Five Shards
Thanos Chrysakis, Dawid Frydryk, Edward Lucas, Sue Lynch, Adrian Northover
Duration 58.08 | Released July 2021
Thanos Chrysakis | laptop computer | synthesizers | piano |
Dawid Frydryk | trumpet | TC helicon voicelive 2 |
Edward Lucas | trombone |
Sue Lynch | flute | tenor saxophone |
Adrian Northover | soprano saxophone |
Shard I [ 11’ 56’’ ]
Shard II [ 13’ 39’’ ]
Shard III [ 11’ 12” ]
Shard IV [ 15’ 14” ]
Shard V [ 06’ 08” ]
Recorded at OneCat Studio in London
on the 16th of December 2019 by Jon Clayton.
About the Artists
Thanos Chrysakis is a Greek composer, musician, producer and sound-artist. He is best known for his work in electronic and contemporary music, free improvisation, and electro-acoustic music.
With several albums to his name his work has appeared in festivals and events in numerous countries, including CYNETart Festival, Festspielhaus Hellerau - Dresden, Artus Contemporary Arts Studio – Budapest, CRUCE Gallery – Madrid, Fylkingen – Stockholm, Relative (Cross) Hearings festival – Budapest, Festival Futura – Crest - Drôme, FACT Centre – Liverpool, Association Ryoanji – Ahun - Creuse, The Center for Advanced Musical Studies at Chosen Vale — Hanover - New Hampshire, Areté Gallery — Brooklyn - New York, UC San Diego – California - San Diego, Berner Münster – Bern, Fabbrica del Vapore – Milan, Grünewaldsalen – Svensk Musikvår — Stockholm, Splendor – Amsterdam, Logos Foundation – Ghent, Palacio de Bellas Artes – Mexico City, Műcsarnok Kunsthalle – Budapest, Spektrum – Berlin, Susikirtimai X – Vilnius, Festival del Bosque GERMINAL – Mexico City, ДОМ – Moscow, Oosterkerk – Amsterdam, KLANG ! – Montpellier, Nádor Terem – Budapest, Utzon Centre – Aalborg, Center for New Music – San Francisco, Västerås Konstmuseum – Västerås, Störung festival – Barcelona, BMIC Cutting Edge concert series at The Warehouse – London.
His music was among the selected works at the International Competition de Musique et d'Art Sonore Electroacoustiques de Bourges 2005, in the category oeuvre d'art sonore électroacoustique, while received an honorary mention in 2006 at the 7th International Electroacoustic Competition Musica Viva in Lisbon (the jury was constituted by Morton Subotnick (USA), François Bayle (France), and Miguel Azguime (Portugal).
He operates the Aural Terrains record label since 2007 where he has released part of his work until now, alongside releases by Kim Cascone, Franscisco López, Tomas Phillips, Dan Warburton, Szilárd Mezei, Michael Edwards, Wade Matthews, Dganit Elyakim, Edith Alonso, Luis Tabuenca, Jeff Gburek, Philippe Petit, Steve Noble, Milo Fine and David Ryan among others.
He has written music for musicians of the Hyperion Ensemble, the Stockholm Saxophone Quartet, the Hermes Ensemble, the Nemø Ensemble, the Konus Saxophone Quartett, and the Shadanga Duo among others. Close collaborations with Tim Hodgkinson, Vincent Royer, Chris Cundy, Yoni Silver, Lori Freedman, Jason Alder, Julie Kjaer, Henriette Jensen, William Lang, Wilfrido Terrazas, Philippe Brunet, Wade Matthews, Ernesto Rodrigues, Ove Volquartz to name but a few.
Dawid Frydryk - Polish trumpet player, composer, educator.
Grew up in a home filled with passion for classical music and his father encouraged him to study music from an early age. Soon his music activities went far beyond classical music, and through to jazz, funk, soul, reggae, ska, world music, hip-hop, electronic music and improvisation.
Dawid graduated with Master’s Degree in jazz on the Karol Lipiński Academy of Music in Wroclaw(2009). He studied jazz trumpet under the supervision of Piotr Wojtasik.
