Records: Hudson River Compositions 1973-74 by Elliott Sharp
zOaR Music - BMI, 2024
The Hudson River Compositions were generated in 1973-74 when I was living in Germantown, NY overlooking the river. Summer evenings were often spent on the back porch watching the myriad fireflies with the expectation that at any second, they would spell out words, cohere into pictures or even form music notation. Walking along the Hudson, I could find secluded places to practice soprano sax and derive inspiration from watching the flow. Sunrise on the river (witnessed from either end of the day) might reveal thousands of birds taking off simultaneously, the air so thick that foreground and background were reversed, a living Escher drawing, the sound symphonic and granulated. Appropriate found images were later superimposed on music manuscript. These graphics combined with a number of conceptual instruction sets comprised the score. This new recording is a collage of overdub sessions, some with synchronized listening, some autonomous, an attempt to manifest the sound I was hearing in my Inner Ear at the time of the conception of these compositions. E# - NYC - 2024
released December 6, 2024
COMPOSED AND PRODUCED BY ELLIOTT SHARP
Anthony Coleman - piano
Shayna Dulberger - bass
Terry L. Greene II - trombone
Judith Insell - viola
Hao Jiang - cello
Don McKenzie - drums
Sara Salomon - violin
Nate Wooley - trumpet
Elliott Sharp - Bb clarinet, bass clarinet, soprano saxophone, alto saxophone, mandolin, electric guitar, baritone guitar, electronics
Recorded, mixed, and mastered at Studio zOaR - NYC, July-October 2024
Published by zOaR Music - BMI
Hudson photo and musician photos by E#
Judith Insell photo by Cristina Marx
Design by Janene Higgins
Elliott Sharp: composer, multi-instrumentalist, producer, author, leads Orchestra Carbon, Tectonics and Terraplane with compositional strategies including fractal geometry, chaos theory, and genetic metaphors as well as new techniques for graphic notation to yield work that catalyzes a synesthetic approach to musicmaking as well as functioning as retinal art.