UPCOMING EVENTS



RELÂCHE: THE WONDERFUL SOUND
Feb 29 @ International House (Philadelphia)
Mar 1 @ Greenwich Music House (NYC)



"Leading people to enlightenment through sound".  Join Relâche for an evening of genre-blurring new music that will have you out talking for weeks about what you heard.  This year’s don’t-miss event includes Randall Woolf’s synthesizer infused scores and Philadelphia jazz legend Bobby Zankel’s dark, grooving charts.  The ensemble will also be performing works from its new CD, Eight Point Turn, which will be available for the first time at the concert. 

PROGRAM:
Bobby Zankel: Emerging From the Earth
Bobby Zankel: A Change of Destiny*
Randy Woolf: Canine State of Mind*
Randy Woolf: My Insect Bride
Leslie Burrs: Voyeuristic Absurdities**
Joseph Koykkar: Noir (from Panache)**

*World Premiere Relâche Commission.
** Featured on RELÂCHE: Eight Point Turn


Friday, February 29, 8pm
International House
3701 Chestnut St
Philadelphia, PA
Click here to buy tickets for
RELÂCHE: THE WONDERFUL SOUND (philadelphia)

Saturday, March 1, 8pm
Greenwich House Music School
46 Barrow St
New York, NY 10014
Click here to buy tickets for
RELÂCHE: THE WONDERFUL SOUND (nyc)


TICKETS: $20 general admission
$15 seniors, $10 students


OUT NOW:
RELÂCHE: Eight Point Turn



Eric Moe’s Eight Point Turn was named, the composer says, “after an experience on a forest road near Jack Mountain in Montana.” Without knowing the details of the incident in question, it’s not difficult to imagine the likely scenario: a cumbersome vehicle, laden with riders and gear, hemmed in on all sides by dense foliage, attempting to navigate its way through via tiny, incremental progressions. It’s wittily appropriate that Relâche, the venerable Philadelphia-based new music ensemble, would adopt the title for this CD, a collection of five original commissions. In its more than three decades of existence, Relâche has continually ventured into the wilderness of contemporary music, determined to forge ahead despite the unknown obstacles that lie ahead. And like any true trailblazer, the Ensemble resolutely refuses to traverse the well-worn pathways of those that have made the journey before them, displaying a remarkable ability to avoid the sort of dead end that apparently plagued Moe’s adventure. - Shaun Brady, from the liner notes.

EIGHT POINT TURN (Meyer Media) features works by Eric Moe, Joseph Koykkar, Gavin Bryars, Leslie Burrs, and Sophia Serghi, and will be available for the first time anywhere at the Feb. 29th and Mar. 1st Relâche concerts.






RECENT EVENTS

RELÂCHE and ARS NOVA WORKSHOP co-present:
GUY KLUCEVSEK and ALAN BERN
Feb. 22 @ Trinity Center



featuring:
Alan Bern, accordion
Guy Klucevsek, accordion

UPDATE: 2/22/08, 1pm. The concert is happening as scheduled. No cancellation due to weather.

The collaboration of triple-threat Alan Bern of Brave Old World fame (composer, accordion player, pianist) and avant-garde virtuoso accordion player Guy Klucevsek (and Relache Ensemble alum) has resulted in this refreshingly bright accordion duo. Creating works that span modern jazz, Eastern European motifs and colorful ethnic grooves, these master musicians take this unwieldy instrument to a whole new level of grace. Photo: Jack Vartoogian

Friday, February 22, 8pm
Trinity Center for Urban Life
22nd and Spruce
Philadelphia, PA
$15 general admission

Click here to buy tickets for
GUY KLUCEVSEK and ALAN BERN


RELÂCHE presents: CAGED IN
Wed. 9/5/2007 @ Washington Square Park



Celebrate legendary fringe composer John Cage’s birthday with Relâche, Philly’s contemporary music mavens! Caged In is full audience participation: anyone who wants to (that means YOU!) helps enliven Philadelphia’s art scene. Simultaneously and in one place, we’ll paint, sing, read, dance, scream, sculpt, and perform a Cage-ian extravaganza! No expertise needed!

