British tenor John Potter and fellow countryman Ambrose Field, composer of electronic/digital music, offer a striking juxtaposition of Renaissance music and present-day technology: In seven interconnected pieces, vocal fragments from the songs and sacred works by Guillaume Dufay (1397–1474) soar beautifully above Ambrose Field’s vast and multi-faceted soundscapes. “Then as now, music was not forever fixed but lived and breathed through the imaginations of former musicians and their listeners”, writes Field in his liner notes for “Being Dufay”. Potter’s voice immerses itself with great ease in the allusively processed sounds. Amrose Field: “The fragments of original Dufay are always presented entirely unaltered, and serve as a reference point or cantus firmus within what is new. From that new perspective, I wanted to explore the limits of the electronic medium, and produce a new set of musical colours.”
Ambrose Field: Being Dufay
John Potter
- 1Ma belle dame souveraine
05:29 - 2Je me complains
06:22 - 3Being Dufay
12:21 - 4Je vous pri
07:48 - 5Presque quelque chose
02:30 - 6Sanctus
08:34 - 7La dolce vista
06:24
Ein faszinierendes Klangexperiment, das alte Musik und neueste Elektronik nicht nur akustisch, sondern auch inhaltlich miteinander verbindet und in ganz neue Räume führt.
Bettina Winkler, SWR „Alte Musik“
Ambrose Field hat nicht eine moderne Version von Renaissancemusik geschaffen. Vielmehr werden die Fragmente Dufays im Original präsentiert und dienen auch als Bezugspunkt zu dem, was neu gestaltet wurde. Aus dieser Perspektive wurden die Grenzen der elektronischen Musiksprache erkundet und neue Klangfarben geschaffen. Sie beziehen ihren Reiz gerade aus dem Zusammenspiel – oder sollte man sagen: Zusammenprall? – von ganz alt und ganz neu.
Schön gesungene, anmutige Musik verbunden mit anregenden Klangskulpturen, die die Synapsen stimulieren.
Michael Seyfert, RBB Kulturradio
Das Erstaunliche ist, dass sich Fields Elektronik nicht als Konfrontation begreifen, noch als bloße Begleitung abtun lässt, sondern eine noble, einfühlsame Einlassung darstellt, die eine Färbung mitführt. Leuchtend erhebt sich darüber Potters Tenor. Akustischer Gesang und elektronische Felder – so unterschiedlich sie sein mögen, finden in einer einzigen musikalischen Gestalt zusammen.
Tilman Urbach, Fono Forum
The label has taken another intrepid step into brave new world where processed and found sounds mesh seamlessly with musical fragments from the 15th century to create one of the most hauntingly beautiful records of the year. … Field and Potter assert that all music lives and breathes, and can be grist for new and creative reinterpretation. … With Being Dufay they’ve shaped a classic contemporary work, placing music on a timeless continuum of in perpetuity existence.
John Kelman, all about jazz
In seiner jüngsten CD-Veröffentlichung wagt der englische Tenor zusammen mit dem Elektroniker Ambrose Field den Schritt in die Ästhetik des 21. Jahrhunderts. Grundlage für diese Erkundungen im Reich der elektronischen Ambient-Klänge sind weltliche und geistliche Vokalfragmente des Renaissance-Komponisten Guillaume Dufay, die Potter schlicht und unmanieriert intoniert. Field variiert seinen Beitrag von behutsamen Kolorierungen bis zur Gestaltung bombastischer Klanglandschaften. Doch selbst hier wird die Stimme nicht zugedeckt, sondern bleibt ebenbürtige Partnerin der Elektronik.
Jürg Huber, Neue Zürcher Zeitung
Field is interested in tracing parallels between the music of Dufay’s time and that of our era… Here, he treats fragments of Dufay’s music like a cantus firmus, just as Dufay and his contemporaries would use pre-existing music as the core of their compositions, and embeds them in many-layered settings of electronics, both synthesised and taken from life. …
Potter’s singing here is exemplary, and I can think of few singers so suited to such music.
Barry Witherden, BBC Music Magazine
This outing proves that virtually any combination of musical expressionism is possible, and with this release, the output equates to a magical experience. Here, Ambrose Field sets the backdrop via live and studio electronics for acclaimed tenor, John Potter as an ethereal encounter with the past comes to fruition during the modern age. …
The duo’s synergy and focused methodology translates into a sparkling gem of an album that instils endearing sentiment and cleverly engineered storylines that touch the heart and warm the soul.
Glenn Astarita, Jazz Review.com
Durch die aus Loops, Samples und Patterns, aus digitalen “Natur”-Lauten, Dissonanzen und tranceartigen Fortschreitungen gewonnenen Strukturen weht stets der Atem der Renaissance. Ihr imaginärer Resonanzraum ist die Kathedrale. Field und Potter erzeugen eine paradoxe Spannung, die gleichsam die beschleunigte Zeit des Hier und Heute anhält. Gegenwart und Vergangenheit in inspirierender Koexistenz, faszinierend verschmolzen.
