Out Now: Yarn/Wire Releases 'Currents 7'

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
PR Contact: Leah Rankin | Morahan Arts and Media
leah@morahanartsandmedia.com | 716-868-6278

Yarn/Wire Releases
Currents 7

Self Released Digital Album features
Laminar Flow by Zeno Baldi &
The Sunsets on Mars are Blue by DM R

Album Page:
https://yarnwire.bandcamp.com/album/yarn-wire-currents-vol-7

"The new pieces the group commissions are consistently imaginative,
and inventive with exacting balance, clarity, and form." – New York Classical Review

“...a force in avant-garde music.” – AllMusic

www.yarnwire.org

New York, NY (December 9, 2022) — New York-based percussion and piano quartet Yarn/Wire has released the next installation in its self-released Yarn/Wire Currents album series: Currents 7. The digital album features Laminar Flow by Zeno Baldi, commissioned by Yarn/Wire, with the support of Fellowships by American Academy in Rome and Bogliasco Foundation, and The Sunsets on Mars are Blue by DM R. Serving as an incubator for new experimental music, Yarn/Wire Currents is a yearly project that allows for collaborations with composers to explore the intersections of composition, technology, installation, live performance, music theater, and much more.

Laminar Flow for prepared piano, midi keyboard, drum-set and percussion came about during a period of experimentation on tactile transducers, feedback systems, and electroacoustic interactions.The term “laminar flow” comes from fluid dynamics, describing the flow pattern of a fluid in which particles flow in parallel lines. In the piece, the electronics’ output is routed directly to the acoustic surfaces (drum skin, cymbals, piano strings, etc.), blurring the boundary between acoustic and electronic sounds but creating, in essence, a laminar flow. The piece is also greatly influenced by the waves of the sea, as Baldi composed Laminar Flow in a room in front of the Ligurian Sea:

“During that period,” Baldi said, “everyday and every night I watched and listened to the winter sea, especially during my late night experimentations with microtonally-tuned bottles and transducers on drum-set. The deep and dark blue of the sea at night had a great impact on the way I composed this work, leading me to explore (and embrace) low frequencies and vast resonances.”

The Sunsets on Mars are Blue is also an electroacoustic work focusing on the idea of coexisting contradictions. Composer DM R samples NASA’s recordings of the dry, mechanical yet violent sounds on Mars and contrasts them with field recordings of protests, chants, and Neo-Colombian Folk songs during Colombia’s unrest between 2019 to 2021.

“The use of these snippets emphasizes the vastness of disparity,” DM R said. “The blue sunset consumes the red planet into darkness. One may interpret it as hope or as an apocalyptic nightmare.”

About Zeno Baldi
Zeno Baldi is an Italian composer and sound artist. His work is focused on the interaction between acoustic instruments and electronic devices. His music has been performed by international ensembles/orchestra/solos such as – Divertimento, Linea, Yarn/Wire, Mdi, Zeitfluss, Schallfeld, Proton Bern, L’arsenale, Ex Novo, Azione_Improvvisa, Quartetto Maurice, Marco Fusi, Manu Mayr, Heather Roche, OPV Orchestra, Orchestra La Fenice (a.o.), and presented at London Ear Festival, Società del Quartetto di Milano, MATA (New York), MA/IN – Matera Intermedia, TransArt (Bozen), Casa del Quartetto (Reggio Emilia), Smog (Brussels), in venues like the Royaumont Abbey, Le 104 (Paris), Teatro La Fenice (Venice), Musiikkitalo (Helsinki), Piccolo Teatro (Milan).

As a solo performer, he’s developing an electroacoustic project (2017- ongoing), exploring a new set up for each performance, including daw softwares, piezo-electric microphones, analogue pedals and synthesizers, midi-controlled solenoids, tactile transducers and feedback systems. He presented electroacoustic sets at Legroom (Manchester), Villa Romana (Florence), Mart (Rovereto), Triennale (Milan).

Zeno graduated from the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz (KUG) and the Conservatoire “G.Verdi” in Milan. He was composer in residence at: Rondò Festival 2017, Fondazione Spinola Banna per l’Arte (Progetto Musica 2018), Italian Fellow in Music at the American Academy in Rome 2019-20, Fellow at Bogliasco Foundation 2021, Styria artist-in-residence 2021, and awarded the “Una vita nella Musica – giovani” prize 2021 (Teatro La Fenice, Venice).

He received commissions from Ulysses Network – Creative Europe, Ernst von Siemens Musikstiftung, Fondazione Spinola-Banna per l’Arte, Fondazione Teatro La Fenice, Fondazione I Teatri – Reggio Emilia, De Sono Associazione per la Musica, Associazione Veneta Amici della Musica, and Siae Classici di Oggi.

Divertimento Ensemble recorded a Portrait CD of his music (Bonsai) released in 2018 by Stradivarius Label.
His scores are published by Casa Ricordi.

About DM R
A native of Bogota, DM R is an electroacoustic music composer based in New York City. Having its footholds in post spectral, ambient, pop culture, Colombian folk, and Rock en Español, her music has been presented by artists such as the International Contemporary Ensemble, Yarn Wire, Alarm Will Sound, ECCE Ensemble, counter)induction, Boston Musica Viva, Berrow Duo, Eric Drescher, and Josh Modney at venues like the BANFF Centre for the Arts and Creativity, the DiMenna Center for Classical Music, the Goethe Institut in Boston, Americas Society, University of North Colorado, the Coral Gables Museum, Boston Conservatory, and the New England Conservatory. Her recent projects include a septet commissioned by the Goethe Institut for Sound Icon and Winsor Music for their “Beethoven Goes Modern” project, and an evening-length work for the New York-based trio Sputter Box commissioned by the Fromm Foundation at Harvard University, as well as a multimedia piece for TAK ensemble and Joy Guidry, a string duo for andPlay, and a solo piece for and violinist Austin Wulliman.

