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Jürg Frey, Reinier van Houdt: Lieues d’Ombres
by John Eyles
Anyone familiar with the Elsewhere label (or Edition Wandelweiser or Another Timbre...) will have frequently encountered Swiss composer and clarinetist Jürg Frey. In addition, those who regularly listen to Elsewhere will have heard much of Dutch pianist Reinier van Houdt. Between them, Frey and van Houdt have now appeared on six of Elsewhere's twenty-three albums to date. Of those six, L'air, L'instant--deux pianos (2020) is the only previous album to feature the pair on the same album, with van Houdt ...
read moreGermaine Sijstermans: Betula
by John Eyles
Given that past albums on the Elsewhere label have already featured such Wandelweiser favourites as Dante Boon, Jürg Frey, Anastassis Philippakopoulos, Michael Pisaro-Liu, Stefan Thut and Guy Vandromme, it was no surprise when the label released Betula, the debut album from Dutch composer and clarinetist Germaine Sijstermans. Her track “M" had already appeared on the album Amsterdam . Berlin . Moscow (Edition Wandelweiser, 2021), which was curated by Boon who also contributed two pieces alongside those by Sijstermans, Seamus Cater, ...
read moreQuentin Tolimieri: Monochromes
by John Eyles
Ever since its first release, Blurred Music, in July 2018, the Elsewhere label has never been reluctant to release multi-disc albums when the music has merited them. Of the label's twenty-one albums to date, three have been double albums, and two triple albums--that first release and this one, Monochromes. Another characteristic of Elsewhere releases has been the preponderance of albums featuring piano. Although the label's seventh, eighth and ninth releases were collectively labelled “Elsewhere Piano Series No. 1," to date ...
read moreGuy Vandromme - Bruno Duplant: l'infini des possibles
by John Eyles
This double CD comprises twelve etudes for solo piano, ranging in length from eight-minutes-forty-seconds up to fifteen minutes, altogether totalling two hours and eight minutes. The etudes were written in 2019 by the French composer Bruno Duplant, and mark his second appearance on Elsewhere, previous compositions of his having been performed by the Dutch pianist Reinier van Houdt on the acclaimed Lettres et Replies (Elsewhere, 2019). The etudes here were performed by the Belgian pianist Guy Vandromme, in his Elsewhere ...
read moreJordan Dykstra - Koen Nutters: In Better Shape Than You Found Me
by John Eyles
As is true of so much music released in 2021, Covid-19 and the lockdown played vital roles in the creation of In Better Shape Than You Found Me, the first album by the duo of American composer & violinist Jordan Dykstra and Dutch composer Koen Nutters. Having previously had an interest in one another's work, and hung out together in Amsterdam--where Nutters organised a concert of a Dykstra work--in early 2020, when Nutters was in NYC for a gig, Dykstra ...
read moreBarbara Dang & Muzzix: Michael Pisaro: Tombstones
by John Eyles
Here we have a recording with a history, one which needs to be told in order to set it in context. “Tombstones" is the collective name of twenty songs composed by Michael Pisaro between 2006 and 2010 (before his marriage to Cherlyn Hsing-Hsin Liu led to his surname change to Pisaro-Liu). In 2012, eleven of those songs were released on a collectable limited-edition LP by the Human Ear Music (HEM) label, followed in 2013 by the same recordings on an ...
read moreThe Giving Shapes: Earth Leaps Up
by John Eyles
Two years and ten releases after Elsewhere was inaugurated, some of the label's aficionados may have thought they knew what to expect next. If that were the case, a few people could be surprised when they hear Earth Leaps Up for the first time. Formed at the Banff Centre for the Arts, in 2017, The Giving Shapes is a collaboration between harpist and vocalist Elisa Thorn and pianist and vocalist Robyn Jacob, who met in 2007 while they were each ...
read moreMelaine Dalibert: Anastassis Philippakopoulos: piano works
by John Eyles
This album is the tenth released by the Elsewhere label since its launch in the spring of 2018. It is the third of those ten to feature the French composer and pianist Melaine Dalibert. Whereas on the previous two albums, Dalibert played his own compositions, here he performs piano compositions by the Greek composer Anastassis Philippakopoulos who has been a member of the Wandelweiser composers collective since 2003 and had his first Edition Wandelweiser album Solo Pieces issued in 2005. ...
read moreGil Sansón / Lance Austin Olsen: Works on Paper
by John Eyles
Coinciding with the first anniversary of the formation of the Elsewhere label, its sixth release maintains the high standards set by the previous five. If anything, the two-CD set Works on Paper may be slightly more experimental, even risk-taking, than its predecessors--none of which could ever be described as safe. First, some history. Back in the late 90's, guitarist Derek Bailey and drummer Han Bennink agreed to each record something and then post it to the other one, ...
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