Thelen, Stephan - Fractal Guitar 3 CD (Mega Blowout Sale)
SKU
MJR 126
“In 2021, I was simultaneously working on four albums: Transneptunian Planets (with J. Peter Schwalm, Eivind Aarset, Tim Harries, and Manuel Pasquinelli); Fractal Sextet (with Jon Durant, Fabio Anile, Colin Edwin, Andi Pupato, and Yogev Gabay); Music for Piano and Strings (an upcoming album of piano quintets and string quartets written either by Fabio Anile or me), and this album, Fractal Guitar 3, the third installment in the Fractal Guitar series.
While being stylistically very different, these four albums are connected in many ways, not to mention the fact that various musicians appear on more than one album. In hindsight, it's interesting for me to see how progress on one album often provided fresh inputs into one or more of the other albums, and how ideas that appeared on one piece were often further developed on pieces on other albums, albeit in a different form.
"Morning Star," for example, is based on a similar "5 against 7" polyrhythm just as "Pluto" from Transneptunian Planets and "Fractal 5.7" from Fractal Sextet were. One of my goals as a composer is to invent new non-standard beats, often using odd meters, polyrhythms, isorhythms, and other techniques. It then sometimes happens that such a beat suggests different applications in different settings. For example, this particular beat first appeared on "Orbit 5.7," a track from Sonar's album Black Light.
Another example is "Black On Electric Blue," which is based on the same rhythmic patterns in 7/4 (simultaneously played in different speeds and in different octaves) as "Slow Over Fast" on the Fractal Sextet album.
A third example is "Ascension" which is based on similiar musical material as my sixth strinq quartet of the same name (recorded by the Al Pari Quartet for Music for Piano and Strings). This version of the piece was co-composed by Markus Reuter and J. Peter Schwalm.
A fourth noteworthy example is "Glitch," a piece that started as a possible track for Transneptunian Planets, but then was further developed and finished as a track for Fractal Guitar 3. It's a new version of "Angular Momentum," a track that was co-composed by Manuel Pasquinelli and also first appeared on Black Light.
Finally, "Through The Stargate," although not directly related to any of the pieces of the four albums mentioned above, is a further exploration of material used on "Enneagram," the opening track of Black Light. This piece was co-composed by Eivind Aarset, who introduced the “Richard Wagner theme” that inspired the orchestral ending. As a bonus track, I have included an edited version of this piece which focuses on Eivind’s parts, mixed by our mutual friend J. Peter Schwalm.
As usual, I-would like to thank all the musicians who were involved in the making of this album: without them, it would have been impossible to make. Thanks also to Leonardo "Moonjune" Pavkovic for his unwavering support.” – Stephan Thelen, Zürich, September 2022
- LabelMoonJune
- UPC692287912628