We Spoke : Song brings together three instrumentalists and renowned soprano Juliet Fraser to form a band. The programme explores the melodies, lyrics, sonorities and forms of song, as well as its histories and cultural loading. We begin with a medley (!) commissioned for this programme exploring Swiss song across time and genre. Next, the latest of Shlomowitz’s Popular Contexts, also a premiere, here focusing on slang and the sounds of the casio keyboard. And after the break, a work from Lang’s celebrated DW series that explores repetition and its effects on perception in the form of five pieces including lyrics by Bob Dylan and prog-rocker Peter Hammill.
Programme
Matthew Shlomowitz, UK
Popular Context 5, 2013 (We Spoke commission)
1. Training
2. Stalling
3. Controlling
4. Directing
5. Instructing
6. Stopping
Antoine Joly, Switzerland
History of Swiss Song, 2013 (We Spoke commission)
1. comme un medley désaffecté
2. forgiveness
3. love or hate
Bernhard Lang, Austria
DW16, Songbook, 2004
1. The Watchtower
2. Ophelia
4. Burning Sister
Performers
Soprano: Juliet Fraser
Saxophone: Laurent Estoppey
Keyboards: Kerry Yong
Percussions/Drums: Serge Vuille
Performances
2 February 2014, Kings Place, London, 4pm
31 January 2014, Turner Sims, Southampton, 1pm
27 January 2014, SMC Lausanne, 7pm
27-29 November 2013, Théâtre de l’Oriental Vevey