#Shiori usui skin#
#Shiori usui plus#

#Shiori usui skin#

Visceral and corporeal, Usui has composed work based on the sound of scratching her own eczematic skin ( from scratch), human laughter, her asthmatic breathing, the digestion process, snoring and blood flowing around the body. Usui’s compositions are often inspired by human anatomy, its physical gestures and involuntary reflexes, and by other living creatures and ecologies. It is surely very difficult to portray such a bleak and decisive moment in music, but Lee does so powerfully.Shiori Usui (born 1981) composes works which incorporate elements from an expansive range of sources, from Bulgarian folk music to Ophiocordyceps Unilateralis, an insect-pathogenic fungus. The Love Song has a little more tenderness, but The Suicide is much less forgiving. The first song, Hammer Alone In The House, features a very distinctive half spoken / half sung vocal from the alto, above some atmospheric orchestral colouring. The ‘surprise’ appears to be a form of hidden track, where the audience think the music has stopped, and begin to applaud, and then find that it hasn’t. Its tone of speech is very much in the human range Not surprisingly the old woman takes the lead in the conversation throughout, and is very expressive. The cello feels restless from the beginning of this piece, while the rest of the ensemble appear to be painting the picture of a wider expanse, through which the old woman is travelling. Usui captures the forest and its clicks and murmurs with some imaginative scoring, while also conveying the really grotesque side of Mother Nature. Then we hear some very ominous loud brass with a thumping bass drum, before macabre sounds signal the beginning of the end for the ant. There is a striking, bluesy clarinet solo midway through, but, but by this time the ant appears to be giving up the ghost.

Usui has certainly picked a grisly but rather captivating subject for a new composition, and given the scenario the music is very vivid – uncomfortably so in fact! Shiori Usui – Ophiocordyceps unilateralis s.l. There is a wonderful rumble on the bass drum to finish La treizième, which is a great concept if rather difficult to follow! With sharp phrases, these brief thoughts are distilled into really short paragraphs, with only the briefest period of relaxation. Johannes Schöllhorn – Notations 2, 11 & 10 La treizièmeĪn energetic set of pieces, benefiting from incredibly well drilled performances. It was born from the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra in 1987. The Birmingham Contemporary Music Group has premiered over 160 works in its 27-year existence.

This is a bleak piece indeed, for Lee chooses to devote the last of the three songs to Plath’s suicide. This was written with Boulez in mind, and when she looked at individual movement titles of his she was taken to writing about the poet and novelist Sylvia Plath, and her life, using text by Rory Malarkey. The old woman in this case is a cello, accompanied by the instrumental ensemble – and we are warned of a ‘surprise’ at the end.įinally Joanna Lee’s Hammer of Solitude, for singer and ensemble. Usui was struck by an image of one in a nature magazine, and this gave her the sounds she wanted to create.īetsy Jolas, meanwhile, says of Wanderlied in an onstage interview that “I was trying to make the listeners imagine an old woman going from town to town as a storyteller”. is a nasty little fungus – as in an infectious fungus that completely eats up the ants that are unfortunate enough to capture it. Shiori Usui’s piece has an extremely macabre background, and is not for the faint-hearted! Ophiocordyceps unilateralis s.l.

#Shiori usui plus#

They begin with Johannes Schöllhorn’s arrangements of three Boulez Notations, plus a transcription for ensemble of a fragment from each of the thirteen originals – one bar from each, in fact! The arrangements are Notations 2, 11 & 10, while the collage is La treizième. Ulrich Heinen (cello), Hilary Summers (contralto), Birmingham Contemporary Music Group / Franck Ollu (Proms Saturday Matinee 1)įour Proms premieres in one concert here, given by the ever-enterprising Birmingham Contemporary Music Group. Proms premieres – Johannes Schöllhorn, Shiori Usui, Betsy Jolas and Joanna Lee