This latest incarnation of the eclectic multi-instrumentalist/composer's continually evolving signature group features Fields, and frequent collaborators Guillermo Gregorio (clarinet) and Matt Turner (cello), in a nuanced trio performance of his hour-long title work. 'I wrote 'christangelfox' for specific musicians playing, at times, particular instruments, in this case small percussion arrays, each with four pieces of scrap metal, four pieces of stone, and four pieces of wood, all floating freely on open-cell foam slabs,' explains Fields in the liner notes. 'I intended it to be so simple that it would reveal the performer's essential character. Just three men in a box making music. The detail is in the sound of the instruments, tiny variations in pitch and timbre, organic pulsations in time, inhalation, exhalation, nails on nylon, spittle on reed, hair sliding on gut, brass on wood, stone, and metal.' Scott Fields has been called 'a musician of considerable conceptual sophistication' (The Wire), 'a genuine musical adventurer' (Signal to Noise), and 'arguably the Anthony Braxton of the guitar' (All Music Guide). Born in Chicago in the early 1950s, Fields was inspired to follow a path to avant-jazz by hearing and meeting musicians like Joseph Jarman and Don Moye. After the demise of his first trio, Life Rhythms, in 1971, he stopped performing for many years, during which time he studied classical and jazz guitar, and took composition and music theory classes at the University of Wisconsin among other pursuits. He began performing again in 1989, based exclusively in Madison, Wisconsin, with the Silt Loam Ensemble, the group that would evolve in to the Scott Fields Ensemble, which has featured a revolving cast of more than 30 notable improvisers from around the world in the last decade. Since 1996, he has toured throughout North America, Europe and Asia, and currently spends much of his time in Cologne, Germany. * * * From the liner notes: I wrote 'christangelfox' for specific musicians playing, at times, particular instruments, in this case small percussion arrays, each with four pieces of scrap metal, four pieces of stone, and four pieces of wood, all floating freely on opencell foam slabs...I intended it to be so simple that it would reveal the performer's essential character. Just three men in a box making music. The entire hour-long composition is based on a single scale, and influenced, although not formally, by the musics of several Asian cultures. The percussion, in particular, reflects Javanese gamelan, Chinese opera, and Japanese Buddhist temple music. At times the classical guitar is meant to be koto-like, the clarinet shakuhachi-like, and the cello erhu-like. These references are, however, intentionally faint. The detail is in the sound of the instruments, tiny variations in pitch and timbre, organic pulsations in time, inhalation, exhalation, nails on nylon, spittle on reed, hair sliding on gut, brass on wood, stone, and metal.
This latest incarnation of the eclectic multi-instrumentalist/composer's continually evolving signature group features Fields, and frequent collaborators Guillermo Gregorio (clarinet) and Matt Turner (cello), in a nuanced trio performance of his hour-long title work. 'I wrote 'christangelfox' for specific musicians playing, at times, particular instruments, in this case small percussion arrays, each with four pieces of scrap metal, four pieces of stone, and four pieces of wood, all floating freely on open-cell foam slabs,' explains Fields in the liner notes. 'I intended it to be so simple that it would reveal the performer's essential character. Just three men in a box making music. The detail is in the sound of the instruments, tiny variations in pitch and timbre, organic pulsations in time, inhalation, exhalation, nails on nylon, spittle on reed, hair sliding on gut, brass on wood, stone, and metal.' Scott Fields has been called 'a musician of considerable conceptual sophistication' (The Wire), 'a genuine musical adventurer' (Signal to Noise), and 'arguably the Anthony Braxton of the guitar' (All Music Guide). Born in Chicago in the early 1950s, Fields was inspired to follow a path to avant-jazz by hearing and meeting musicians like Joseph Jarman and Don Moye. After the demise of his first trio, Life Rhythms, in 1971, he stopped performing for many years, during which time he studied classical and jazz guitar, and took composition and music theory classes at the University of Wisconsin among other pursuits. He began performing again in 1989, based exclusively in Madison, Wisconsin, with the Silt Loam Ensemble, the group that would evolve in to the Scott Fields Ensemble, which has featured a revolving cast of more than 30 notable improvisers from around the world in the last decade. Since 1996, he has toured throughout North America, Europe and Asia, and currently spends much of his time in Cologne, Germany. * * * From the liner notes: I wrote 'christangelfox' for specific musicians playing, at times, particular instruments, in this case small percussion arrays, each with four pieces of scrap metal, four pieces of stone, and four pieces of wood, all floating freely on opencell foam slabs...I intended it to be so simple that it would reveal the performer's essential character. Just three men in a box making music. The entire hour-long composition is based on a single scale, and influenced, although not formally, by the musics of several Asian cultures. The percussion, in particular, reflects Javanese gamelan, Chinese opera, and Japanese Buddhist temple music. At times the classical guitar is meant to be koto-like, the clarinet shakuhachi-like, and the cello erhu-like. These references are, however, intentionally faint. The detail is in the sound of the instruments, tiny variations in pitch and timbre, organic pulsations in time, inhalation, exhalation, nails on nylon, spittle on reed, hair sliding on gut, brass on wood, stone, and metal.
This latest incarnation of the eclectic multi-instrumentalist/composer's continually evolving signature group features Fields, and frequent collaborators Guillermo Gregorio (clarinet) and Matt Turner (cello), in a nuanced trio performance of his hour-long title work. 'I wrote 'christangelfox' for specific musicians playing, at times, particular instruments, in this case small percussion arrays, each with four pieces of scrap metal, four pieces of stone, and four pieces of wood, all floating freely on open-cell foam slabs,' explains Fields in the liner notes. 'I intended it to be so simple that it would reveal the performer's essential character. Just three men in a box making music. The detail is in the sound of the instruments, tiny variations in pitch and timbre, organic pulsations in time, inhalation, exhalation, nails on nylon, spittle on reed, hair sliding on gut, brass on wood, stone, and metal.' Scott Fields has been called 'a musician of considerable conceptual sophistication' (The Wire), 'a genuine musical adventurer' (Signal to Noise), and 'arguably the Anthony Braxton of the guitar' (All Music Guide). Born in Chicago in the early 1950s, Fields was inspired to follow a path to avant-jazz by hearing and meeting musicians like Joseph Jarman and Don Moye. After the demise of his first trio, Life Rhythms, in 1971, he stopped performing for many years, during which time he studied classical and jazz guitar, and took composition and music theory classes at the University of Wisconsin among other pursuits. He began performing again in 1989, based exclusively in Madison, Wisconsin, with the Silt Loam Ensemble, the group that would evolve in to the Scott Fields Ensemble, which has featured a revolving cast of more than 30 notable improvisers from around the world in the last decade. Since 1996, he has toured throughout North America, Europe and Asia, and currently spends much of his time in Cologne, Germany. * * * From the liner notes: I wrote 'christangelfox' for specific musicians playing, at times, particular instruments, in this case small percussion arrays, each with four pieces of scrap metal, four pieces of stone, and four pieces of wood, all floating freely on opencell foam slabs...I intended it to be so simple that it would reveal the performer's essential character. Just three men in a box making music. The entire hour-long composition is based on a single scale, and influenced, although not formally, by the musics of several Asian cultures. The percussion, in particular, reflects Javanese gamelan, Chinese opera, and Japanese Buddhist temple music. At times the classical guitar is meant to be koto-like, the clarinet shakuhachi-like, and the cello erhu-like. These references are, however, intentionally faint. The detail is in the sound of the instruments, tiny variations in pitch and timbre, organic pulsations in time, inhalation, exhalation, nails on nylon, spittle on reed, hair sliding on gut, brass on wood, stone, and metal.
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