The intrepid contemporary vocal ensemble Ekmeles, directed by Jeffrey Gavett, releases their third recording featuring works written for the ensemble by George Lewis, Wolfgang von Schweinitz, and Katherine Balch. Ekmeles has cultivated an unparalleled reputation for tackling the most challenging vocal scores of our era, navigating microtonality, complex rhythmic textures, and experimental structures with virtuosity and expression.
| # | Audio | Title/Composer(s) | Performer(s) | Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total Time | 49:58 | |||
| 01 | Plainsound Motet for Ekmeles: "DADA NONO & REJOICE" | Plainsound Motet for Ekmeles: "DADA NONO & REJOICE" | Ekmeles | 22:18 |
| 02 | forgetting | forgetting | Ekmeles | 6:43 |
| 03 | Lone Coast | Lone Coast | Ekmeles, Iwo Jedyneck, accordion | 20:57 |
Ekmeles has distinguished itself as one of the elite contemporary vocal music ensembles active today. They have cultivated a specialization in microtonal singing that is truly pushing the boundaries of what is capable in the genre, as evidenced by their performance of Wolfgang von Schweinetz’ music on this album, and the music of James Weeks on their previous release (We Live the Opposite Daring FCR394). The ensemble is no less pioneering in their exploration of extended vocal techniques and alternative timbres, and both Katherine Balch’s forgetting and George Lewis’ Lone Coast are excellent vehicles for their formidable facility in this direction. Moreover, Ekmeles is playing a major role by curating significant, ambitious compositions for contemporary vocal ensemble, and their indomitable collaborative spirit inspires composers to write at the peak of their capacities. Nonsongs is yet another fruit of this labor, a treasure trove of fantastic singing and ensemble musicianship in the service of deep artistry. and invention.
Wolfgang von Schweinetz has spent the last three decades cultivated a compositional vocabulary and intonation techniques that facilitate performing complex just intonation intervals. He initially developed this "plainsound music” with works for solo strings, instrumental ensembles, symphony orchestras, and in electronic music contexts, and turned to a capella vocal music at the invitation of Ekmeles’ musical director, Jeffrey Gavett. von Schweinetz’ affinity for Renaissance vocal music is apparent throughout, as the music flows through cadential phrases and imitation that evokes that rich repertoire, while navigating the intricate subtleties of pitch that are the core focus of his work. The text is his own, consisting of a sequence of syllables taken from Hebrew, Latin, Spanish, Russian, French, English, and German. The impact of the piece is profound, the ear recognizes characteristic harmonic and melodic motion, but the coloristic inflections that result from the finely tuned just intervals reveals a magical resonance that feels like one is hearing into the future while tethered by echoes of the past, all glued together by elemental acoustic pillars.
Read MoreComing after the microscopic focus on pitch in Plainsound Motet, the timbral range in Katherine Balch’s forgetting is striking in its diversity. Scored for vocal ensemble playing ratchets, the percussive clacking is woven into the fabric of the composition, modulating from sporadic interjections to immersive, gentle waterfalls of wooden attacks. The voices interwine with a rich palette of techniques, both pitched and non-pitched, texted and worldless, to create a sonic environment that oscillates between dry tactilility and luminous resonance.
George Lewis’ Lone Coast is based on a poem by Nathaniel Mackey, Lone Coast Anacrusis, and explores the phenomenon of nomadism as an artistic and intellectual state of being. Lewis’ language brings a theatricality to this collection, along with an underlying urgency that challenges musical complacency at every turn. Grainy extended vocal techniques merge with liquid glissandi and dense low register voicings to create a unmoored character. Accordionist Iwo Jedynecki joins as the only instrumental guest on the album, with trembling tremolandi, mournful contrapuntal passages, pointilistic interjections, and dark voicings that inhale and exhale in symbiosis with the vocal ensemble. As in the Balch, the members of Ekmeles are given double duty on auxiliary percussion, this time with tolling suspended bells and gongs that contribute to the work’s ritualistic hue. Lone Coast finishes with an instrumental coda, as the accordionist plays embellished figures in dialogue between their two hands and utters gruff, perfunctory accented chords.
– Dan Lippel
Recording location: Oktaven Audio, Mt. Vernon, NY
Recording dates:
Lone Coast: May 6, 2024
Plainsound Motet, forgetting: January 18-19, 2026
Producers: Jeffrey Gavett, Ryan Streber
Engineering, mixing, mastering: Ryan Streber
Editing: Ryan Streber
Art and design: Alex Eckman-Lawn
Ekmeles is a vocal ensemble dedicated to the performance of new and rarely-heard works, and gems of the historical avant garde. They have a special focus on microtonal works, and have been praised for their "extraordinary sense of pitch" by the New York Times. They are the recipients of the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation's 2023 Ensemble Prize, the first American group to receive the honor.
