L’ENSEMBLE INSTABLE «D’UN VERRE D’EAU»
Drawing on three excerpts from the work Francis Ponge, Bruno Duplant’s score for d’un verre d’eau balances a profound openness—musicians are not instructed what to play and are given only the barest suggestion of how to play—with restraint, symmetry, and delicate control (“careful & mutual listening will be requested”). The texts that Duplant invites the musicians to read and reflect upon before performing establish a mood and a set of shared concerns, and the division of the piece into six discrete sections of approximately equal length gives the work a fragile form and clarity. To realize his score, Duplant assembled an extraordinary group of musicians—l’ensemble instable—who are each equally well versed in improvisation and the rigors of classical performance. In their hands, the score becomes a vessel—“clair, transparent, limpide”—for the musician’s to fill.	$10 + shipping/handling: OUT OF PRINT
This release includes an archival CD-R containing a single realization of d’un verre d’eau mounted on Plexiglas; a copy of Duplant’s score and of those excerpts from the writings of Francis Ponge on which it is based; a brief essay by composer and musicologist Jennie Gottschalk discussing the piece; a mirror; and an additional informational sheet providing credits and track listing. Eva-Maria Houben: harpsichord Irene Kurka: soprano Bileam Kümper: violin Koen Nutters: doublebass Rishin Singh: trombone Bruno Duplant: organ and electronics Score by Bruno Duplant Prepared and recorded during 2016 in Germany Edited, mixed, and mastered by Bruno Duplant 1. d’un verre d’eau [45:00] https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?ui=2&ik=f55929&view=att&th=15795123ae68c&attid=0.1&disp=safe&zw	Bruno Duplant is a composer, sound manipulator, and multi-instrumentalist based in the north of France whose primary instruments include the doublebass, percussion, organ, electronics, and field recordings. A frequent collaborator with a wide range of musicians from around the globe, his recordings have been published by labels including Another Timbre, Notice Recordings, B-Boim, Diafani, Engraved Glass, Ilse, Impulsive Habitat, Con-V, Unfathomless, and Mystery Sea, among many others. Together with his friend Pedro Chambel, he founded and continues to run the label Rhizome.s. Jennie Gottschalk is a composer and independent scholar based in Boston. Since receiving a doctorate in composition from Northwestern University in 2008, she has traveled extensively to gather first-hand information about experimental music practices. She is the author of Experimental Music Since 1970, published by Bloomsbury in 2016. Eva-Maria Houben studied Music Education at Folkwang-Musikhochschule Essen and the organ with Gisbert Schneider. She received her doctorate and postdoctoral lecturing qualification in musicology and was called for lectures at Gerhard-Mercator- Universität Duisburg and Robert-Schumann-Hochschule Düsseldorf (Germany). Since 1993 Professor Houben has been lecturing at Dortmund University`s “Institut für Musik und Musikwissenschaft,” with both music theory and contemporary music as her focus. As she is related to the “wandelweiser-group” of composers, her compositions are published by “edition wandelweiser”, Haan. Bileam Kümper studied music education at TU Dortmund University, where he is now working in the music department's technical staff. He frequently performs on a wide variety of different instruments, among them violin, viola, tuba, and electronics, where he likes to explore new sounds, sometimes leading to new compositions or installations. Irene Kurka studied voice at the Musikhochschule in Munich with Reri Grist, at the Meadows School of the Arts (SMU, Dallas) with Barbara Hill-Moore and at the University of British Columbia (Vancouver, Canada) with Nancy Hermiston. A versatile soprano, she has received numerous awards and scholarships, and has given recitals and participated in operas and oratorios around Europe and the United States. Among the leading contemporary composers who have creasted works specifically for her to record or perform are Eggert, Corbett, Weeks, Muntendorf, Frey, Kampe, Seither, Brass, Beuger and Pisaro. She has premiered over 130 works. Since 2009, she has focused almost exclusively on the repertoire for unaccompanied voice. She works with the instrumental groups e-mex, notabu, musikFabrik, Klangkonzepte, Schlagquartett Köln, chronophonie, Kölner Vokalsolisten, La Tenerezza, socell 21 and SOPRAKKORDEON. Koen Nutters plays upright bass, objects, consumer electronics, and sine tones. He lives and works in Amsterdam and Berlin. He is a musician, composer and organizer of music, bands, events, concert series, exhibitions, installations, and performance pieces. He is one of the founding members of the international "N collective" (2002–2009), the artistic director of the DNK-Amsterdam concert series, a freelance curator, and a (founding) member of many bands and projects with a host of international musicians and artists creating music through structured improvisation, composition or more conceptual operations and collaborative forms. His pieces range from post-Cagian compositions for ensemble to spatialized sound pieces and environments for prerecorded and manipulated music and sound. Rishin Singh is a musician, artist, and writer living in Berlin. His work has been exhibited in London, Leuven, Sydney, and Berlin. Selected festival appearances include the NOW now (Sydney), Audio Art (Krakow), Klangraum (Düsseldorf), and DAAD Mikromusik (Berlin). His writing has been published by RealTime (Australia), Insub Records (Switzerland), and Lateral Addition (USA) among others.