Julien Feltrin & Brake Drum Assembly - In Action At Brighton Festival

This is the second year that I've had pieces played at the Brighton festival fringe in the UK. Two new pieces were premiered - 'Euclid Alone' for Paetzold Great Bass Recorder, Tenor Recorder and Electronics, French Horn and Percussion ensemble; and 'Bird' for solo vibraphone and electronics. Bird was perfomed by the excellent percussionist Oli Mayne.

'Click Language' and 'Baobab', both for percussion quartet were also played by the Brake Drum Assembly (www.brakedrumassembly.co.uk).
If you're interested in downloading my pieces as MP3s - click here www.ampcast.com/AndiSpicer

My work 'Euclid Alone' is essentially a vehicle for extended technique on the Paetzold Great Bass recorder, (http://www.vonhuene.com/paetzold_square.cfm) although it does have a section for tenor recorder. The Paetzold is usually used in early music, but is well suited to contemporary music due to its ability to generate a large number of multiphonics. These sounds are augmented with live electronics, controlled by Julien Feltrin during performance. African and world influences also permeate the composition.
Euclid Alone takes its title from the poem 'Euclid alone has looked on Beauty Bare' (http://www.the-athenaeum.org/poetry/detail.php?id=80) by the American poet Edna St. Vincent Millay. (http://www.sonnets.org/millay.htm) The piece has a strong emphasis on surface detail and sound as music, but is also strongly geometric in proportion. The poem stresses the pure beauty of geometry and proportion particularly in abstraction.

Julien Feltin is currently a professor at the Royal College of Music in London (http://www.rcm.ac.uk/prof.asp?display=professors&link=702) and has studied both at the Sorbonne in Paris, and the Conservatorium Van Amsterdam (under Walter van Hauwe); as a contemporary recorder musician, he has performed with the Endymion ensemble in London, and the Asko and Schoenberg ensembles in Amsterdam, and he has been a prize-winner in the Gaudeamus competition (Amsterdam), Krakow Contemporary Music Competition, and the Haverhill Sinfonia Competition. His talents are in constant demand throughout Europe.

Oli Mayne is currently the age of a long playing record and has been involved in music for longer than he cares to remember. Past glories include playing bass and vibraphone in a pop band which was 'big in Germany', and appearances at the Royal Albert Hall and the South Bank in London. His current activities encompass contemporary music, free improvisation, big bands, singer-songwriters and experimental pop outfits.