an improvised concert in three sets organized by Nicolas Chientarolli in Zaal100, Amsterdam.
We played with Duet Claudàtor in the first set. You can listen to all of it in this soundcloud playlist.
Sarah Claman – Violin
Pau Sola – Cello
Discordian Community Ensemble – New Release
Listen and buy the album here!
This is the fifth album of Discordian Community Ensemble, and also one of its most ambitious productions, involving 5 different compositions that intertwine free improvisation with composition (as usual with this ensemble). Each composition has been designed and conducted by a different composer, some are multimovement works, and all of them make use of different writing techniques in an attempt to arrive at a convincing mix of the undertermined with the determined.
The performers on this recording are also notable for their experience and versatility in the field of free improvisation, some coming from contemporary music, others from free jazz and avant rock.
Mixing different generations of the most active avantgarde musicians from Barcelona, this recording is an interesting view of some of the directions local underground new music is taking at this moment.
Personnel:
Almudena Vega: flute
Agustí Martínez: alto saxophone and clarinet
El Pricto: alto saxophone, clarinet and melodica
Luiz Rocha: bass clarinet
Iván González: trumpet
Ilona Schneider: soprano
Owen Kilfeather: tenor
Paula Pinero: percussion
Jordina Millá: piano
Diego Caicedo: electric guitar
Sarah Claman: violin
Francesc Llompart: violin
Pau Sola: cello
Àlex Reviriego: doublebass
Eduard Altaba: doublebass
All pictures by Luiz Rocha.
Tongue Trainer (konnakkol)
Last year I became interested in Carnatic music, especially in Carnatic rhythm and konnakkol. In this category I will post some transcriptions of exercises and little solos that the incredible musician B.C. Manjunath shares on his Facebook profile. I’m not an expert of Carnatic music, so some of the explanations could be wrong. I will just share some transcriptions that I made for my own personal practice.
This exercise is to train articulation and clarity, and gain some tongue velocity when you are doing Konnakkol or Solkatu. It’s very simple, but useful at the same time.
Tala (cycle/bar): Adi Tala – L4 D D (4 – 2 – 2 beats)
Gati (subdivision): Chatusra (4 matras per beat)
You can start in 1/4 note=70 and then speed up the metronome little by little until you can do it at double speed.
Here you can watch the exercise explained by B.C. Manjunath himself.
This exercise was posted on Facebook by Manjunath, B.C., August 30th 2016.
pau(sola)masafrets 