Five Years of Elsewhere

Yuko Zama's Elsewhere label (not to be confused with her partner Jon Abbey's Erstwhile label) released its first albums in the spring of 2018, which means that 2023 saw the label's fifth anniversary. Without any fanfares or brouhaha the label carried on as it has throughout those years, releasing a steady stream of high-quality recordings by a selection of well-established musicians and lesser known but promising ones. The three albums here, two single discs and one double, are eloquent evidence of the ongoing strength of the label's catalogue. Two of the three are by established Elsewhere artists, both having strong links with Wandelweiser, while the third is making his debut on the label. The first five years of Elsewhere have surely laid down strong foundations which will serve it well into the next five and beyond...

Ivan Vukosavijević
Slow Roads
Elsewhere
2023

The Serbian-born, Hague-based composer Ivan Vukosavijević is a relative newcomer as Slow Roads is only the second album in his discography, following The Burning (Ensemble Klang Records, 2023), which featured his six-part title composition performed by the Dutch classical group Ensemble Klang.

Slow Roads comprises the eight-part title composition, written between 2019 and 2022. The eight parts were all written for solo organ in the 1/4 meantone, the most common meantone temperament in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and sometimes used later. The parts were recorded in 2022 at various locations in The Netherlands. They were recorded on five different historic organs, dating from 1521 to 1661, situated in medieval churches in the countryside of the northern Netherlands. The co-founder of the Dutch early music ensemble Holland Baroque, Tineke Steenbrink, performed five of the pieces. Francesca Ajossa, Jan Hage and Lise Morrison (who is a composer herself and is in a relationship with Vukosavijević) performed one each.

Unsurprisingly, the sounds of the centuries-old organs alone in churches that are even older produce soundscapes which are hauntingly beautiful and engaging. The organs' sounds are very different to contemporary organs, church or otherwise, with each of the five organs having its own unique sound and quirks. Having four different organists adds further diversity to the performances. To Vukosavijevic's credit, it was an inspired idea to mix and match the players and organs in this way as it gives the music great variety and makes for enthralling listening. On this evidence it will be well worth waiting for further recordings of Vukosavijevic's music.

Michael Pisaro-Liu
A Room Outdoors
Elsewhere
2023

"A Room Outdoors" is the title of a 2006 composition by Michael Pisaro-Liu, which lists harmonium, sustaining instrument and field recording as the instruments needed to perform it. As the Wandelweiser catalogue of Pisaro-Liu compositions shows, it was the first of his pieces to include field recording, but not the last.

This album, A Room Outdoors comprises two different versions of the composition, entitled "Brussels" and "Cremona," the former having been recorded in April 2020 at the Wild Gallery, Brussels, Belgium, with Guy Vandromme on keyboards and Adriaan Severins on synthesizer and field recordings, the latter at the Museo Archeologico San Lorenzo, Cremona, Italy, with Luciana Elizondo on viola da gamba, Vandrome on Indian harmonium and Fabio Gionfrida on field recordings. Each version has its own disc of the double CD, the pieces playing for forty-seven and forty-eight minutes respectively. Although Pisaro-Liu recorded several albums which included field recordings from 2007 onwards (for example four volumes of Transparent City on Editions Wandelweiser) he did not record "A Room Outdoors," so the current album is its recorded debut.

Given that the instruments used in them are very different to each other, the two versions of the piece are just as different. However, in both versions there is a sustaining instrument—synthesizer or viola de gamba—as originally specified by the composer. In addition, the field recordings from the two locations are poles apart; those from Brussels capture the everyday hustle and bustle of city life while those from Cremona are somewhat mellower although still some distance from rural babbling brooks and birdsong. Although both versions of the piece were recorded indoors, Pisaro-Liu has rightly said that, "In this piece, the field is brought indoors. In the best realizations, the piece brings about a reversal, where the walls seem to be on the verge of disappearing." As so often, Pisaro-Liu is spot on.

Jürg Frey
Les Signes Passagers
Elsewhere
2023

2023 was an eventful year for Swiss clarinetist and composer Jürg Frey. In May he celebrated his 70th birthday. In November he was featured at the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival. In addition, the current album is the fourth release of 2023 to feature Frey's music, the first Continuité, fragilité, résonance also having been on Elsewhere; those two releases meant Frey became the musician who has featured most on Elsewhere albums—on six out of the label's twenty-nine releases.

The music of Frey's heard at the Huddersfield festival served as a reminder of the scope and variety of his compositions. In addition to solo piano renditions of two Frey pieces ("La présence, les silences" and "Sam Lazaro Bros") by Elsewhere regular Reinier van Houdt, and a 2020 string quartet played by Quatuor Bozzini, the festival also featured the vocal ensemble EXAUDI with violist Stéphanie Bozzini playing Frey compositions from the '90s. During the time between concerts, those seeking more Frey music could listen to recordings of him from 2001-2, described as "electronic music, based on field recordings, instrumental, stone—and metal plate sounds," a 2010 eight-disc release on Radu Malfatti's B-Boim label.

Frey admirers seeking something more conventional should be happy with Les Signes Passagers, which comprises seven pieces ranging in length from under three minutes to nearly eighteen. They are all played on fortepiano by the Amsterdam-based Japanese pianist Keiko Shichijo. As Shichijo commissioned the seven pieces from Frey, premiered them in February 2021 at the Concertgebouw Brugge and performed them again at the November Music 2022, by the time she recorded them in April 2023 at Concertgebouw Brugge in the presence of Frey, she sounded perfectly at home with them. Her timing and use of pauses are ideally suited to Frey's compositions, so it is no surprise that he gave her his blessing by attending the recording. Both can be proud of the end result.

Tracks and Personnel

Slow Roads

Tracks: The Ladder; When You Are Able To Become The Patterns of the Earth; TripTych; Ramum Oliver; Porete; Echo (after Sweelinck); The Ladder II; Psalm.

Personnel: Tineke Steenbrink: organ; Lise Morrison: organ; Francesca Ajossa: organ; Jan Hage: organ.

A Room Outdoors

Tracks: Brussels; Cremona.

Personnel: Guy Vandromme: keyboards (1), Indian harmonium (2); Adriaan Severins: synthesiser, field recordings (1); Luciana Elizonda: viola da gamba (2); Fabio Gionfrida: field recordings (2).

Les Signes Passagers

Tracks: Les signes passagers (2021):-I. Lager et silencieux; II. Avec sonorité, mais très doux; III. Lumineux et calme; IV. Très calme; V. Au Iointain; VI. Tendre et monotone; VII. Discrete et loin.

Personnel: Keiko Shichijo: fortepiano.