aspirations & inspirations |cs026

No less than six new releases on the Creative Sources label, placing the label right in the centre of improvised music.
[…] The final CD is by Wade Matthews, who plays bass clarinet and alto flute. All of these pieces were recorded in one go, with the microphone close to the instruments. Matthews treats his instruments as objects as well as a real instrument, and comes close to sound-poetry when it comes to the first. Although I thought that this CD was much more interesting than the Keune disc, I must also say that the tension that is apparent in the other CDs is sadly lacking here. Maybe the improvisation needs the interaction between various players more than it does need just one person. But nevertheless his disc is not bad at all. Frans de Waard (Vital)

Wade Matthews jest improwizatorem, kompozytorem i teoretykiem muzyki. Ten Amerykanin, urodzony piecdziesiat lat temu we Francji, od wielu lat zwiazal swoje zycie i aktywnosc muzyczna z Europa.
Po uzyskaniu doktoratu na nowojorskim Uniwersytecie Columbia - tematem pracy byly zwiazki pomiedzy muzyka improwizowana, elektroakustyczna oraz wykorzystanie dzwieków pochodzenia elektronicznego w improwizacji - Matthews na stale przeniósl sie Madrytu, gdzie stal sie wspóltwórca oraz jednym z liderów Musicalibre - kolektywu odpowiedzialnego za festiwal Hurta Cordel oraz regularne codwutygodniowe koncerty w "El Juglar". Jest równiez przewodniczacym stowarzyszenia Madrid Artists' Collective Cruce: arte y pensamiento.
Do najbardziej znanych formacji, które wspóltworzyl Matthews nalezalo trio Zyklus. Jego czlonkami byli równiez kontrabasista Baldo Martinez oraz perkusista Pedro Lopez, z którym Matthews wspólpracowal pózniej w duecie Fases. Ówczesnym poszukiwaniom muzyków patronowal Karlheinz Stockhausen, zas dwie, opublikowane przez to trio na przelomie lat 80. i 90. ubieglego wieku, plyty zawieraly oryginalna mieszanke jazzu, muzyki improwizowanej oraz elektroakustyki. Choc w drugiej polowie lat dziewiecdziesiatych oraz w XXI stuleciu Matthews skupil sie przede wszystkim na wystepach solowych, to jednak dosc regularnie wspólpracuje z brytyjskim skrzypkiem Philem Durrantem oraz hiszpanska tancerka Elena Alonso; jest równiez czlonkiem tria WSPS, które wspóltworza amerykanska flecistka Jane Rigler oraz francuski kontrabasista David Chiesa. Przy róznych okazjach wystepuje równiez w powstajacych ad hoc konfiguracjach majac za partnerów zarówno muzyków znanych (m.in.: Peter Kowald, Butch Morris, John Butcher), jak i tych bedacych dopiero na poczatku swojej drogi (m.in.: Michael Renkel, Burkhard Beins).
Wade Matthews ma na koncie liczne nagrania radiowe dla wielu zanczacych europejskich rozglosni (m.in.: BBC, RTVE, ORTF/France Culture) ale "Aspirations And Inspirations" to dopiero jego debiut plytowy w roli solisty. Plyta zawiera dziewiec utworów zagranych przez Matthewsa solo na klarnecie basowym lub flecie w listopadzie 2002 roku w Madrycie oraz w styczniu 2004 w Albi. Wszystkie nagrania zarejestrowano bez jakichkolwiek nakladek, bezposrednio za pomoca blisko ustawionych mikrofonów (nagrania "hiszpanskie" rejestrowano dwoma mikrofonami, "francuskie" bardziej rozbudowanym zestawem), majac na celu wychwycenie wszelkich dzwieków pochodzacych z instrumentów. Jednak najistotniejszym elementem tej muzyki jest oddech wykonawcy. Oddech, który nie tylko daje zycie czlowiekowi, lecz przede wszystkim ozywia instrument. Wlewa w niego ducha, który dopiero przywoluje dzwiek.
Te dziewiec utworów przypomina o tym, ze tak jak bez tchnienia demiurga ludzie to tylko puste gliniane skorupy, tak bez oddechu muzyka klarnet, flet czy trabka to nieozywione przedmioty. Na cale szczescie Wade Matthews dobrze wie, co nalezy zrobic, by muzyka poplynela; zapewne muzyka nie najlzejsza, byc moze niezbyt przyjemna, ale na pewno intrygujaca, niezwykle intymna i gleboko ludzka. "Aspirations And Inspirations" to plyta ze wszech miar godna polecenia, co niniejszym osmielam sie uczynic. Tadeusz Kosiek (Diapazon)

