Anne LeBaron - Lebaron, Anne: 1,2,4,3 '2010

Tracks list

Anne LeBaron's harp is not your grandmother's harp. Probably. 

"In the early 1970's I began improvising with my first harp, a Wurlitzer with
ivory pegs, rescued and restored from its fate as an unstrung object languishing
in the corner of an elderly couple's living room. Many of these explorations
took place during regular Sunday night sessions in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, at the
home of LaDonna Smith and Davey Williams. Here, a group of musicians gathered to
embark on musical odysseys into uncharted territories. Our models ranged from
surrealist concepts and philosophies, to the purism of Derek Bailey, to the
gritty blues of Johnny Shines. My exploration of the harp —
finding ways to prepare it, to bow the steel-wound wires, and gut and nylon
strings, and to slither vertically on the strings, discovering endless
microtonal worlds - was stimulated by this proto-environment. Later, living and
performing in Europe in the 80's, I made music with 'first-generation'
improvising musicians, some of whom are represented on this 2CD set of solos,
duets, quartets, and trios: 1,2,4,3." 

The recordings span eight years, four generations of musicians, hailing from
seven countries. Most of the tracks are from live performances capturing the
spontaneous moments between consummate improvisers getting to know one another
and co-composing a time together. All feature LeBaron's sonorous harp playing in
myriad guises. 

Anne LeBaron, composer and performer, writes music embracing an exotic array of
subjects that encompass vast reaches of space and time, ranging from the
mysterious Singing Dune of Kazakhstan, to investigations into physical and
cultural forms of extinction, to legendary figures such as Pope Joan, Eurydice,
Marie Laveau, and the American Housewife. Widely recognized for her work in
instrumental, electronic, and performance realms, she has earned numerous awards
and prizes, including a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, the Alpert Award in
the Arts, a Fulbright Full Fellowship, an award from the Rockefeller MAP Fund
for her opera, Sucktion, and a 2009-2010 Cultural Exchange International Grant
from the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs for The Silent
Steppe Cantata. She teaches composition and related subjects at CalArts. 

This release is part of innova's NEA-funded NYFA Series that celebrates the work
of New York Foundation for the Arts Music Composition Fellows.

1.01 - Anne LeBaron - Heat Wave 1 (4:33) 
1.02 - Wolfgang Fuchs - Succulent Blues (10:06) 
1.03 - Leroy Jenkins - Rippling with Leroy (8:15) 
1.04 - Leroy Jenkins - Mirage (6:53) 
1.05 - Chris Heenan - Deleuzion (10:44) 
1.06 - Chris Heenan - Principles of the Rhizome (3:56) 
1.07 - Chris Heenan - Make a Map, not a Tracing (5:40) 
1.08 - Anne LeBaron - Heat Wave 2 (3:38) 
1.09 - Wolfgang Fuchs - Intermezzo (3:00) 
2.01 - Georg Graewe - Wake (1:59) 
2.02 - Georg Graewe - Stream (3:16) 
2.03 - Kristin Haraldsdottir - Sukkulaoi Scream (3:19) 
2.04 - Kiku Day - Into Something Rich and Strange (2:46) 
2.05 - Kiku Day - Submerged Cavern (2:45) 
2.06 - Kiku Day - Song of Marble (5:06) 
2.07 - Kiku Day - Funeral Bells for Harry Partch (6:00) 
2.08 - Kiku Day - Full Fathom Funayurei (4:21) 
2.09 - Earl Howard - Lagniappe: Hourglass of Stars (4:43)

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