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A Bridge between Musical Cultures
Music by Lukas Ligeti, heard by GIUSEPPE PENNISI
'If you like electronic music and African (even archaic) music, this CD is your perfect cup of tea.'
Col legno is an Austrian recording company specializing in rare offerings. For a number of years, it contributed to the annual festival that used to be organized by composer and director Gustav Kun in the Montegral Academy he operated in the Garfagnana hills near Lucca. This CD fits Col legno's line of production perfectly: Lukas Ligeti and his ensemble - vocalist Barbara Kinga Majaweska, clarinettist Paweł Szamurski, violinist Patryk Zakrowcki, cellist Mikołaj Pałosz and drummer Wojtek Kurek - are a composition and improvisation group that acts as a bridge between several different musical cultures: Central Europe, the United States and Africa.
Lukas Ligeti is of Hungarian ancestry and is the son of the noted composer György Ligeti (1923–2006). He holds a master's degree from the University of Music and Performing Arts, Vienna, where he studied composition with Erich Urbanner and jazz drums, and a PhD from the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa. Ligeti has done numerous cross-cultural collaborations and exchanges with non-Western musicians, experimenting with both ancient African traditional instruments and modern music technology. He travels frequently to Africa and has performed with musicians from several countries. His group, Burkina Electric, based in Burkina Faso, brings together electronic and Burkinabe popular music. From 1994 to 1996, he was visiting composer at the Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics at Stanford University. He currently resides in Southern California and is on faculty at the Department of Music at the University of California, Irvine, where he teaches in the PhD program in Integrated Composition, Improvisation, and Technology. He teaches in several African universities as well.
Ligeti creates music ranging from the through-composed to the free-improvised, often exploring polyrhythmic/polytempo structures, non-tempered tunings, and non-Western elements. He has also composed for dance, film and gallery settings.
He frequently performs solo on electronic percussion, especially with the Marimba Lumina, an instrument designed by synthesizer engineers Don Buchla.
If you like electronic music and African (even archaic) music, this CD is your perfect cup of tea.
It includes six different pieces for a total time of 44 minutes. The title is very broad: Of Apocalypses and Of Dreamscapes and a subtitle: That Which Has Remained ... That Which Will Emerge ...
Each item has a subject and electronic music, African drums, live instruments and the vocalizing of a soprano are merged.
The vocalizing of Barbara Kinga Majewska is quite remarkable in the first item, Voices ... Silence ...
Listen — Lukas Ligeti: Voices ... Silence ...
(That Which Has Remained ... That Which Will Emerge ...)
(track 1, 0:42-1:14) ℗ 2021 col legno music GmbH :
Whispers and clarinet are the main ingredients of the second piece, Awakening ... Recalling ... Saposhkelekh, and the soprano becomes quite melancholic.
Listen — Lukas Ligeti: Awakening ... Recalling ... Saposhkelekh
(That Which Has Remained ... That Which Will Emerge ...)
(track 2, 2:17-3:02) ℗ 2021 col legno music GmbH :
The third piece, City of the Damned, is a descent to hell where the entire ensemble improvises.
Listen — Lukas Ligeti: City of the Damned
(That Which Has Remained ... That Which Will Emerge ...)
(track 3, 1:37-2:16) ℗ 2021 col legno music GmbH :
As the title Elusive Counterpoint says, the fourth piece is a virtuoso counterpoint with some elements of Arabic musical style. (Lukas Ligeti worked in Egypt where he conducted the Cairo National Opera Orchestra.)
Listen — Lukas Ligeti: Elusive Counterpoint
(That Which Has Remained ... That Which Will Emerge ...)
(track 4, 0:00-0:42) ℗ 2021 col legno music GmbH :
In the fifth piece, Andenk an Bełz ... in the papers, she was Polish, there are engrossing recollections of Eastern European Jewish tones.
Listen — Lukas Ligeti: Andenk an Bełz ... in the papers, she was Polish
(That Which Has Remained ... That Which Will Emerge ...)
(track 5, 9:29-10:12) ℗ 2021 col legno music GmbH :
Finally, in the sixth piece, Oyfn Veg ... in this country ..., after an introduction, we are immersed in African sensuality.
Listen — Lukas Ligeti: Oyfn Veg ... in this country ...
(That Which Has Remained ... That Which Will Emerge ...)
(track 6, 7:53-8:28) ℗ 2021 col legno music GmbH :
In short, this CD is not for everyone but for fans of electronic and cross cultural music.
Copyright © 7 June 2021
Giuseppe Pennisi,
Rome, Italy
CD INFORMATION - LUKAS LIGETI: THAT WHICH HAS REMAINED ...