With two, long take, improvised sonatas, one for cello and one for piano, T.J. Borden (New York) and Luke Martin (Minnesota) capsize the discipline of and orthodox attitudes toward chamber music with their first recorded production together, ‘if you need to stand up or move about.’ Resisting temptations to abandon form with instrumentation not regularly identified with classical music, impulses are reined by studied considerations of narrative, resulting in two thoughtful, yet aggressive works that will challenge pre-conceived expectations of pitch, harmony, and cadence — those attributes here replaced by movements of energy (broadband) and their relationships with individual frequencies (narrowband). Available on replicated CDs from glass master on 19 May, 2020.
T.J. Borden is a musician primarily working in and around the constraints of the cello. Formerly from western NY, he is now based in Philadelphia, where he spends much of his time finding ways to exploit the strengths and failures of himself and his instrument.
www.tylerjborden.com
Luke Martin is an experimental composer, performer, writer, and poet. His work focuses on silence, blandness and boredom, radical contingency, and imaginaries, with a specific emphasis on re-evaluating everyday practices. He approaches music as something that does not primarily have to do with sound or intentionality. Instead, his fundamental concern is the situation itself, its politics, social processes, and contingencies, especially those operating at thresholds of perception. One question that has been preoccupying him lately is what a practice of absolute contingency might be (its consequences, politics, ethics). He co-runs the co-incidence festival with Aaron Foster Freilyn, curates vespers concerts, and is part of Ordinary Affects.
www.lukecmartin.com