Callithumpian Consort - Elwood: Émissions transparents (2019)

Paul Elwood has many strings to his bow: among them, banjo player, composer, and improviser. From Colorado to Marseille, Iowa City to London and Boston, Émissions Transparents documents his far-flung visions and musical adventures. The title track, Émissions Transparents, features Pablo Gomez on electric guitar with the Callithumpian Consort of the New England Conservatory directed by Stephen Drury. This five-movement composition explores invisible communications- be they radio transmissions, angelic apparitions, or ghostly voices from the unknown, that manifest Elwoods interest in the paranormal and interstellar space travel. Since he was a teenager, Elwood has been drawn to the New York School of composition from the 1950s and 1960s that highlighted composers John Cage, Christian Wolff, Morton Feldman, and Earle Brown. Elwood has been fortunate to work under the baton of Cage and to perform on a couple of occasions with Wolff. He commissioned Wolff to compose a work for solo banjo, the result being the aptly-named Banjo Player, completed in 2015. This is the premiere recording of this virtuosic tour de force. Two tracks on the recording were improvised with percussionist Eddie Prevost of the legendary AMM ensemble, during a long and leisurely summer Sunday afternoon session in London 2016. Ashe County Lament features pianist Rose Chancler and the voice of Freight Hoppers alum, Carrie Fridley, singing the Appalachian folk tune The Girl I Left Behind. The track mixes live piano with manipulations of Fridleys voice- all reflective of both Elwoods background in folk music and her fascination with electronic sound design. Another stellar voice on the album is that of Aly Olson with the University of Iowa Percussion Ensemble singing text written specifically for this project by poet Albert Goldbarth, two time National Book Critics Circle Awards winner. Plutonic Winds connects with Émissions Transparents in a science-fiction-like world in which cold winds from Pluto rake the Kansas plains.

Tracklist:
01. Callithumpian Consort - Émissions Transparents: I. L'ange de l'annonciation - Interlude. Magnificat
02. Callithumpian Consort - Émissions Transparents: II. Voiceless Transit
03. Callithumpian Consort - Émissions Transparents: III. Shifting Points on Bending Grids
04. Callithumpian Consort - Émissions Transparents: IV. Where Burns the Love That Turns It
05. Callithumpian Consort - Émissions Transparents: V. Ombres et poussière
06. Paul Elwood - Banjo Player
07. Paul Elwood - For Arthur S. Wolff: London Improvisation 4a
08. University of Iowa Percussion Ensemble - Plutonic Winds
09. Cary Fridley - Ashe County Lament
10. Paul Elwood - For Arthur S. Wolff: London Improvisation 4b