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CMU Approved
Approved: Ellen Arkbro
By Andy Malt | Published on Thursday 6 April 2017
Ellen Arkbro’s experimental compositions span many instruments and forms. She recently performed a 26 hour long piece at the Stockholm Concert Hall, the latest in a series of extended performances. Though she’s reigned it in quite considerably for new record ‘For Organ And Brass’, out next week, which comfortably sits on one piece of twelve-inch vinyl.
For the title track, her starting point was a specific historical tuning known as meantone temperament. Attempts to find an instrument that could accommodate this led her to a 400 year old organ in Germany. “Hidden within the harmonic framework of the Renaissance organ are intervals and chords that bare a close resemblance to those found in the modalities of traditional blues music”, she says. “The work can be thought of as a very slow and reduced blues music”.
You can make your own judgement on that. The second track, ‘Three’, employs the same ideas, but removes the organ from the equation, leaving a trio of microtonal brass players. Newly out this week is a rework of ‘Three’, titled ‘Mountain Of Air’. Listen to that here:
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