DM R, currently pursuing a doctorate at Columbia University, is a teaching fellow at the Computer Music Center. She teaches composition lessons at Montclair State University and Kaufman Center’s Face the Music.

About Yarn/Wire
Yarn/Wire is a New York-based percussion and piano quartet (Sae Hashimoto and Russell Greenberg, percussion; Laura Barger and Julia Den Boer, pianos) dedicated to the promotion of creative, experimental new music. According to New York Classical Review, “Yarn/Wire may well be the most important new music ensemble on the classical scene today.” Founded in 2005, and admired for the energy and care it brings to today’s most adventurous compositions, the ensemble seeks to expand the representation of composers including but not limited to those who identify as women, LGBTQIA , Black, African, Indigenous, Latina(o)(x), Asian, or Arab so that it might begin to better reflect our communities and experience new creative potential.

Yarn/Wire’s expansive and international 2022-23 season includes festival performances at Tzlil Meudcan (Israel), Wien Modern (Austria), and Northwestern University New Music Conference (Illinois); returns to the TIME:SPANS (NYC), Festival 20/21 (Belgium), and Rainy Days (Luxembourg) Festivals; a Composer Portrait of Øyvind Torvund presented by Miller Theatre (NYC), which continues the ensemble’s long-running relationship with Torvund; plus appearances at Pioneer Works in Brooklyn and The Stone. Recent performance highlights include a residency at Pioneer Works featuring Katherine Young’s Biomes; premieres by Taylor Brook and Diana Rodriguez at the America’s Society in NYC; a video event and Composer Portrait of Thomas Meadowcroft at Miller Theatre; a concert of solo works at Indexical in Santa Cruz; and the continuation of the Yarn/Wire International Institute and Festival, a summer festival for composers and performers interested in exploring the collaborative side of contemporary music. Their ongoing commissioning series, Yarn/Wire/Currents, serves as an incubator for new experimental music in partnership with Brooklyn-based arts organization Blank Forms.

The ensemble additionally will be in residence at Northwestern University and Adelphi University, and will return for residency activities at Duke University in the 22-23 season. In the previous season, Yarn/Wire was in residence at Cornell, Boston Conservatory at Berklee, UC Santa Cruz, UC Berkeley, Brandeis University, and University of Pennsylvania.

In Fall 2022, Yarn/Wire continues their multi-year residency at Girard College in Philadelphia developing a new multidisciplinary performance work, Be Holding, using poet Ross Gay’s book-length poem inspired by Philadelphia basketball champion Julius Erving (a.k.a. “Dr. J”) as its libretto. The commission will explore themes of Black genius and beauty in the face of racial violence and inequities, and the school will host Gay, composer Tyshawn Sorey, director Brooke O’Harra, and Yarn/Wire, with the world premiere scheduled for Spring 2023.

Yarn/Wire’s numerous commissions include works from composers such as Annea Lockwood, Enno Poppe, Michael Gordon, George Lewis, Ann Cleare, Catherine Lamb, Tyshawn Sorey, Peter Evans, Alex Mincek, Thomas Meadowcroft, Misato Mochizuki, Sam Pluta, Tyondai Braxton, Kate Soper, and Øyvind Torvund. The ensemble enjoys collaborations with genre-bending artists such as Tristan Perich, Ben Vida, Mark Fell, Sufjan Stevens, and Pete Swanson.

The quartet has performed at festivals all over the world including the Lincoln Center, Edinburgh International, Rainy Days (Luxembourg), Ultima (Norway), Transit (Belgium), Contemplus (Prague), and Wien Modern (Austria) Festivals, Shanghai Symphony Orchestra Hall, Dublin SoundLab, Monday Evening Concerts (Los Angeles), Brooklyn Academy of Music, and New York’s Miller Theatre.

Yarn/Wire has recorded for the WERGO, Kairos, Northern Spy, Distributed Objects, Black Truffle, Shelter Press, Populist, and Carrier record labels in addition to maintaining their own imprint. Recent and upcoming releases include Tonband, featuring works by Enno Poppe and Wolfgang Heiniger, on the WERGO label; Annea Lockwood’s Becoming Air and Into the Vanishing with trumpeter Nate Wooley on Black Truffle Records; Yarn/Wire Currents 7 featuring works by Zeno Baldi and DM R; Marcel Zaes’ Parallel Prints; the piano and percussion works of Andrew McIntosh; and many more. For more information, please visit www.yarnwire.org.

Currents 7 Tracklist
ZENO BALDI (b. 1988) - Laminar Flow (2021)
Laminar Flow [19:05]
DM R (b. 1987) - The Sunsets on Mars are Blue (2021)
The Sunsets on Mars are Blue [19:02]

Yarn/Wire
Laura Barger, piano
Julia Den Boer, piano
Russell Greenberg, percussion
Sae Hashimoto, percussion

Laminar Flow: Russell Greenberg and Levy Lorenzo, percussion / Laura Barger and Julia Den Boer, piano and synthesizer

The Sunsets on Mars are Blue: Russell Greenberg and Sae Hashimoto, percussion / Laura Barger and Ning Yu, piano and synthesizer

Laminar Flow was recorded on September 21, 2021 at Columbia University's Miller Theatre by Nathaniel Nutler, assisted by Melvin Cubero Ill, Mixed by Caley Monahon-Ward, Produced by Kelson Productions.

Laminar Flow was written with the support of the American Academy in Rome and Bogliasco Foundation.

The Sunsets on Mars are Blue was recorded and mixed by Bill Siegmund and Murat Colak, Americas Society
on November 5. 2021. Mastered by Murat Çolak.

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