Albrecht Thiemann, Opernwelt
British tenor John Potter and his fellow countryman Ambrose Field, a multiple prize-winning composer of electronic/digital music, offer a most unusual juxtaposition of Renaissance composition and present-day technology: In seven interconnected pieces, vocal fragments from the songs and sacred works by Guillaume Dufay (1397–1474) soar beautifully above Ambrose Field’s vast and multi-faceted soundscapes. “Then as now, music was not forever fixed but lived and breathed through the imaginations of former musicians and their listerners”, writes Field in his liner notes for “Being Dufay”.
John Potter, who was last heard on ECM alongside the musicians of his own “Dowland Project” on “Romaria” (2008), has long been committed to conceptual approaches to early music and, as a former blues and rock singer, has always had a strong interest in uncharted musical fields. His clear, almost boyish voice immerses itself with great ease in the allusively processed sounds. Field: “The fragments of original Dufay are always presented entirely unaltered, and serve as a reference point or cantus firmus within what is new. From that new perspective, I wanted to explore the limits of the electronic medium, produce a new set of musical colours and, perhaps above all, avoid the often mechanical aspects of working with technology.”
“Being Dufay” started as a commission to Ambrose Field to write a piece for voice and electronics for a festival in the town of Vigevano, near Milan. Field: “After researching a little of the town’s history, it became clear that like so many places in Italy this was a town where the present day and the past are both alive at the same time. I wondered about how this might work musically – I didn’t want to make ‘an adaptation’ of the past, nor did I want to ‘update it’. So, a project was born which brings together Dufay’s music, which is centuries old, and some of today’s newest digital techniques. After completing the festival performances with John in Italy, the BBC broadcast the work in the UK to great public response. At the time, only the festival version existed, together with sketches for another seven pieces. Over the next three years, I developed these into ‘Being Dufay’.”
John Potter, whose beautiful voice seems to dominate the album at least emotionally, contributes no more than some eight minutes of phrases by Dufay – which of course were selected by the two musicians after lenghty discussions and experiments. Everything else, including the “female” choir, generated from Potter’s voice, is the result of editing, composition and computer processing. Field’s approach to technology, as imaginative as it might be, is a strictly musical one, focussing on formal concepts rather than pure sonic invention.
“My working process starts with recorded sound itself, a sketch pad, and a piano – all very simple. I’ll map out trajectories, lines and harmonies, whilst designing new sonic possibilities through technology. It doesn’t matter to me if the technology is old or new: I use what I like the sound of. In terms of the new, I built a detailed digital model of John Potter’s tenor voice: this enables many musical possibilities which would be otherwise impossible to realise. These have included generating an entire female backing chorus, in which each synthesised singer still retains the character of the original solo voice. Whilst being important for my work, I have a general dislike of computers, preferring to find the right sounds first instead of undertaking extensive processing later. This can be a lengthy activity, but has the result that the electronics here highlight the contributions of humans, rather than machines.”
John Potter, who was last heard on ECM alongside the musicians of his own “Dowland Project” on “Romaria” (2008), has long been committed to conceptual approaches to early music and, as a former blues and rock singer, has always had a strong interest in uncharted musical fields. His clear, almost boyish voice immerses itself with great ease in the allusively processed sounds. Field: “The fragments of original Dufay are always presented entirely unaltered, and serve as a reference point or cantus firmus within what is new. From that new perspective, I wanted to explore the limits of the electronic medium, produce a new set of musical colours and, perhaps above all, avoid the often mechanical aspects of working with technology.”
“Being Dufay” started as a commission to Ambrose Field to write a piece for voice and electronics for a festival in the town of Vigevano, near Milan. Field: “After researching a little of the town’s history, it became clear that like so many places in Italy this was a town where the present day and the past are both alive at the same time. I wondered about how this might work musically – I didn’t want to make ‘an adaptation’ of the past, nor did I want to ‘update it’. So, a project was born which brings together Dufay’s music, which is centuries old, and some of today’s newest digital techniques. After completing the festival performances with John in Italy, the BBC broadcast the work in the UK to great public response. At the time, only the festival version existed, together with sketches for another seven pieces. Over the next three years, I developed these into ‘Being Dufay’.”
John Potter, whose beautiful voice seems to dominate the album at least emotionally, contributes no more than some eight minutes of phrases by Dufay – which of course were selected by the two musicians after lenghty discussions and experiments. Everything else, including the “female” choir, generated from Potter’s voice, is the result of editing, composition and computer processing. Field’s approach to technology, as imaginative as it might be, is a strictly musical one, focussing on formal concepts rather than pure sonic invention.
“My working process starts with recorded sound itself, a sketch pad, and a piano – all very simple. I’ll map out trajectories, lines and harmonies, whilst designing new sonic possibilities through technology. It doesn’t matter to me if the technology is old or new: I use what I like the sound of. In terms of the new, I built a detailed digital model of John Potter’s tenor voice: this enables many musical possibilities which would be otherwise impossible to realise. These have included generating an entire female backing chorus, in which each synthesised singer still retains the character of the original solo voice. Whilst being important for my work, I have a general dislike of computers, preferring to find the right sounds first instead of undertaking extensive processing later. This can be a lengthy activity, but has the result that the electronics here highlight the contributions of humans, rather than machines.”