Inspirare ed espirare, questo il suono primordiale della vita, se è vero che la prima voce che emettiamo quando veniamo in questo mondo è proprio quella del respiro su cui prende forma il pianto. E queste improvvisazioni in solo per clarinetto basso e flauto non trovano altri spiragli sonori che non quelli dettati dall'incanalamento dell'aria nei corpi cavi degli strumenti: non una nota, non una frequenza estranea al biancore dell'onda simile al rumore. L'unico stratagemma "produttivo" di Matthews è quello di un'organizzazione multifonica dei microfoni che determina una maggiore spazialità della sorgente. Per il resto, solo respiri in un ritorno alla musica fetale, proto-mentale, neo-embrionale. Da processare sui pancioni delle donne incinte... Michele Coralli (Altremusiche)

The first word that comes to mind is "attack", even if this nightmarish volley of grenades lobbed our way by Wade Matthews turns out to be, as he explains in the booklet, an intricate circuit of unimaginable pipe dreams that materialize incredibly right in our ear holes. Close miking guarantees fantastic detail in every perceivable nuance of Matthews' bass clarinet and alto flute, generating mesmerizing patterns of circular breathing and percussive tongue clucking that sound like a one-man shamanic tabla / flute duo. Extended techniques raise the curtain on an otherwise invisible world of gremlins and gizmos dancing through a forest of unfathomable harmonics. Horse-like whinnies and tiny shards of regular timbre spring out of the alembics every once in a while to remind us we're not listening to some deranged plumbing system, while growling mixtures of voice and venomous insufflations will have you wondering what possible use there is for the synthesizer anymore. Matthews is an artist whose palette contains so many colours that describing it as "kaleidoscopic" sounds almost offensive. Massimo Ricci (Paris Transatlantic)

I'm continually surprised at the rate with which Ernesto Rodrigues releases discs on his superb Creative Sources imprint. As most folks reading this know, the excellent viola/violin/electronics improviser began to document Portuguese and Spanish improvisation several years back and has quickly developed his label into one of the premier outlets for improvisation at the intersection of European free music, electroacoustics, and new music. I recently opened up my mailbox to find a package stuffed with seven of the label's latest goodies. All told, it's a strong batch.
[…] One of Creative Sources' sub-genres is the solo winds recording (check out Bertrand Gauguet's recent Etwa). Wade Matthews is a new name to me, though he has apparently been an active presence in Europe over the last few years. On Aspirations & Inspirations (CS026) he sticks to alto flute and bass clarinet alone, using close miking to conjure up some wild, unearthly sounds – often he produces overtones, sympathetic vibrations and the like which suggest overdubbing has occurred (it hasn't). Feedback hums, pinched breath noises, radio static, and more all emit from Matthews' lungs and mouth. Recorded between 2002 and 2004, these nine studies of breath (dig the etymology in the title?) are each compellingly atmospheric. Some highlights include "Remembering William" (where Matthews generates a pretty wild pulse track with his fingering, layering rough breathy slashes atop it), "Discontinuing continua" (with its soft chirrups and rustles from bass clarinet), and "Cassandra Wakes Up and Thinks for Herself" (with Robert Dick-like flute magic from drops in the pond all the way to spitty choruses). My favorite is "Scappa Flow," the most seriously breathy of these pieces, almost like a Berio Sequenza for amplifier hiss and wah pedal. Nice stuff.
[…] Taken together, this septet of discs is worthy not just for their quality but also for their documentation of this music (and some of its lesser known players). Rodrigues already has a new batch out. In the meantime, however, don't miss out on some of these gems. Jason Bivins (Bagatellen)

Radicado em Espanha e aí com uma intensa actividade de divulgação das modalidades improvisacionais de ponta, este americano nascido em França aplica em dois instrumentos que pouco têm sido envolvidos nas actuais ultrapassagens dos determinismos históricos convencionados para os sopros, o clarinete baixo e a flauta alto, aquilo que vamos escutando de deflagradores sonoros como Stéphane Rives, Michel Doneda, Martin Küchen, Michael Thieke ou Alessandro Bosetti. “Deflagradores”, disse, não porque explodem com as gramáticas musicais, mas porque as implodem, optando por um desconstrucionismo discursivo que já nada tem a ver com o modelo narrativo aplicado na música e que é mais característico da electrónica do que de expressões acústicas como esta. Respirações amplificadas e transformadas, é o que ouvimos em “Aspirations and Inspirations”, com a rugosidade própria do instrumento que Eric Dolphy libertou da menorização sinfónica a que estava submetido (o clarinete baixo, bem entendido) e a presença oxigenada e aberta daquele que terá sido um dos primeiros utensílios de uso musical construídos pelo ser humano (a flauta). Não é por acaso, aliás, que reconhecemos algo de primordial nestas improvisações, algo que permanece em estado selvagem e que não dispõe de códigos e tabelas definidoras. Estão aqui invocadas as raízes primeiras do fazer musical, e se Wade Matthews parece não ter especiais afinidades com a escola reducionista, apesar de percorrer os mesmos caminhos, e isso porque é mais sequencial e argumentativo do que as frentes “near silence” de Berlim e Tóquio, tanto melhor. A individualidade criativa vale mais do que quaisquer correntes estéticas organizadas. Rui Eduardo Paes (JL)

