Wet Ink Ensemble Releases Archive 03 “Future Visions”

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Katy Salomon | Morahan Arts and Media
katy@morahanartsandmedia.com | 863.660.2214 

 
Wet Ink Ensemble Releases Third Edition of
Monthly Journal, Wet Ink Archive:03 “Future Visions”

New Issue Released August 1, 2020 Featuring:

Future Visions: A Discussion About the Flute, Creative Process, 
Technology, Futuristic Musicians of the Past, and Altered Brain-States
By Peter Evans and Sam Pluta 

Toward Greater Intentionality: Reflections on the Construction of my Practice
By Marina Kifferstein

Boccaccio Responsori: Four Collaborators Reflect on Recent Works
Commissioned by The Library of Congress for The Boccaccio Project
By Erin Rogers, Erin Lesser, Ashkan Behzadi and Mariel Roberts 

archive.wetink.org 
 

New York, NY (August 3, 2020) — On Saturday, August 1, 2020 the “sublimely exploratory” (The Chicago Reader) Wet Ink Ensemble released the third issue of its new, monthly online journal of adventurous music and conversation, the Wet Ink Archive. 

Archive 03, “Future Visions,” highlights the work of seven decidedly future-oriented artists: Peter Evans and Sam Pluta; Marina Kifferstein; and Erin Rogers, Ashkan Behzadi, Erin Lesser and Mariel Roberts. In addition to sharing their innovative work as composers and creative improvisers, these seven musicians write about their artistic ideals, their challenges in the face of pandemic and institutional brokenness, and their visions for holistic music making with a level of honesty and openness that is refreshing in our often career-driven arts world. 

Composer and trumpeter Peter Evans and composer and electronic musician Sam Pluta have been improvising together and writing music for each other in various contexts for over a decade. In their article, Future Visions, Evans and Pluta discuss wide-ranging topics from creative process and technology to altered brain-states. Partly an analysis of Evans’ recent work for piccolo flute, Message From The Stars, and partly a collective rumination on artistic practice, the conversation ultimately coalesces around a pointed and timely critique of the new music scene that Evans and Pluta inhabit and love.

In Toward Greater Intentionality, violinist and composer Marina Kifferstein reflects on her growth as a creative artist while taking a hard look at the circumstances, systems, and feedback mechanisms that molded her path as a classical violinist turned composer/improviser/new music specialist. Kifferstein is a founding member of TAK ensemble and The Rhythm Method string quartet as well as a busy freelancer with groups such as the International Contemporary Ensemble and the Wet Ink Large Ensemble.

Earlier this summer, in an effort to support composers and performers during the pandemic, The Library of Congress commissioned ten new works for online presentation as part of The Boccaccio Project. Wet Ink is proud to have been involved in two of these premieres: Erin Rogers’ Hello World, written for Wet Ink flutist Erin Lesser, and Ashkan Behzadi’s Lobelia, written for Wet Ink cellist Mariel Roberts. In Boccaccio Responsori, Rogers, Lesser, Behzadi, and Roberts reflect on the challenges and rewards of making socially distanced adventurous music, while sharing an artists’ perspective on the emotional trauma that has become woven into daily life as multiple national crises continue to unfold. 

The mission of Wet Ink Archive parallels that of the Ensemble: sharing the body of work generated within the group, celebrating the music of longtime collaborators, and providing a platform for emerging and underrepresented artists. Each issue includes three articles ranging from personal reflection to in-depth musical analysis, accompanied by newly released music and archival documentation. 

The first issue of Wet Ink Archive included Topographies of Interaction, an in-depth discussion between Wet Ink Ensemble members and composers Alex Mincek and Sam Pluta about their works featured on Wet Ink’s new album, Glossolalia/Lines on Black, which was released on May 1, 2020 on Carrier Records; in addition to an article from cellist Mariel Roberts on her own compositional and improvisational work and longtime relationship with Wet Ink; plus insights from vocalist Charmaine Lee on building a personal language coupled together with newly released videos of recent work with Sam Pluta and Chris Goudreau. 

The second issue featured a reflection on Kate Soper's opera The Romance of the Rose by creative directors Kate Soper, Michael Rau, and Josh Modney, including two video and two audio premieres; an article by composer Rick Burkhardt on his unique relationship to words, pitch, and noise, featuring Alban and other works; and a piece by composer/trombonist Weston Olencki where discusses his evolving musical practice.

Sign Up to Receive the Wet Ink Archive Here.

About Wet Ink Ensemble
The Wet Ink Ensemble is a collective of composers, performers and improvisers dedicated to adventurous music-making. Named “The Best Classical Music Ensemble of 2018” by The New York Times, Wet Ink’s work is rooted in an ethos of innovation through collaboration, extending from the music and the unique performance practice developed in the “band” atmosphere of Wet Ink’s core octet of composer-performers, to projects with a broad range of renowned creators, from Evan Parker to George Lewis to Peter Ablinger, and committed performances of music by young and underrepresented composers, from today’s most promising emerging voices to the next generation of artists.

Hailed for “sublimely exploratory” (The Chicago Reader) and “dense, wild, yet artfully controlled” (The New York Times) performances and “uncompromisingly original music by its members, and unflagging belief in the power of collaboration” (The New Yorker), Wet Ink has been presenting concerts of new music at the highest level in New York City and around the world for over 20 years. Wet Ink’s programming celebrates the nexus of composition, improvisation and interpretation, from early collaborations with Christian Wolff and ZS to pioneering portrait concerts of Peter Ablinger, Mathias Spahlinger, Anthony Braxton, and the AACM composers, work with renowned creative musicians such as Ingrid Laubrock, Peter Evans, Darius Jones, and Katherine Young, and long-term collaborative projects with Wet Ink’s four acclaimed composer-members (Alex Mincek, Sam Pluta, Kate Soper, and Eric Wubbels).

Wet Ink has been in residence at institutions including Duke University, EMPAC (Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center), Columbia University, the Royal Academy of Music (UK), and The Walden School, among many others, and has been featured on numerous recordings. Highlights include Katharina Rosenberger’s TEXTUREN, which was awarded a German Record Critics Prize, and solo records by Alex Mincek (Torrent), Kate Soper (IPSA DIXIT), Sam Pluta (Broken Symmetries), Eric Wubbels (Duos with Piano, Book 1), and Josh Modney (Engage), all of which were celebrated on various “Best of” lists by The New York Times, The New Yorker, Bandcamp Daily, Sequenza 21, and The Nation. Wet Ink has released four acclaimed solo albums (Wet Ink Ensemble; Relay; Wet Ink: 20, which features the Wet Ink Large Ensemble; and Glossolalia/Lines on Black).

Wet Ink is co-directed by an octet of world class composers, improvisers, and interpreters that collaborate in band-like fashion, writing, improvising, preparing, and touring pieces together over long stretches of time. These directors are Erin Lesser (flutes), Alex Mincek (saxophone), Ian Antonio (percussion), Eric Wubbels (piano), Josh Modney (violin), Mariel Roberts (cello), Kate Soper (voice), and Sam Pluta (electronics). The Wet Ink Large Ensemble is a group of extraordinary New York City musicians that come together to play the world's most exciting and innovative music. Learn more at www.wetink.org. 

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