Elliott Sharp - Foliage '2020

Tracks list

Foliage by Elliott Sharp is a long-form graphic music score that offers abstract
instructions allowing for infinite possible interpretations by performing
musicians.

Featuring a series of 80 risograph prints, Foliage is, in Sharp’s words,
“a graphic score open to interpretation and realization by any
instrumentalist or ensemble of any size… [it] is a piece of retinal art as
much as it is an instruction set for sound, form and function
interlocked.” Graphic notation, which evolved during the post-1945
avant-garde, experimental music scene, falls outside the realm of traditional
music notation; it is the representation of music through the use of visual
symbols. Foliage exists at the intersection of musical composition, art
installation and performance – Sharp’s score is brought to life by
the distinct singular interpretation of each musician who performs it.

A central figure in the avant-garde and experimental music scene in New York
City since the late 1970s, Sharp has worked intermittently with graphic notation
since 1972 but began to immerse himself in the medium again a decade ago.
Analogous to his use of audio editing software during live performances to
modulate and distort sound, Sharp’s technique in creating Foliage was to
use graphics editing software to process musical notion (that he himself
composed) to distort, layer, invert, blur and ultimately explode traditionally
written sheet music, in turn creating visual works of art.

Dario Calderone – bass
Gareth Davis – bass clarinet
Pepe Garcia – percussion
Koen Kaptijn – trombone

Elliott Sharp – composition

Tracklist:
1.01 - Elliott Sharp - Foliage I (9:44)
1.02 - Elliott Sharp - Foliage II (1:30)
1.03 - Elliott Sharp - Foliage III (5:49)
1.04 - Elliott Sharp - Foliage IV (5:07)
1.05 - Elliott Sharp - Foliage V (6:29)
1.06 - Elliott Sharp - Foliage VI (1:18)
1.07 - Elliott Sharp - Foliage VII (6:05)
1.08 - Elliott Sharp - Foliage VIII (4:19)

Related artists