#4394, Music About Machines
Hear machine-inspired works of relentless groove from composer and educator Marc Mellits and music by Annie Gosfield whose music is inspired by machines not working correctly. And more works that came about from hearing motorized, twittering, rattling, and radiating machines.
There’s a looping order to Marc Mellits’ “5 Machines," written for the Bang on a Can All-Stars, with impressive and complicated cross-rhythms and syncopated hooky lines, carried by cello, marimba, piano, bass clarinet, double-bass, and guitar, all amplified. Hear the same work in arrangement for string quintet by Sybarite5, and for string quartet by Galax Quartet. There’s another work by Marc Mellits, called Ex Machina, as played by the Michigan-based Donald Sinta Quartet on their Selmer saxophones.
Listen to some of a work by Annie Gosfield, inspired by the imperfect rhythmic repeats of machines and factory sounds. From her album, Flying Sparks And Heavy Machinery, hear music made with bits and pieces of metal, featuring driving heavy machine samples, layers of ambient noise, and electronic blips, some recorded in a working factory in Germany. Plus, hear music by German band Kraftwerk, and their fusion of man and machine.
There's systems music of a sort referring to a motorized vehicle by Connecticut-based Puerto Rican composer Dan Román for the alto sax and viola of the duo The Irrelevants. Also, hear a work by Missouri-born, Brussels-based math teacher and composer Christina Vantzou, and her “Glissando for Bodies and Machines in Space.” Then, it's the short orchestral piece by John Adams, “Short Ride in a Fast Machine.” - Caryn Havlik
Program #4394, Music About Machines (First aired 7/29/2020)
ARTIST: Bang on a Can All-Stars
WORK: Marc Mellits: 5 Machines, V [3:49]
RECORDING: Bang on a Can PCF Concert, NSL Miller Theatre, 5/13/00
SOURCE: This performance not commercially available.
INFO: The piece has been recorded with the Marc Mellits Consort, Black Box #1108 - marcmellits.com and by Great Noise Ensemble, greatnoiseensemble.com
ARTIST: Joanne Forman
WORK: The Twittering Machine [3:21]
RECORDING: Cave Vaults of the Moon
SOURCE: Séance Centre
INFO: seance-centre.com
ARTIST: Leah Kardos
WORK: Radiate Heat Into Space [4:37]
RECORDING: Machines
SOURCE: Bigo & Twigetti
INFO: bigoandtwigetti.bandcamp.com
ARTIST: Galax Quartet
WORK: Marc Mellits: String Quartet No. 2, "Revolution" 4. Groove Machine [4:04]
RECORDING: Dream Drapery
SOURCE: Music and Arts recordings, Due out Aug 21, 2020
INFO: galaxquartet.org | musicandarts.com
ARTIST: The Irrelevants (Carrie Koffman, sax & Tim Deighton, viola)
WORK: Dan Roman: La Machina Line: La Machina Line [4:10]
RECORDING: Dan Roman: Musica de Palladium
SOURCE: Innova 904
INFO: innova.mu
ARTIST: San Francisco Symphony, Michael Tilson Thomas, conductor
WORK: John Adams: Short Ride in a Fast Machine [5:03]
RECORDING: Adams: Harmonielehre; Short Ride in a Fast Machine
SOURCE: SFS Media 0053
INFO: https://www.sfsymphony.org
ARTIST: Sybarite5
WORK: Marc Mellits: Groove Machine [3:35]
RECORDING: Live from New York It's Sybarite5
SOURCE: Bright Shiny Things | Due March 20
INFO: brightshiny.ninja | sybarite5.bandcamp.com
ARTIST: Christina Vantzou
WORK: Glissando for Bodies and Machines in Space [2:48]
RECORDING: No. 4
SOURCE: kranky
INFO: christinavantzou.bandcamp.com
ARTIST: Annie Gosfield
WORK: Ewa 7: Impulse Turbine [4:56]
RECORDING: Flying Sparks And Heavy Machinery
SOURCE: Tzadik 7069
INFO: tzadik.com
ARTIST: Kraftwerk
WORK: The Man Machine [4:56]
RECORDING: The Man Machine
SOURCE: Capitol Records
INFO: Available at Amazon.com, AppleMusic, Spotify, Youtube
ARTIST: Donald Sinta Sax Quartet
WORK: Marc Mellits: Ex Machina - Machine VI (Flowing, Lyrical, & Songlike) [1:54]
RECORDING: Ex Machina
SOURCE: Bright Shiny Things
INFO: donaldsintaquartet.bandcamp.com
ARTIST: Donald Sinta Sax Quartet
WORK: Marc Mellits: Ex Machina - Machine I (Let The Funk Out) [1:29]
RECORDING: Ex Machina
SOURCE: Bright Shiny Things
INFO: donaldsintaquartet.bandcamp.com