He also has been collaborating with the Polish local jazz-scene, and the international free jazz and free improv scenes as well as with other international musical acts like Gabriel Ferrandini, Hernani Faustino or musicians from Umlaut Records such as Joel Grip or Pierre Borel among others.
Between the years 2011 - 2012 as initiator and artistic director of the project called Art of Improvisation, Frydryk has been helping to promote the improvisation scene in Poland.
At present he is based in London and he is collaborating with many different bands and artists. He has played with the likes of Louis Moholo, John Edwards, Mark Sanders, Steve Noble, Terry Day, Sue Lynch, Adrian Northover, Guillaume Viltard, Dave Fowler, The London Improvisers Orchestra among others.
Dawid is also working as a piano teacher at PSM London and as a private tutor teaching trumpet and jazz theory.
Edward Lucas is a London based trombone player. He plays improvised and experimental music with a particular interest in electro-acoustic collaborations. His approach to the instrument is to explore its sonic possibilities using the materials to hand, and sometimes to expand with amplification and feedback.
He is co-founder - with Daniel Kordik - of the Earshots Recordings label and concert series which has been releasing music since 2013. The pair have a long standing trombone / synthesiser duo (Kordik / Lucas) which recently teamed up with Eddie Prévost and his Matchless label to release High Laver Reflections. This was a set of recordings made by the group at the medieval All Saint’s Church in High Laver, Essex.
Groups and associations include many with musicians from the London improvised music scene and beyond including the London Experimental Ensemble, Hyperion Ensemble (playing the music of Iancu Dumitrescu, Ana-Maria Avram, Tim Hodgkinson), and the London Improvisers Orchestra.
Sue Lynch (Tenor saxophone/clarinet/flute/composition)
She currently runs ‘The Horse Improvised Music Club’ with Adam Bohman, Hutch Demouilplied and Adrian Northover. Performs with Adam Bohman, Eddie Prevost, Richard Sanderson, John Edwards, Steve Noble, Crystabel Riley, Caroline Kraabel and Sharon Gal.
In 2015 she performed with Maria Vatentina’s opera ‘Mannequin’ and in 2016 as part of Tarek Atoui’s ‘Reverse Collection’ at The Tate Modern. She performs with Psychedelic Afro Beat Sudanese band ‘The Scorpios’, performing at the 2018 Womad Festival. Sue Lynch is currently one of the featured musicians for The British Music Collection interviews with 'Unpredictable Series' presented by Steve Beresford and Blanca Regina.
In 2016 she formed, ‘Paradise Yard’, an electro accoustic ensemble, performing at Iklectik, Cafe Oto and The ICA. In 2018, she performed at 3 Klange Tag Festival (celebrating literature and improvisation),in a duo with Hildegard Kleeb.
Adrian is based in London, and plays alto and soprano saxophone, and is also involved in sound production.
He can currently be heard playing on the London club scene with a wide range of musicians, as well as doing solo saxophone performances.
He has made recordings with B Shops for the Poor, The Remote Viewers, Sonicphonics (with Billy Bang), The London Improvisers Orchestra, Ensemble Trip-Tik, Anna Homler, John Edwards, The Custodians, and various duo CDs with Adam Bohman, Tasos Stamou, Daniel Thompson and many others.
He has performed at many international festivals, including the Montreal Jazz Festival, Sound Symposium, Victoriaville, Leipzig Jazz Festival, Tallin Festival, Arkangel Jazz, Freedom Of The City, Bari Jazz and others.
Presspectives
Jean-Michel Van Schouwburg — Orynx — 15.09.2021
[FR]
Notre ami Thanos Chrysakis, claviériste, improvisateur, compositeur, concepteur de projets et responsable du label Aural Terrains persévère et assume toute la complexité et l’originalité de sa démarche de recherches musicales et d’éditions. La série d’enregistrements publiée ces dernières années par Aural Terrains avec ses clarinettistes basses Ove Volquartz, Chris Cundy, Yoni Silver, Tim Hodgkinson, les saxophonistes Sue Lynch et maintenant , Adrian Northover, l’organiste Peer Schlechta, Steve Noble, le maître à l’orgue, aux claviers, à l’électronique et au piano,ses propres compositions et ses compositions de commande, … toutes ces initiatives qui s’enchaînent au fil des dernières années finissent par constituer un catalogue de chefs d’œuvre et de réussites exemplaires connectant plusieurs démarches dans un tout lisible, créatif, récurrent et … en tout point remarquable.