As a musician, composer, artist, poet, and philosopher, John Cage's work rarely fit within the traditional boundaries of artistic practice. In the late 1940s, during a residency at Black Mountain College, he developed his provocative "theater of mixed-means" in collaboration with the artists Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns, and the choreographer Merce Cunningham. These experiments gave birth to an explosion of performance art in the1950s and 1960s that introduced all types of actions, artifacts, noises, images, and movement into the performance space, such as in his own electronic theater work, Variations V from 1965.

The anarchic nature of Cage's work, with its bold acceptance of indeterminacy (chance) as an integral part of its composition, later encouraged the composer to extend this new found freedom to include the participation of the audience. Cage, inspired by Zen Buddhism, revels in an anarchy that dethrones the artist as the heroic, all-powerful arbiter of creative expression. He proposes instead a shift to an inclusive, participatory art that encourages interaction between artist, performer and audience.

This event wil take place in Washington Square Park. To participate meet at:

Locks Gallery
600 Washington Square South
(southeast corner of park)
Philadelphia, PA
6:00pm - 8:00pm, FREE


VARIOUSLY INDETERMINATE: works by Wolff, Cage, and Brown
Sat. 9/22/07, 8:00pm @ Wilmington Music School
     featuring an encore performance of Jennifer Barker's "sair wrocht wi lilt"
Sun. 9/23/07, 2:00pm @ Fleisher Art Memorial
     with special guests the Zs (from NYC)



Please join Relache for the opening series of its 2007-08 concert season as we explore the fascinating repertoire of indeterminate works from “New York School’ composers, including a historic Relache-commissioned premier by Christian Wolff.  The ensemble will also perform seminal works by oft-associated composers, John Cage and Earle Brown.  The Sunday afternoon concert will also feature a special appearance by the New York City based avant-rock chamber ensemble, the Zs, performing Earle Brown’s 4 Systems.  The Zs interpretation of this work was recently featured on John Zorn’s Tzadik label compilation of the Brown’s music.  The Saturday evening performance will feature a special encore performance of Jennifer Barker’s "sair wrocht wi lilt".

Christian Wolff
Christian Wolff (b. 1934) has described the bulk of his musical output as "variously indeterminate ... allowing performers space and freedom in the use of notated material and, at the same time, interdependence ... requiring them to play in some specific way." (Wolff) His experiments with aleatoric techniques stem from his association in the 1950's with John Cage, Earle Brown, and Morton Feldman, a group of composers now referred to as the New York School. Since the early 1970's Wolff, like his former Harvard classmate Frederic Rzewski, has also written music of a political nature.

Wolff was born in Nice, France, and has lived in the United States since 1941. A mostly self-taught composer, he studied piano with Grete Sultan, composition briefly with John Cage, and classics at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Since 1970 he has taught classics and music at Darmouth College in New Hampshire.

Awards Wolff has received include those from the American Academy and National Institute for Arts and Letters, Asian Cultural Council, DAAD Berlin, and the John Cage Award for Music. Commissions include the Concord String Quartet, Wesleyan Singers, West German Radio, and pianist Ursula Oppens. In addition to his compositional work, Wolff has performed as an improviser with Kui Dong, Takehisa Kosugi, Steve Lacy, Christian Marclay, and Larry Polansky, among others. His music is recorded on the Centaur, Columbia, CRI, EMI, Mode, Hat Hut, Koch International Classics, Opus One, Tzadik, Vox, and Wergo labels.


the Zs
Charlie Looker: keyboard
Sam Hillmer: tenor saxophone
Ben Greenberg: electric guitar
Ian Antonio: drum set

"(One) of the strongest avant-garde bands in New York. The Zs' songs sputter forth in Morse code dots of percussion and saxophone..."
- Ben Sisario, New York Times

