VLADIMIR MILLER |
FOURS 1 Boris in Berlin 4.21 Tracks 1-4 'Tsars Components': Alex Kolkowski violin and electronics, Misha Zhukov percussion, Ansulman Biswas Tabla percussion, Vladimir Miller piano. Recorded in October, 1995 in Studio, London, GB. Sound Engineer: Dave White. The idea of using a compass symbolizing the music on this CD points to a geographical rather than an inspirational motive. But in this case the compass is also a magnet that acts as the force and inspiration that draws the musicians together and the needle that separates the improvisation approaches within the various styles that communicate the compositional properties of each quartet. The quartets were recorded and performed over a period of six years, two in London and two in Moscow, and respectively live and studio sessions. Each quartet originated from ideas that attracted the musicians together at the time, when it felt natural to do so, with the quartet format being the only formal term linking the four together. If there is a common thread repeating itself then that has to be my relationship with the four various voices each piano contained during the recordings and performances that characterized my pianistic approach and on a personal level with the musicians and their interaction at the outset of each quartet. This relationship had its origins in Russia and then later according to our analogy with the compass spinning out of control in the south of England, stabilizing in London and then rotating a full 360% back to Moscow. This compass moved spontaneously from one setting to the next as the music dictated, creating a magnetic field that at times bonded, sometimes rejected, but always embodied all our intrinsic sonic intuitions. Much could be said about the musicians on this CD and how we reached the musical conclusions experienced on it but the catalyst has to be quite simply the music we all collectively aspired to play when the time came to apply ideas to the mysteries of improvisational interplay. |