Another Timbre Changes

In various ways the three recordings below are very different from one another and may surprise some listeners who think they know what to expect from the Another Timbre label. It is worth remembering that the label was originally set up by Simon Reynell as an outlet for improvising players such as John Butcher, Phil Minton, Rhodri Davies and Evan Parker, all of whom featured on one of the label's first six releases; by the label's tenth release, pianist John Tilbury, a member of AMM, appeared playing a John Cage composition among others, a sign of things to come such as the label's Wandelweiser box set—relevant to the first album below... Yes, the label may have changed recently but that has always been the case and always will...

Teodora Stepančič
OA I FG
Another Timbre
2025

Although she has been releasing albums since 2011, the Serbian-born New York resident, composer, pianist, performer and improviser Teodora Stepančič is here making her second appearance on Another Timbre—the first as a composer as her previous appearance on the label was as the pianist who performed Mark R. Taylor's compositions on his album Aftermaths (Another Timbre, 2018).

In the years between that release and OA I FG, years which included the COVID disruption, Stepančič self-released an impressively varied 14 albums digitally. One of those featured "OA" performed by the ensemble Ordinary Affects and Douglas Farrand + people buying books at MIT bookstore Boston, released in December 2018. With the composer, Ordinary Affects play the two Stepančič compositions "OA (2018)" and "FG (2023)," recorded in July 2023. The first of those pieces was titled after Ordinary Affects who commissioned it in 2018, the second was written in Stepančič's first year as a mother and is titled after her child to whom it is dedicated.

Although they were written years apart and are different, both compositions display characteristics which will be familiar to anyone who has encountered Wandelweiser music, such as low volume and occasional silences. For years Stepančič performed many pieces by Wandelweiser composers and participated several times in Klangram, Wandelweiser's annual festival. She says she was always interested in music that does not try to draw attention to itself so, when she encountered music from Wandelweiser, it made sense. Despite the truth of that, listeners who have never encountered Wandelweiser music can still enjoy OA I FG for its relaxed tranquility and gentle pace.

Nicolas Gombert & James Weeks
G O M B E R T
Another Timbre
2025

One is tempted to open this review with Monty Python's much-used catch phrase ..."and now for something completely different..." as the music is light years away from that above. Whereas the album above was inspired by Wandelweiser in the 21st century, G O M B E R T turns to the Franco-Flemish singer and composer Nicholas Gombert (c. 1495—c.1560) and his compositions.

In fact, the music here is rather more complicated than that as the album comprises eight Gombert compositions—seven motets and a chanson—as well as four interludes composed by James Weeks which were commissioned by Another Timbre in summer 2024. The album was recorded in August and September 2024. Although the Another Timbre catalogue cannot be described as full of early music, Reynell, the label's proprietor, says that the amount of his leisure listening time spent listening to early music has increased considerably from about 10% when he started Another Timbre in 2007 to 50% in 2024.

In his role as producer of the album, Reynell made several decisions about what should be included in the Gombert pieces to counter some of the features which can dissuade some listeners from listening to early music. Firstly, it was all studio-recorded thus avoiding the echoing sound of some religious music recorded in churches. Secondly, although Gombert's compositions were predominantly for voices, Reynell decided the recordings should only be instrumental, played by Apartment House and conducted by Weeks. Thirdly, although trumpets and stringed instruments such as violins existed in Gombert's time, piano, clarinets and flutes were not invented until after his death. Nonetheless, they are all included here in the capable hands of Apartment House players.

The end result is 63 minutes of soothing, captivating instrumental music which is easy to listen to again and again. One needs no religious knowledge or affiliation to appreciate and enjoy the music here.

Bryn Harrison
Towards A Slowing Of The Past
Another Timbre
2025

Towards A Slowing Of The Past is Bryn Harrison's seventh recording to date and the fourth released on Another Timbre, following Vessels (2013), Receiving the Approaching Memory (2016), and A Coiled Form (2022); two of the others were released on Huddersfield Contemporary Records. As on Harrison's other Another Timbre albums, instrumentation is employed economically; where Sarah Saviet's violin was the sole instrument on A Coiled Form, this time the instrumentation comprises two pianos played by Mark Knoop and Roderick Chadwick, in a continuous 42-and-a-half-minute recording made by Reynell at St. Paul's Hall, University of Huddersfield on October 28, 2024.

In addition to the two pianos, Harrison originally thought of using live electronics, but actually used electronic sounds pre-recorded by Knoop. Harrison had begun working with recorded sound in 2019. He says he finds that recorded loops can evoke feelings of immobility, redundancy or even complete stasis. In "Towards a slowing of the past" he tried to take these aspects one stage further by incorporating recorded sounds that are run backwards as well as being pitch shifted and speed adjusted. The material traces a staggered descent to half its original speed over the course of the piece and, in the process, drops two octaves, ending in the bass register of the pianos. At one point, there is a two-minute interjection during which all listeners hear is a sustained chord in the electronics. As the YouTube excerpt below illustrates, Harrison is on a voyage of discovery, one which makes interesting, exciting listening and will be well worth following as it develops. Watch this space.

Tracks and Personnel

O A I FG

Tracks: OA (2018); FG (2023). Personnel: Jordan Dykstra: viola; Laura Cetilia: violincello; Douglas Farrand: trumpet; Luke Martin: electric guitar; J.P.A.Falzone: Fender Rhodes & Casiotone MT45; Teodora Stepancic: piano & Casiotone MT68.

G O M B E R T

Tracks: Prelude; Nicolas Gombert -Mille Regretz; Nicolas Gombert -In te, Domine, speravi; James Weeks -Media Vita I; Nicolas Gombert -Super Flumina Babylonis; Nicolas Gombert -Musee Jovis; James Weeks -Media Vita ii; Nicolas Gombert -O Rex Gloria; Nicolas Gombert -Media Vita; James Weeks -Media Vita iii; Nicolas Gombert—Tribulatione et Angustia; James Weeks -Media Vita iv; Nicolas Gombert -Lugebat David Absalom. Personnel: Apartment House:-Heather Roche: clarinet, bass clarinet; Vicky Wright: clarinet, bass clarinet; Raymond Brien: clarinet, bass clarinet; Rebecca Toal: trumpet; Kathryn Williams: alto flute, bass flute; Bridget Carey: viola; Chihiro One: viola; Rachel Stott: viola; Anton Lukoszevieze: cello; Mira Benjamin: violin; Kerry Young: piano; James Weeks: conductor.

Towards a slowing of the past

Tracks: Towards a slowing of the past (2023)

Personnel: Mark Knoop: piano; Roderick Chadwick: piano.

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