Zs was formed in 2000. Zs makes music that is variously categorized as no-wave, post-jazz, brutal-chamber, brutal-prog, and post minimalist. Zs' music is angular, repetitive, and either very loud or very soft. While Zs has gone through several incarnations ranging from trios to sextets, the group presently consists of Charlie Looker(synthesizer/guitar), Ben Greenberg(guitar), Sam Hillmer(saxophone), and Ian Antonio(drums). Zs is often recognized for it's dual function as chamber ensemble and rock band. As a result of their cross-over ability Zs has worked with a diverse roster of performers and composers. Zs has worked with Animal Collective, Gang Gang Dance, Orthrelm, The Flying Luttenbachers, and Big A little a (Aa), as well as Joe Maneri, Christian Wolff, Louis Andriessen, and Petr Kotik. Zs also inhabits a diverse assortment of venues including lofts, galleries, rock clubs, and concert halls. Zs has recorded for labels Troubleman Unlimited, Planaria Recordings, Tzadik Records, Folding Cassettes, Gilgongo Records, Sockets CDrs, and Rice Control. Their new studio album "Arms" will be out in mid 2007 on Planaria Recordings. The members of Zs are also involved in a number of other projects including Seductive Sprigs, Extra Life, Moth, Regattas, Hunter-Gatherer, Yarn/Wire, and the Scenery Ensemble. Zs curate and DJ the monthly avantgarde music and art party "from B to Z" under the moniker "the B-Keepers". The activities of "the B-Keepers" as well as all Zs side projects is being documented by Zs' in-house CDR label FuckingA Show Releases. Visit the Zs website: http://www.zzzsss.com/ or myspace at: http://www.myspace.com/zstheband.

Saturday, September 22, 8pm
Wilmington Music School
4101 Washington St
Wilmington, Delaware

Sunday, September 23, 2pm
Fleisher Art Memorial
719 Catharine St. (free parking across the street)
Philadelphia, PA

ADMISSION: $20 general admission
$15 seniors, $10 students.
No advance sales. For more info call 215.574.8248



RELÂCHE: Bits, Bytes, and Pieces
Fri. 11/30/07, 8:00pm @ Greenwich House Music School
Sat. 12/01/07, 8:00pm @ International House



Madness! Absolute madness! Avant-chamber madness, that is, presented only as the establishments misfits, the Relache Ensemble, know how to do. Breaking the rules of what a concert “should be” since the 1970s, Philadelphia’s most daring new music ensemble presents an evening of short works, including world premieres, electronics, carnival music, and other bedlam.

Duncan Neilson - "Hyperfiction" (arr. D. Kelly)
Brooke Joyce - "Memory Jewels"
Galen H. Brown - "Waiting in the Tall Grass"*
Paul Epstein - "AlgoRhythms 2"
David Lang- "Dance / Drop "
Duncan Neilson - "Luna Circus" (arr. L. Shorter)

Being heard for the first time in Philadelphia are works by young up-and-coming American composers Galen Brown, Duncan Nielson, and Brooke Joyce. Brown’s brand-new piece Waiting in the Tall Grass is self-described as “post-minimalist,” and explores through extensive use of polyrhythms and pedal points the growing anticipation of a predator hiding in the title’s scene. Joyce’s Memory Jewels showcases Rel?che’s Lloyd Shorter and Chuck Holdeman in a work for oboe, bassoon, and pre-recorded electronic sounds. Rel?che will close out the evening with Nielson’s raucous carnival music in Luna Circus, inspired by Cirque du Soleil. Also on the program are Algorhythms 2 by Philadelphia’s own Paul Epstein, as well additional works being arranged especially for these concerts by Duncan Nielson and Darin Kelly.

*World Premier Relache commission. This program is made possible in part through the generous support of the Philadelphia Music Project, a program of The Philadelphia Center for Arts and Heritage, funded by The Pew Charitable Trusts and administered by The University of the Arts.

Friday, November 30, 8pm
Greenwich House Music School
46 Barrow St
New York, NY 10014

Saturday December 1, 8pm
International House
3701 Chestnut St
Philadelphia, PA

TICKETS: $20 general admission
$15 seniors, $10 students
Tickets available at the door 45 min. before each performance. For more information call 215.574.8248 or email: info [at] relache.org.


PHIL KLINE'S UNSILENT NIGHT
Mon. 12/17/07, 6:30pm @ Rittenhouse Square
FREE EVENT!



Join us for Relâche's annual gift to Philadelphia! “Unsilent Night” is a participatory sound sculpture of many individual parts, recorded on cassette tapes and played through a roving swarm of boom-boxes carried through Rittenhouse Square. Bring your own tape-player, or use one of ours and drift through a cloud of sound which is different from every listener's perspective. Afterwards, be our guest for a free holiday party and jazz performance at the Ethical Society Building!

Monday December 17, 6:30 pm
The Ethical Society Building
1906 Rittenhouse Square, Philadelphia
Walk lasts 45 minutes. Dress warmly. Bring a boom-box with a tape deck or we can provide you with a boom-box.

