The most recent release on XI Records!!
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XI RECORDS
PO Box 1754, Canal Street Station, New York, NY 10013
email: xirecords@compuserve.com
www.xirecords.org
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January 2022 Release
Michael Winter
Counterfeiting in Colonial Connecticut and a lot of tiles (trivial scan)
XI 148 (2 CDs for the price of 1)
(725531214824)
CD1: Counterfeiting in Colonial Connecticut / CD2: a lot of tiles (trivial scan)
XI Records is very pleased to announce the release of a 2 CD set of Michael Winter’s music organized by guitarist Elliot Simpson. Each CD features a single composition, demonstrating different sides of Winter’s work. The first, Counterfeiting in Colonial Connecticut, is a socially-engaged piece written for Simpson and in honor of George Floyd. The second, a lot of tiles (trivial scan), derives music from a set of mathematical tilings (often referred to as tessellations). The album art features reprints of altered and counterfeit colonial Connecticut bills as well as custom-made, hand-stamped prints of the tilings.
Counterfeiting in Colonial Connecticut interleaves guitar passages with readings of excerpts from the book of the same title written by Kenneth Scott and published by the American Numismatic Society in 1957. Readings from the Scott Compendium are complemented with readings of texts written by Winter reflecting events that occurred during the composition of the piece; particularly the protests sparked by the death of George Floyd, a black man brutally murdered by police while being arrested for allegedly using a counterfeit $20 bill. Winter writes in the liner notes: “[While] I was reluctant to connect George Floyd with counterfeiting and colonialism… his murder, as well as the pandemic, clearly demonstrated that inequalities accepted in colonial times have persisted.” Winter goes on to explain that “the music of the piece was written using a coin press as a central metaphor. The underlying variables in the computer program that generates the piece vary slightly within and between each section, like variations and errors in the minting of coins.” Simpson is accompanied by Gemma Tripiana Muñoz on piccolo and the texts are read by Simpson, Winter, and animator Mandy Toderian.
a lot of tiles (trivial scan) is based on a set of rectangle substitution tilings explored by Chaim Goodman-Strauss in his seminal paper “Lots of aperiodic sets of tiles”. A rectangle substitution tiling is generated by dissecting a rectangle into 4 smaller rectangles, which are then dissected into 8 even smaller rectangles, and so on. The parenthetical in the title, ‘trivial scan’, refers to the method of sonification. Sonic parameters of the music are determined by scanning and reading the tilings. The piece is quite open. As Simpson explains about Winter’s music in the notes: “Although his music covers a wide range of forms, formats, and concerns, there seems to always be a careful consideration of the adaptability of his works… They can expand and contract to accommodate diverse instrumentations, durations, spaces, and situations… There is an understanding that the myriad of possibilities defined by the scores will never be exhausted; new constellations of materials, performers, and contexts will always exist.” In the recording of a lot of tiles (trivial scan), this variability is explored through different combinations of electronic, synthesized, and acoustic sounds featuring Simpson and saxophonist Omar López, the dedicatee of the work.
Michael Winter’s work often explores simple processes where dynamic systems, situations, and settings are realized in a variety of ways from performances to installations. He writes “To me, everything we experience is computable. Given this digital philosophy, I acknowledge even my most open works as algorithmic; and, while not always apparent on the surface of any given piece, the considerations of computability and epistemology are integral to my practice. I often reconcile epistemological limits with artistic practicality by considering and addressing the limits of computation from an artistic and experiential vantage point and by collaborating with other artists, mathematicians, and scientists in order to integrate objects, ideas, and texts from various domains as structural elements in my pieces.” His work has been presented at venues and festivals throughout the world such as REDCAT, in Los Angeles; the Ostrava Festival of New Music in the Czech Republic; Tsonami Arte Sonoro Festival in Valparaiso, Chile; the Huddersfield New Music Festival in the United Kingdom; and Umbral Sesiones at the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo in Oaxaca, Mexico. Recordings of Winter’s music have been released by Another Timbre, New World Records, Edition Wandelweiser, Bahn Mi Verlag, Tsonami Records, and Pogus Productions.
Guitarist Elliot Simpson has given premieres of works by such iconic figures as Sofia Gubaidulina, Alvin Lucier, Michael Finnissy, Walter Zimmermann, and Larry Polansky, and has worked closely with many other prominent young composers in the creation of new pieces. He has appeared in many of the arts capitals of the world, including San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York City, Mexico City, Santiago de Chile, Buenos Aires, São Paulo, London, Amsterdam, Cologne, Berlin, Salzburg, and Shanghai, in master classes, workshops, and performances ranging from early music to free improvisation. His recordings can be found on the Microfest, Brilliant Classics, ECM, New World, Infrequent Seams, Soundset, and Hermes record labels.
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