BOW & CREAK

by Laura Cannell

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Bow & Creak 30:08
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about

Internationally acclaimed musician Laura Cannell releases a 30 minute Overbow Violin recording inspired by the 1000 year long composition Longplayer by Jem Finer (Artist, Composer and one of the founders of The Pogues). BOW & CREAK was recorded in a single take at Cannell’s Suffolk studio and the name was inspired by the corner of the Thames where the snaking tidal river meets one of London’s oldest navigational waterways in the country, Bow Creek, this is where Finer’s Longplayer has been installed since 31 December 1999, playing without repetition.

Cannell used a snapshot of Finer’s ever changing Longplayer score to create a longform violin track. Circular bowing motions on her violin are made with a deconstructed bass viol bow to play polyphonic chords, and improvised melodic passages are re-iterated with asymmetric repetitions which are combined with ancient tune fragments and the ghosts medieval and renaissance ornamentation. Captivated by the upturned bell sounds of the Longplayer singing bowls, Cannell used fragments of structure, fragments of note shapes and the circulatory image of Jem Finer’s original score to create a mini violin response to Longplayer.

“I was inspired by the landscape of the Longplayer score, the it’s beautiful never ending image of circles and shapes, combined with the waterscape and surroundings of the lighthouse of where is is housed, it was too hard to resist interpreting in into my own musical language”.

In 2018 Laura was commissioned by one of Sound and Music’s composer-curators, Ella Finer, to respond to artist & musician Jem Finer's 1000 year long composition Longplayer. This was an invitation to compose with and through Longplayer in the experimental lighthouse at Trinity Buoy Wharf. Conversations and visits with Jem and Ella inspired a series of new works by Laura. Some of those works were performed in the lighthouse in October 2018 for four violins and one player. Laura played live while the other parts were played on cassettes of pre-composed parts placed throughout the former Experimental Lighthouse workshop and lamp room of the victorian scientist Michael Faraday.

In a theme of slow moving music, BOW & CREAK has been slowly edging towards release since the original commission in 2018, with more to come.


credits

released September 8, 2023

Thanks to Jem Finer, Ella Finer and The Longplayer Trust.

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Brawl Records UK

Brawl Records is an independent UK label est. 2005. It is run by musicians Laura Cannell & Andre Bosman. Brawl's releases have been reviewed & featured in The Guardian, The Times, Financial Times, The Wire, The Quietus, MOJO, Songlines, Record Collector & more. They are regularly broadcast on BBC and internationally. ... more

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