[…] Les Aspirations and Inspirations solo improvisations 2002/2004 (CS 026 cd) du clarinettiste et flûtiste Wade Matthews sont l'objet, tout comme pour Etwa, d'une réelle réflexion sur la méthode et la technique d'enregistrement. Je traduis les notes de pochette du cd de Matthews : Toutes les pièces on été enregistrées telles quelles, le micro rapproché et sans overdubbing. Les enregistrements de Madrid ont été faits avec une paire stéréo, alors que les enregistrements d'Albi (4,8 et 9) utilisaient plusieurs microphones installés au travers du spectre stéréo. Avec pour résultat que les sons provenant de différentes parties de l'instrument sont entendus d'endroits différents, apportant ainsi un mouvement considérable à la musique. Si Etwa participe de cette esthétique radicale et faussement minimalisante et Stefan Keune est un rejeton pointilliste du free à l'européenne , Wade Matthews semble se jouer des écoles. Il nous offre de très beaux sons, une très belle approche qui, en ce qui me concerne, est un délice pour les oreilles. […] Jean-Michel Van Schouwburg (Improjazz)

[…] French-born, American improviser Wade Matthews’ reed realization is perpendicular to those from the soprano saxophonists and not just because he plays flute and bass clarinet on his CD. Madrid-based and co-director of a Spanish improvised music collective, Matthews has a doctorate in composition and electronic music and his close-miked improvisations bring into play compositional ploys and acoustical textural replication that could also be a achieved by activated sine waves.
During the course of his nine selections, Matthews manipulates his oral techniques to such an extent that there are points where you’re not sure whether he’s playing the flute or bass clarinet. Each outing features mouth and key percussion as much as breaths, screams and whistles. When he seems to be emptying his oral cavity into a hollow tube, the resulting mellow high pitches or droning didjeridoo squalls suggest the horizontally blown instrumental.
Conversely, the bass clarinet brings out reed-munching implications as well as Donald Duck-like quacks that are as much nasal as oral. Subterranean multiphonics create conga drum-like resonation, while split tones work their way through droning pulsations, with one timbre constricted and aviary-like and its complementary node curved into a droning ostinato.
By “Chipotles Adobados “, the longest and climatic final track, all of these processes from constricted and higher-pitched rounded timbres to disconnected breathes of colored air forced through the hollow tube attain a particular logic as generic to this session as long lines are to Coleman Hawkins’ “Body and Soul”.
Sounding at the beginning as if Matthews is bubbling into a reverberating pipe, whistling squeaks and squawks soon reconstitute themselves into out-and-out internal screams, thick reed kisses and key percussion. Pseudo-marimba tones are alluded to by the last action as mouth and throat growls join with the constricted key pressure.
While WEATHER may have a slight edge for those listeners who fear stepping very far onto the experimental precipice, this disc offers a valuable foretaste of 21st solo reed improvisation. Ken Waxman (JazzWeekly)

A vital disc collecting close-miked solo recordings from 2002 and 2004 on bass clarinet and alto flute by Wade Matthews, a virtuosic improv veteran who's been integral to the creative music scene in Spain for many years. The recording techniques allow Matthews to explicitly focus on the breath sounds that are traditionally suppressed by wind instrumentalists, in alignment with the recent lowercase movement defined by emphasis on overlooked sonic details. Shadows of conventional tones share the foreground with the sounds of mouth on mouthpiece and fingers on keys, creating three layers of distinct timbres. "Ice Palace" is an especially beautiful example with its gentle irregular cycles of key pops and wire-thin long tones revealing the essence of the flute as a source of delicate timbral marginalia unattainable by saxophones and trumpets, the instruments more commonly mined for lowercase acoustic improv. While there are a few generous passages of sparse and soft air massages, Matthews' primary aesthetic is familiar busy playing in the tradition of Parker, Braxton, etc, accounting for both the disc's rare weak spot of empty virtuosity and the disc's many dizzying passages of timbral and rhythmic jump-cuts. While the action-packed phrasal motion may be familiar, it's a rare thrill to hear it conveyed almost exclusively in this barely charted timbral territory. Most dizzying are the three tracks recorded by Laurent Sassi using "multiple mics panned across the stereo spectrum" (see Mark Dresser's recent solo masterpiece Unveil for a contrabass analogue), sounding at times like an overdubbed assortment of field recordings of root canals in a dentist's office inhabited by vociferous dogs. The thrills even extend to illusions of digitally-damaged electronica with sharp packets of aliens sounds in awkward rhythmic arrangements. While the increasingly dominant role of electrically-dependent devices in musical creation should be celebrated, it's folks like Matthews who point the way towards a future in which electricity can be limited to microphones to tap the unrealized potential of acoustic instruments as fruitfully as it can be applied to laptops and other intrinsically electric devices. At the same time, he's typical of folks who split their effort between these two courses and I'm told his recent disc of solo electronic music on Sillon is a winner too. Michael Anton Parker (Downtown Music Gallery)