FREE EVENT!
For more information call 215.574.8248 or email: info [at] relache.org.

SONIC CINEMA: MAYA DEREN
Jan. 25 @ Millersville University, Millersville, PA
Jan. 27 @ Gershman Y, Philadelphia, PA



Embark on a fascinating journey as the Relâche Ensemble performs live music to the avant-garde short films of Maya Deren, and some funny stuff that will have you leaving the theater saying, "Where did they ever find that one?!" The program will include screenings of Deren’s “Meshes of the Afternoon”, “At Land”, and “The Eye of the Night”, as well the early silent comedies "Beggar on Horseback" and the 1906 "Dream of a Rarebit Fiend", and features the music of Teiji Ito, Chuck Holdeman, and other selections from the Relâche library.


Friday, January 25, 7pm*
Lyte Auditorium
Millersville University
Millersville, PA
* the event is FREE to the public

Sunday, January 27, 3pm
Gershman Y
401 South Broad Street
Philadelphia, PA
$20 general admission, $10 students, seniors
Click here to buy tickets online.


program details:

MESHES OF THE AFTERNOON (1943)
Dir: Maya Deren, Alexander Hammid.
Music: Originally Silent. Music added in 1959 by Teiji Ito.

Meshes of the Afternoon is one of the most influential works in American experimental cinema. A non-narrative work, it has been identified as a key example of the "trance film," in which a protagonist appears in a dreamlike state, and where the camera conveys his or her subjective focus. The central figure in Meshes of the Afternoon, played by Deren, is attuned to her unconscious mind and caught in a web of dream events that spill over into reality. Symbolic objects, such as a key and a knife, recur throughout the film; events are open-ended and interrupted. Deren explained that she wanted "to put on film the feeling which a human being experiences about an incident, rather than to record the incident accurately."

Made by Deren with her husband, cinematographer Alexander Hammid, Meshes of the Afternoon established the independent avant-garde movement in film in the United States, which is known as the New American Cinema. It directly inspired early works by Kenneth Anger, Stan Brakhage, and other major experimental filmmakers. Beautifully shot by Hammid, a leading documentary filmmaker and cameraman in Europe (where he used the surname Hackenschmied) before he moved to New York, the film makes new and startling use of such standard cinematic devices as montage editing and matte shots. Through her extensive writings, lectures, and films, Deren became the preeminent voice of avant-garde cinema in the 1940s and the early 1950s. (MoMA.org)


AT LAND (1944)
Dir: Maya Deren. Cast: John Cage, Maya Deren, Alexander Hammid. B&W
Music: Originally Silent. This performance features a world premier score by Chuck Holdeman.

Deren's second experimental film, At Land (1944), reinforces her interest in the juxtaposition of anachronistic spaces and introduces a critique of social rituals. This film begins by reversing the natural rhythm with images of waves breaking and descending back into the sea. Starring again, Deren is seen climbing up a dead tree trunk on the beach, magically emerging onto a table where a formal dinner party is in progress. This 'civilized' world ignores Deren as she crawls along their dinner table. By depicting herself as invisible to the diners, Deren highlights the myopia of the guests. The dinner sequence in At Land ends with an enchanted chess game. A pawn falls from the table and descends back into the dead wood on the beach, it falls over rocks, into the water and is washed away over the waterfalls. Chasing the pawn, Deren is restored to her original landscape. - Wendy Haslem
(http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/directors/02/deren.html)


THE VERY EYE OF NIGHT (1958)
Dir: Maya Deren. Assistant director: Harrison Starr III. Screenplay: Maya Deren.
Music: Teiji Ito.

The Very Eye of Night (1958) was a collaboration with the Metropolitan Opera Ballet School. The film was beset by problems in its production and carried with it a heavy weight of expectation. A shimmering constellation of stars established the background for negative images of figures resembling Greek Gods superimposed on and magically transported along the milky way. Deren called it her 'ballet of night', an ethereal dance within a nocturnal space that focused on the spectacle rather than the narrative. Ito collaborated on the soundtrack using tone blocks and bells, recalling the trance rhythm of Meshes of the Afternoon. Prioritizing enchantment over interpretation, The Very Eye of Night proved to be Deren's most controversial and misunderstood film.