Kristin Norderval - Parrhésie (2016) [Hi-Res]

The first time that Ida Heidel, Nusch Werchowska and I performed together as a trio was in Paris in 2014. Three strong personalities with something to say; we were a good match for the high-risk sport of group improvisation, or what I often call “spontaneous combustible collaborative composition”. Our complex and divergent musical backgrounds from jazz, contemporary music, electronic music and opera create a broad palette of musical styles to play with, and our geographic backgrounds (Norway, France, USA) add different musical dialects to the mix. It is stimulating, often humorous, and not necessarily easy. But in this challenging era that requires more risk-taking, more collaboration and more innovation than ever just to survive, perhaps creating music together on the spot, across genres, is a good practice. All the tracks on this CD were spontaneously composed; improvised and recorded in real-time, each one a full take. Real risk. If we were to succeed, we would succeed together and if we went down, we would go down together. No edits, no pre-recorded tracks or voice-overs, no scores. Just intense listening, playing and sounding together in the same room, and tackling the creative process in the heat of the moment. The resulting compositions are a merger of our unique individual expressions, personalities and languages: our dialogues, our wrestling, our dancing, and our breathing together. When we started planning for this recording, planning was simultaneously underway for the COP21 climate talks in Paris. The timing of our recording sessions was also auspicious. It was exactly ten years after an International Council of 13 Indigenous Grandmothers had petitioned the Vatican to repeal the Papal bulls of discovery and conquest that had laid the foundations for 500 years of global exploitation of indigenous peoples and the earth’s resources, and seven years after the Grandmothers had chanted and drummed outside the Vatican, praying for an evolutionary change. Those Papal bulls have still not been repealed, but who can tell what the power of petitioning and song and ritual has unleashed? In the summer of 2015, the new Pope published a revolutionary encyclical on climate change that was critical of capitalism’s “use, exploit, and throw-away” paradigm. In it he refers to the earth as our “sister and mother”, and enjoins people around the world to begin the difficult work of repairing the damage we have wrought to the only home we have. When we came together in Spain to record, we wanted to commemorate these events. The texts of Dina von Zweck – excerpts from her epic poem FLUDD: Virtual Polar Icecap Meltdown - offered one focal point, and our listening meditations on the grounds of Barxeta offered another. Odd Gjelsnes’ wonderful cooking, the fine Spanish wines, our deep conversations, the stars at night, and the sounds of crickets, birds and dogs all added to the mix. Dani Castelar’s wonderful work at the soundboard and Cato Langnes’ mastering was the extra dash of magic. This is our truth and our risk and our hope. Enjoy.

Kristin Norderval is a performer, composer and improviser whose career has been two-fold; combining both vocal performance and composition. She received her undergraduate training in composition from the University of Washington, and completed a DMA in vocal performance from the Manhattan School of Music. Her credits as a soprano soloist include performances with the Oslo Sinfonietta, the Philip Glass Ensemble, Netherlands Dance Theater, and the San Francisco Symphony. She has recorded works by numerous American composers, among them Eve Beglarian, David Lang, Tania León and Annea Lockwood. Five chamber operas have been composed specifically for Norderval, including Pope Joan, a dance-opera by Anne LeBaron, and She Lost Her Voice That’s How We Knew - Frances White’s one-woman electro-acoustic opera, recently released on the PARMA label.As a composer, Norderval focuses primarily on the nuances of the human voice and the exploration of humanmachine interaction. A two-time recipient of the Norwegian Artist’s Stipend, and a 2005 recipient of the Henry Cowell Award from the American Music Center, Norderval has also received support from the Jerome Foundation, Meet the Composer, Harvestworks, and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Commissions include works for Chants LIbres opera company in Montreal, Den Anden Opera in Copenhagen, the Bucharest International Dance Festival in Romania, jill sigman/thinkdance in New York City, and the viol consort Parthenia. Her compositions are featured on Deep Listening, Koch International, and Everglade Records. Her solo CD - Aural Histories (post-ambient arias for voice and electronics) - was listed by The New Yorker’s classical music critic Alex Ross as one of “Ten Notable Classical Music Recordings of 2012”.

Nusch Werchowska is a pianist and improviser able to translate conversations between Debussy and Cecil Taylor. Since meeting and working with Barre Philipps in 1993, Werchowska has been entirely dedicated to improvisation. Her work has been described as a sober and energetic sound poetry. Between 2003 and 2007 Werchowska was organizer of the hottest and “smallest underground festival in France”: the Zieu-M-Zic meeting. Nusch Werchowska plays regularly with Heddy Boubaker, Quentin Dubost, Mathias Pontévia, Frederick Galiay, and Guillaume Viltard. In the worldwide improvised music scene Werchowska has worked with, among others, Phil Minton, Ulli Boetcher, Cécile Broché, Etienne Brunet, Jacques Foschia, Mike Goyvaerts, Eric Thielemans, Arrington De Dyoniso, Anna Homler, Paul Hubweber, Alex Kolkowski, Barre Phillips, Eddie Prevost, Margrit Rieben, Benjamin Bondonneau, Sébastien Bouhana, Sébastien Cirotteau, Bertrand Gauguet, Frédérick Galiay, Gilbert Roggi, Christine Abdelnour, Naoto Yamagishi, Morihide Sawada, Alexander Markvart, Mia Zabellka, Lee Patterson, Aldridge U Hansberry, Ida Heidel and Mathieu Werchowski.

Ida Helene Heidel writes instrumental and electroacoustic music, works with structured improvisation and soundscapes, creates sound installations, collaborates with different artists, writes for the theatre and for small and large ensembles. Her notation sometimes includes drawings, written instructions, gestures, symbols, and poetry. She has lived, studied and worked in Paris, New York, LA and India, within classical, contemporary, jazz and indian music. She has been composer in residence in Norway and assistant to operadirector Peter Konwitchny in Denmark. She recently created a pice for 34 loadspeakers for a festival in Paris, performing solo flute with the electroaccoustic piece. She has received several grants and commissions the past 20 years and her work has been played in festivals like Ultima, Ilios, Speculum, Tuchfülung and Bergen festpill. Among her teachers we find notables like Hariprasad Chaurasia, Frank Wess, Lew Tabackin ao.

Tracklist:
01. Kristin Norderval; Ida Heidel; Nusch Werchowska - Toxic Legacies (6:09)
02. Kristin Norderval; Ida Heidel; Nusch Werchowska - Polar Bear (1:46)
03. Kristin Norderval; Ida Heidel; Nusch Werchowska - Icecap Meltdown (11:31)
04. Kristin Norderval; Ida Heidel; Nusch Werchowska - Oyl in These Harbors (5:32)
05. Kristin Norderval; Ida Heidel; Nusch Werchowska - Apolune (2:23)
06. Kristin Norderval; Ida Heidel; Nusch Werchowska - Perihelion (6:41)
07. Kristin Norderval; Ida Heidel; Nusch Werchowska - Apoapsis (4:16)
08. Kristin Norderval; Ida Heidel; Nusch Werchowska - Periapsis (5:13)
09. Kristin Norderval; Ida Heidel; Nusch Werchowska - Apogée (1:46)
10. Kristin Norderval; Ida Heidel; Nusch Werchowska - Perigée (7:38)
11. Kristin Norderval; Ida Heidel; Nusch Werchowska - This is the Old Song (5:26)