O dispositivo pelo qual Wade Matthews optou em Aspirations and Inspirations, conjunto de improvisações a solo realizadas entre os anos de 2002 e 2004, favorece a utilização do silêncio e a atenção ao detalhe na exploração das possibilidades técnicas e emocionais do clarinete baixo e da flauta alto. Na base, estão os dois primeiros actos que todos praticamos, inspirar e expirar, o que imediatamente nos remete para matérias relacionadas com o sopro vital. E tudo se passa como se a vida se suspendesse entre cada fase e de imediato regressasse à plenitude pela via do som.
Ouvi o disco várias vezes sem antes ter lido os créditos, e não fora essa leitura a posteriori ficaria convencido de que boa parte dos sons seriam electronicamente gerados - a grande ilusão, que é também uma das mais interessantes ironias deste disco.
No meio da aparente dispersão, Matthews consegue estabelecer um fio condutor não narrativo, fragmentado, rico em nuances e variações microestruturais, em estreita ligação com outros dispostivos fundamentais na realização da obra: os microfones e o seu particular posicionamento, "multiple mics panned across the stereo spectrum", que captam toda a acção dentro e fora da flauta, aumentando assim o potencial expressivo do instrumento.
Além da ausência de traços de convencionalismo e do trabalho microscópico que, a traço grosso, caracteriza a idiossincrasia de Wade Matthews, em Aspirations and Inspirations é possível admirar o virtuosismo do soprador, posto não ao serviço da potência sonora ou da exibição de capacidade pulmonar - marcas que decididamente não se inscrevem no seu estilo - e sobretudo, o controle sobre os sons e a maneira como se combinam, de tal forma que cada vez que se ouve Aspirations and Inspirations (Solo Improvisations 2002/2004), parece tratar-se de um disco diferente.
Delicado no toque, vagaroso e afirmativo, Aspirations and Inspirations situa-se no vasto espaço de exploração das infindáveis potencialidades dos instrumentos acústicos, associadas ao papel da alta tecnologia na captação e mediação sonora. Matthews, mercê de uma individualidade difícil de aprisionar em escolas ou estilos definidos, afirma-se através do modo peculiar e personalizado como trabalha a matéria_prima sonora. Eduardo Chagas (Jazz e Arredores)

„...when we create music with breath, we have no reason at all to hide its nature.“ Der Bassklarinettist & Altoflötist WADE MATHEWS, 1955 im französischen La Chapelle St. Mesmin geboren, hat sich gründlich Gedanken gemacht über die Rolle des Atems in der Musik, seine Selbstverständlichkeit in der Shakuhachitradition und der Musik Westafrikas, Indiens und des Iran und wie sehr die bürgerliche Kunstmusik des Westens Atemgeräusche beim Spielen verpönt hat. Matthews hat sich daher in eine Richtung bewegt, die dagegen angeht. Wesentlich dabei wurden seine Erfahrungen im Duo mit Phil Durrant und die Praxis seiner Trios WSPS & Zyklus, kollegiale Grüße richtet er an Gesinnungsverwandte wie John Butcher und Xavier Charles. Auf Aspirations and Inspirations (CS 026) zeigt er seine Atem- & Klangkunst in 9 Soloimprovisationen. Dabei kommt alles vor, was der pneumatische Idealismus der Akademie sich verbietet, Spuckeschlürfen, Schmatzen, Gurgeln, Keuchen, Stimmhaftigkeit, Plops und Gezische, ein perkussiv eingesetztes Klappern der Ventile. Durch diese menschlich-allzumenschlichen Aspekte eines Musizierens, das sich ethnisch-folkloristische Fülle wieder anzueignen versucht, erreicht Matthews aber allenfalls eine paradoxe Metaebene. Das Bierzelt-‘Volk‘ würde ihn für seine Mätzchen lynchen. Die Minorität, die für ihn ein Ohr hat, hält kunstverständig den Atem an, um seine konzentrierte Virtuosität nicht zu stören. (Bad Alchemy)