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| DESCRIPTION | ||
 | V/A American Lament Label : Sub Rosa Year : 2024 Format : LP Style : Experimental Availability : In stock Price : 17.60 € - BUY | |
| Description : | With Folksong Distortions, Pauwels and Van der Aa create a journey of lament through the soul of times gone by. Their radical renditions of works by Larry Polansky and Christopher Trapanido not distort the more upbeat rhythm and tradition of folk songs, but rather reveal and highlight the essence of hard lives, imposed choices - choices that were illusions in the first place - and the difficult times and conditions they have always depicted.
Christopher Trapani arranged two classics from the U.S. South, reimagining folk songs with microtones, improvisation, and electronic effects. The work, developed in collaboration with Tom Pauwels and Liesa Van der Aa, was originally made and featured on ICTUS' American Lament programme. The duo was given considerable room for improvisation and interpretation in the process. The first song, 'Wayfaring Stranger', is a well-known folk/gospel melody in A minor. The lyrics contrast an aimless journey through a harsh, hostile world, with the Christian promise of heaven as a 'home' and reunion with lost loved ones. The second song, 'Freight Train', was written by Elizabeth Cotten, a left-handed guitarist who held herguitar upside down, resulting in a very recognisable strumming style. Sweet Betsy from Pike and Eskimo Lullaby are taken from Larry Polansky's 2005 'Songs and Toads', a five-section piece that consists of three settings of American folk songs and two computer-composed pieces. The work was originally written for guitar, more specifically for the national steel guitar, refretted in a specific intonation designed by Lou Harrison. Each piece explores a different guitar tuning. A significant intervention to the original work is made to accommodate Liesa Van der Aa's violin with effect pedals, opening to an epic re-reading of the work as conceived by the American composer Larry Polansky. What this set-up enables is a melancholy, slow-paced approach that quite radically opposes the more upbeat and joyful nature of the folk songs. Liesa Van der Aa : voice, violin, effect pedals, electronics Liesa Van der Aa is a Belgian composer, musician, singer and actress. Her music is a blend of pop rock, noise, electronica, folk and even jazz. Tom Pauwels : guitar, resonator steel guitar, electronics Tom Pauwels studied classical guitar in Brussels, Köln and Münster withAlbert Sundermann, Hubert Käppel and Reinbert Evers respectively. He has been active in the field of contemporary music, both on classical and electric guitar. From 1999 until 2001 he was a regular member of Champ D'Action, the Antwerp-based ensemble for experimental music. Since 2002 he has works as a co-artistic leader for the new music ensemble ICTUS (Brussels). performed by Liesa Van der Aa & Tom Pauwels & composed by Christopher Trapani & Larry Polansky | published by Sub Rosa in Ictus Ensemble collection | |
| Titles : | 01. Christopher Trapani - Two Folksong Distortions : Wayfaring Stranger / Freight Train after Wayfaring Stranger', public domain (first published in 1858) and 'Freight Train' by Elizabeth Cotten (1905) 02. Larry Polansky - Sweet Betsy from Pike 'Sweet Betsy from Pike', for Lou Harrison and Bill Colvig, lyrics from Ruth Crawford's Seeger arrangement of the song, from 'Twenty-two American Folk Tunes'. 03. Eskimo Lullaby - 'Eskimo Lullaby' for Michael Byron, from 'Folk Songs of Canada', by Ruth Fulton Fowke and Richard Johnston, Waterloo Music Company. | |
