Cantata Profana plays Matthew Welch (Live at The Stone), by Cantata Profana

Cantata Profana plays Matthew Welch (Live at The Stone)

by Cantata Profana

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Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of The Robo-Raptor, A New Compleat Theory for the Highland Bagpipe, Gorgamor The Giant Gecko (solo guitar), The Favrile Opalescence, The Academic Quadrangle (EP), Three Indie Operas, And Here We Are, a shadow puppet opera, The Upside Down World (for Glenn Branca), and 7 more. , and , .

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1.	The Secret Labyrinth of Ts'ui Pen (2008) 07:56	info	buy track
2.	A Bhoilich (1998) 05:38	info	buy track
3.	Ulrikke (2008) 11:11	info	buy track
4.	"with regard to harmony" (1998) 08:12	info	buy track
5.	Dhammapada Cantata (2015) 10:13	info	buy track

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Cantata Profana plays Matthew Welch (Live at The Stone)

The Secret Labyrinth of Ts’ui Pen (2008), for violin, cello, piano, clarinet and percussion
Inspired by the Borges short story about a book that was a labyrinth.
BUY SCORE HERE
www.matthewwelchmusic.com/works-list/the-secret-labyrinth

A Bhoilich (1998), for clarinet, vibraphone and piano
Faint shards of ancient bagpipe music, fading away in the distance.

Ulrikke (2008), for cello and percussion
Bagpipe lamentation and Balinese cremation music elope.
BUY SCORE HERE:
www.matthewwelchmusic.com/works-list/ulrikke

“…with regard to harmony…” (1998), for violin, guitar and piano
A quote from and refrain in Beckett’s “The Lost Ones,” indicating (existentially ineffective) intention

Dhammapada Cantata (2015), for mezzo-soprano, baritone, violin, cello, bass clarinet, guitar, piano and percussion.
Text from the Buddha, adapted from the Pali by Matthew Welch
The text addresses afflictions of the mind and the noble path, sung over a neo-baroque texture with neo-romantic harmony.

ARTISTS
Jacob Ashworth, violin, conductor, Artistic Director
Kate Maroney, mezzo-soprano
John Taylor Ward, baritone
John Popham, cello
Arash Noori, guitar
Gleb Kanasevich, clarinet
Doug Perry, percussion
Dan Schlosberg and Lee Dione, piano

Recorded live in concert at John Zorn's famed Downtown NYC venue December 8, 2015.
Recorded and Mixed by Will Gardiner.
Cover Art by Lauren Kolesinskas
laurenkolesinskas.com

Kotekan 105
kotekanrecords.com
2018

credits

released December 8, 2018

New York Times Review:
Matthew Welch Offers Ethereal Chamber Music at the Stone
By Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim
Dec. 9, 2015

The music of Matthew Welch, who began a weeklong residency at the Stone on Tuesday, draws on a world of influences. His opening set, performed by the ensemble Cantata Profana, packed in references to Highland bagpipes, Balinese funerary rites, Minimalism, Borges, Beckett and Buddha. Yet much of the resulting chamber music is exquisitely ethereal, made up of delicate, transparent textures that hum with expressive tension. If Mr. Welch were a chef, he’d be the kind who pushes the boundaries of molecular gastronomy, transforming earthy ingredients into translucent beads of pure flavor.

Take “Ulrikke,” inspired by a Borges short story, for instance. It is a work for cello (here played by John Popham) and percussion (Doug Perry) in which, as Mr. Welch described it in opening remarks, “Bagpipe lamentation and Balinese cremation music elope.” Bagpipes are famously loud and piercing; gamelans are known to take up lots of space. Here, each was represented impressionistically, the gamelan’s shimmering sound evoked by a vibraphone, its complex but purposeful rhythms by a marimba. There appeared to be echoes of bagpipe music hidden amid the flickering harmonics played by Mr. Popham at the opening of the work; later phrases blended a whiff of Scottish folk music with a stately Baroque gait.

Despite its Scottish name, “A Bhoilich,” too, revealed only the faintest reminiscence of Highland music, this time sublimated into quiet notes played on a clarinet (Gleb Kanasevich), vibraphone and piano (Dan Schlosberg) in overlapping ripples of sound. In “… with regard to harmony …” the violinist Jacob Ashworth produced an unhurried sequence of tremulously sustained notes that prompted equally quiet, fragile responses — often single notes — from the guitarist Arash Noori and Mr. Schlosberg at the piano.

Music so sparse can be difficult to pull off in a performance space like the Stone, on a corner of the Lower East Side where traffic noise, laughter and sidewalk conversations filter in from outside. It’s a testament to the skill and concentration of the musicians that the audience was spellbound.

Mr. Welch’s interests in Minimalism and rock music came through in two works, “The Secret Labyrinth of Ts’ui Pen,” in which a mixed instrumental ensemble repeats wavelike motifs that gradually grow more exuberant, and “Dhammapada Cantata,” given its premiere on Tuesday.

Based on Buddhist texts and featuring a driving score and declamatory vocals by two amplified singers, the baritone John Taylor Ward and the mezzo Kate Maroney, “Dhammapada Cantata” is strongly reminiscent of some of Philip Glass’s music. The performers gave it a vibrant and colorful reading.

After the subtlety of the instrumental chamber works, this was a radical shift in energy. Coming performances of Mr. Welch’s music this week will show more of this side of his output, as well as a full gamelan and Mr. Welch himself on the bagpipes. But I found myself wishing for more of his ultra-refined, globally sourced chamber music.

www.nytimes.com/2015/12/10/arts/music/review-matthew-welch-offers-ethereal-chamber-music-at-the-stone.html

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Kotekan Records San Francisco, California

Kotekan Records is dedicated to the projects of Matthew Welch. Inspired by the interlocking rhythm, Kotekan records focuses on the most intertwined reaches of Welch’s hybrid compositional world. Each album cover is commissioned from artist Lauren Kolesinskas. ... more

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