Les saxophonistes Sue Lynch (aussi à la flûte) et Adrian Northover (au soprano), se sont joints au trompettiste Dawid Frydryk (au TC Helicon et voicelive) , au tromboniste Ed Lucas et à Thanos C à l’ordinateur, aux synthés et au piano. Par rapport à ses autres albums sur Aural Terrains, une approche semi minimaliste, épurée, détaillée, flottante. Tutti, vibrations électroniques oscillantes, effets d’anches et d’embouchures, bruissements, explorations minutieuses de timbre au bord du silence, drones, techniques alternatives, scories free, science de l’infra-son. Cinq pièces intitulées Shards I, II, III, IV et V mettent en formes et en sons des idées – propositions organiques et partagées intensément par chacun(e) des musicens-nne. Une démarche à la fois collective et originale d'une grande cohérence.
[ENG]
Our friend Thanos Chrysakis, keyboardist, improviser, composer, conceiver of projects and director of the Aural Terrains label perseveres, bearing all the complexity and originality of its musical research and publishing activity. The series of recordings published in recent years by Aural Terrains with bass clarinetists Ove Volquartz, Chris Cundy, Yoni Silver, Tim Hodgkinson; saxophonists Sue Lynch and now Adrian Northover; organist Peer Schlechta, [percussionist] Steve Noble, and Chrysakis himself at the organ, keyboards, electronics and piano with his own compositions and commissioned works—all of these initiatives, one after another over the last few years, make up a catalog of masterpieces and exemplary successes that combine several endeavors to form a legible, creative, recurrent and in every way remarkable whole.
Saxophonists Sue Lynch (also on flute) and Adrian Northover (on soprano), are joined by trumpeter Dawid Frydryk (on TC Helicon and voicelive), trombonist Ed Lucas and Thanos C. at the computer, synths and piano. Compared to their other albums on Aural Terrains, a semi-minimalist approach, refined, detailed and floating. Tutti, oscillating electronic vibrations, reed and embouchure effects, rustling, minute timbral explorations on the edge of silence, drones, extended techniques, free scoria, the science of infra-sound. Five pieces titled Shards 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 give shape and sound to ideas — organic proposals intensely shared by each of the musicians. A simultaneously collective and original undertaking of great coherence.
Massimo Ricci — The Squid's Ear — 20.09.2021
Early morning is my preferred time for scrutinizing records where the interactional movement of variable sonic streams — as lawless as it may appear — shines brightest in absence of human disturbance. Five Shards — the new chapter in the now solid history of Thanos Chrysakis' Aural Terrains — is a studio recording from the end of 2019 that shows this precise nature of interplay, blending instrumentalists endowed with both independent vision and team spirit.
The balancing of the constituents is crucial to the ensemble's electroacoustic workability. Chrysakis (laptop, synth and piano) is partnered by two members of The Remote Viewers (saxophonists Sue Lynch — also on flute — and Adrian Northover), trumpeter Dawid Frydryk and trombone player Edward Lucas. There would be plenty to envision a major strike against the constitutional order of commodified composition in favor of an articulate improvisational naturalness. In fact, as is often the case in such settings, a fluid compositional direction self-generates during the proceedings. Let's never forget: those who know where to fish for the necessary sound in a given instant have within themselves developed structures of intuitive awareness that remain unachievable to most non-musicians (or to mediocre musicians, for that matter).
It is essential to experience each of the Shards in the right perspective. Highlighting, as the performers do throughout, the junctures of suspension between utter silence and the resurfacing of one or more signals. Valuing the suitability of a timbre even in contexts supposedly not appropriate for that instrument. Inhabiting the communal vibrancy that emerges from the unspoken. Freezing the audio image in a sort of mental snapshot, knowing full well that it serves absolutely no purpose, if not to delude ourselves into thinking that we have "understood" for a split second. It is however a pleasant illusion, which cleans the perceptive channels instead of contaminating them irremediably with futile verbiage.
