Electronic and electro-acoustic works that recall the classic sound worlds of Iannis Xenakis, Michel Chion, Toru Takemitsu, Luc Ferrari, Pierre Henry, Francisco Lopez, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Lionel Marchetti, and Francis Dhomont. Kazumi Umeda and Grant Chu Covell first met at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and over the years have maintained a dialogue, collaborating and exchanging ideas, inspirations, and raw materials for compositions.
The breakdown of who wrote what:
[1] Grant Chu Covell: Arriving at Laughter (2000) 5:40
[2] Kazumi Umeda: VCS3 Fantasy (1986/2007) 2:54
[3] Kazumi Umeda: A Message From My Accountant (2003-2007) 4:18
[4] Grant Chu Covell: We Are Not Mad, We Are Serious (1998) 1:56
Kazumi Umeda: Five Emily Dickinson Songs for Flute and Electronics (1994/2007-2011)
[5] I. I Had a Terror 1:49
[6] II. A Toad Can Die of Light 1:23
[7] III. You Must Let Me Go First 1:10
[8] IV. You Remember My Ideal Cat 0:36
[9] V. The Going From a World We Know 1:45
Renée Oakford, flute
[10] Grant Chu Covell: Die zweite Sommer Abendstimmung am Traunsee (1997) 14:47
[11] Kazumi Umeda: A Study in Metal and Glass (1986/2007) 3:55
[12] Kazumi Umeda: Suite from 32 Prospect Park Fragments (2006) 2:26
Kazumi Umeda, piano
Grant Chu Covell: In Distress, In Disgrace or Three Entries to Form a Diary of Automatic Writing (1999-2000)
[13] I. 3:30
[14] II. 3:28
[15] III. 3:58
Kazumi Umeda: Three Sampler Studies (1999)
[16] I. Nothing in the Cry of Cicadas Suggests They Are About to Die 3:53
[17] II. The Weather Was Bleak Then and It Doesn’t Look Much Clearer Now 5:18
[18] III. I’ll Pick Up My Guitar and Play, Just Like Yesterday 2:14
[19] Covell/Umeda: Spindle Remix (1993/2007) 4:49
Kazumi Umeda, piano
[20] Covell/Umeda: Frank (2007/2012) 6:07
Grant Chu Covell’s instrumental and electroacoustic music has been performed in the U.S. and abroad, and he has shared too many CDs of his music with family and friends (one work was recorded in a refrigerator). He received a BMI Award in 1985 for a String Quartet, Fellowship Grants from the Somerville Arts Council/Massachusetts Cultural Council in 1995 and 1999, and an Honorable Mention in the 2000 Boston Art Song Composition contest. Grant is a graduate of the Oberlin Conservatory where he studied with Richard Hoffmann, Arnold Schoenberg’s amanuensis. He also holds a degree from Oberlin in Art History. Grant has written a wide variety of music, including orchestral, chamber, vocal, and electroacoustic. Performances include a Flute Trio (flute, violin and cello) at the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens in 1996, and a song-cycle to texts by Sappho and Emerson for high school chorus and instruments which was performed twice in 1999. Within (piano and tape), Machina ex Deis (tape) and Against (string quartet and tape) were performed in November 1999, Arriving at Laughter (tape) was played at the 30th Festival Synthèse Bourges 2000, and Monday Morning (tape) at the 31st Festival Synthèse Bourges 2001. Durchschnitt (tape) was played in Havana at an off-ICMC Concert during the ICMC 2001. He also had works on the SEAMUS AudioClip Internet Online Concerts in 1998 and 1999, and is one of many contributors to the “Csound Catalog,” the companion CD to the MIT Press book on Csound.
Grant is a Managing Editor at La Folia, an online music review. His music writing has appeared in EAR Magazine and InMusic, and he was the publisher of The Periodic Journal of Bibliography (1990-95). A short article on Within (piano and tape) is in the Csound Magazine. Two short electroacoustic works have appeared in commercial compilations: Presence III and The Door Project.
Kazumi Umeda’s diverse musical background includes a classical piano degree from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, jazz studies at the Eastman School of Music, early collaborations with avant-gardist David Shea, and being a founding member of the hardcore punk band Teenage Depression, in which he played drums and was one of the principal songwriters. He has released four CDs with his rock band, New Providence, which originally included former members of The Microtones and G.G. Allin and the Holy Men) but has evolved into a one-man project in which Kazumi handles all instruments and vocals. New Providence has been described as “XTC-like...experimental pop genius, brilliant versatile stuff.” (Elysium Fanzine) He has also collaborated with the noise-improv group Jagged Ice, whose CD was released on Backbacon Records in 2007. In addition, he has scored numerous films, composed part-songs for the Boston-based Libella Quartet, and has directed a film that was shown at the Coney Island Film Festival in 2005. Kazumi lives in Brooklyn with his wife, Stephanie.
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