Newcomers on Another Timbre

As Another Timbre's two hundred and fiftieth album release has now been released and acquired by devotees of the label, it seems an appropriate time to appreciate some aspects of the label past, present or future. Firstly, it is impossible to ignore the three box sets: Wandelweiser und so weiter 6 CD set (2012), Morton Feldman Piano 5 CD set (2019), John Cage-Apartment House, Number Pieces 4 CD set (2021). Secondly, the very best musicians who release albums on the label have been welcomed to return, most notably Simon Reynell, and have happily done so, knowing that they will be well treated. Long may the label and all associated with it thrive...

Eldritch Priest
dead wall reveries
Another Timbre
2025

In 2017, in two batches of five, Another Timbre released ten albums of music by eight Canadian composers (two of the composers, Linda Catlin Smith and Cassandra Miller, each had a couple of albums among the ten) accompanied by a booklet about the composers. The intention was to improve Canadian composers' reputations, one which was soon achieved. As well as Catlin Smith and Miller, with the help of Another Timbre, Canadian composers such as Mark Sabat and Martin Arnold gained in popularity. Although Eldritch Priest is Associate Professor in the School for the Contemporary Arts at Simon Fraser University and writes on sonic culture and experimental aesthetics, he is also a composer and improviser. He has a relatively small discography, with dead-wall reveries being among his four releases to date. The album was not all recorded at the same time and place; the opening 25:56 track "dust breeding," composed in 2023, was recorded on January 6th, 2024, at Goldsmith Studio, London, performed by four Another Timbre regulars Apartment House. The 21:29 solo piano piece "dormitive virtue," composed in 2001, was recorded by Eldritch Priest himself, playing solo piano, "sometime in 2001," in his apartment, in Toronto, Canada. The third track, the 27:33 "dead wall reveries," composed in 2024, was recorded in 2025 at Arraymusic Studio, Toronto, performed by five members of Arraymusic, conducted by David Schotzko. Despite those dates and players, the three tracks hang together beautifully and complement each other very well. On this evidence, we must hope for more recordings from Eldritch Priest soon.

Marja Ahti
Visiting Cloud (Two Translations)
Another Timbre
2025

Marja Ahti was born in Sweden in 1981 and is now a sound artist working in Turku, Finland. She works with field recordings and other acoustic sound material combined with synthesizers, feedback and tape treatments, organising sounds in a loosely associative way. Besides her solo work, she is active in the duo Ahti and Ahti with her partner Niko-Matti Ahti, and they are members of the Himera, a collective of four Turku-based musicians and sound artists who organize a festival and concerts focused on different expressions of experimental music and sonic art. That group has been active since 2012. For Visiting Cloud (Two Translations) the two Ahti compositions "Chora (2019/2024)" and "Fluctuating Streams (2020/2024)" were recorded at Gada Playhouse in Florence, Italy in June 2024 by Francesco Toninelli, who also mixed them. The seven-member ensemble Blutwurst played adaptations of the two electroacoustic works by Marja Ahti, replacing them with other arrangements by Marco Baldini, Daniela Fantechi and Luisa Santacesaria from Blutwurst. With playing times of 21:28 and 19:48 respectively, the two tracks, "Chora" and "Fluctuating Streams," are enough to be transfixing for the album's full playing time of over 41 minutes. Visiting Cloud (Two Translations) is one of those albums which cries out to be played again as soon as it has stopped.

Santiago Diez Fischer
SONGS
Another Timbre
2025

So, having heard about Eldritch Priest from Canada, and Marja Ahti from Sweden and Finland, we now come to a composer from Argentina, namely Santiago Tomas Diez Fischer who composed all five tracks on this recording: namely "and your mouth is like the sound of many waters (2024)" (subtitled "for solo baritone saxophone & electronics"), "tres ciegos (2015)" (subtitled "for baritone saxophone, percussion, and accordion"), "under the redwood tree (2023)," "rise in the sky to be a reminder of comfort (2024)" and finally, "sappho's song (2024)" a series of five works written for and played by Gyre Ensemble, the latter trio comprising Alejandro Olivan Lopez on baritone saxophone, Stephanie Mirwald on accordion, and Christian Streit Smith on percussion. The latter two, however, use their voices on a couple of tracks and Santiago Diez Fischer uses his voice on the final track alongside two floor toms with a super ball, voltage controlled fan preparation of a student recorder, bowed cymbal and bowed spatula. Two of the pieces are for the full trio, the others being solos for each of the instrumentalists, but the music is augmented with electronics designed by the composer, as well as adding subtle vocal accompaniments such as this: "the voice I have in mind is not a classical or trained voice—it's an everyday voice, the voice with which we hum a song we love... the voice with which, I imagine, our ancestors once sang." Incidentally, the three members of Gyre Ensemble are Spanish, German and Dutch...

Tracks and Personnel

dead wall reveries

Tracks: dust breeding (2023); dormitive virtue (2001); dead-wall reveries (2024)

Personnel: "dust breeding": Apartment House string quartet: Gordon MacKay, violin; Mira Benjamin, violin; Bridget Carey, viola; Anton Lukoszevieze, cello; "dormitive virtue": Eldritch Priest, solo piano; "dead-wall reveries": Arraymusic—Colleen Cook, clarinet; Michael Murphy, vibraphone; Stephanie Chua, piano; Sheila Jaffe, violin; Guillaume Artus, cello; David Schotzko conductor.

Visiting Cloud (Two Translations)

Tracks: Chora (2019/2024); Fluctuating Streams (2020/2024)

Personnel: Blutwurst-Cristina Abati, viola; Marco Baldini, trumpet; Maurizio Costantini, double bass; Daniela Fantechi, accordion; Michele Lanzini,cello; Edoardo Ricci, bass clarinet; Luisa Santaceasaria, harmonium.

SONGS

Tracks: and your mouth is like the sound of many waters (2024); tres ciegos (2015); under the redwood tree (2023); rise in the sky to be a reminder of comfort (2024); sappho's song (2024)

Personnel: Gyre Ensemble-Alejandro Olivan Lopez, baritone saxophone; Stefanie Mirwald, accordion; Christian Streit Smith, percussion.

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