As part of their work expanding the possibilities of tuning and technique in vocal music, Ekmeles has given world premieres by composers including John Luther Adams, Taylor Brook, Courtney Bryan, Ann Cleare, Zosha Di Castri, Erin Gee, Georg Friedrich Haas, Martin Iddon, Hannah Kendall, Catherine Lamb, George Lewis, Wolfgang von Schweinitz, Christopher Trapani, James Weeks, and Arash Yazdani.
In addition to creating their own repertoire, Ekmeles is dedicated to bringing the best of contemporary vocal music to the United States that would otherwise go unheard. They have given US premieres by composers including Joanna Bailie, Carola Bauckholt, Aaron Cassidy, Beat Furrer, Stefano Gervasoni, Georg Friedrich Haas, Evan Johnson, Bernhard Lang, Liza Um, Claus-Steffen Mahnkopf, Lucia Ronchetti, Wolfgang Rihm, Rebecca Saunders, Salvatore Sciarrino, Mathias Spahlinger, and Agatha Zubel.
Collaborations with other musical ensembles and artists has been a part of Ekmeles's work from the very beginning. In their first several seasons they gave the US premieres of Luigi Nono's Quando stanno morendo with AMP New Music, and Beat Furrer's FAMA with Talea Ensemble. Their collaborations with Mivos Quartet include world premieres by Taylor Brook and Evan Johnson, and the US premieres of Stefano Gervasoni's Dir - In Dir and Wolfgang Rihm's concert-length ET LUX. In 2015 Ekmeles joined with members of Tilt Brass and loadbang for the US premiere of Mathias Spahlinger's monumental über den frühen tod fräuleins anna augusta marggräfin zu baden, and Wolfgang Rihm's SKOTEINÓS. They returned to the Spahlinger in 2024 on a German tour with composers slide quartet and Ensemble Aventure. Ekmeles also collaborates beyond the traditional concert stage, including the integration of singers into choreographic works by New Chamber Ballet, and a staged memorized performance of David Lang's the little match girl passion at the MET Breuer Museum directed by Tony award winning director Rachel Chavkin. They also gave sold-out performances with Oliver Beer's Vessel Orchestra, the first sound-based installation commissioned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Director Jeffrey Gavett performed at the keyboard of this instrument, composed of 32 resonant hollow objects spanning 7,000 years of the museum's collection. In 2022 they sang as part of John Luther Adams's installation work Veils and Vesper, broadcast on WNYC's New Sounds.
Ekmeles has taught and premiered works by student composers at Brandeis, Brown, Columbia, University of Florida, Manhattan School of Music, University of New Mexico, NYU, University of Pennsylvania, University of Pittsburgh, Princeton, Rutgers, Stanford, Syracuse, and University of Virginia.
Their second album We Live the Opposite Daring was released in February 2024 on New Focus Recordings, with works by Zosha Di Castri, Jeffrey Gavett, Erin Gee, Shawn Jaeger, Hannah Kendall, and James Weeks. Textura praised it saying "this ever-intrepid outfit goes places few other vocal ensembles dare venture." Fanfare calls it "One of the most amazing choral discs to have come my way: a crack vocal ensemble presenting vitally alive music of our time." In January of 2020 they released their debut album A howl, that was also a prayer on New Focus Recordings, with works by Taylor Brook, Erin Gee, and Christopher Trapani. Fanfare magazine said the album's performances were "beyond expert - almost frightening in their precision." In the spring of 2020 through May 2021, Ekmeles continued to bring their performances to audiences in authentic ways despite the difficulty of singing together. They performed innovative streaming concerts that combined elements of video art created by members of the ensemble, pre-recorded performances, and live synchronous online performing. Ensemble members performed simultaneously from San Francisco, Philadelphia, and New York.
A versatile and experienced performer — once described as "Glenn Gould of the Accordion" — Iwo Jedynecki is changing the perspective for his instrument with his unique approach to concert presentations and programming. Winner of top prizes at over thirty music competitions, as a soloist and a member of chamber ensembles he has performed in 40 countries across six continents. His long-standing partnership with violinist Karolina Mikolajczyk has brought the duo to perform in places like Carnegie Hall, Kimmel Center in Philadelphia, Esplanade Concert Hall in Singapore, Melbourne Arts Centre (Australia), Teatro del Logo (Chile). A 2025 release on Orange Mountain Music showcases premiere recording of the complete Piano Etudes by Philip Glass on classical accordion in Iwo's arrangement and performance. Iwo Jedynecki holds a Ph.D degree in accordion performance and was the first ever accordionist at New York University, as a recipient of the famous Fulbright Scholarship.
New Focus Recordings is an artist-led collective label featuring releases in contemporary creative music of many stripes, as well as new approaches to older repertoire. The label was founded by guitarist Dan Lippel, composer Peter Gilbert in 2004, and composer/engineer Ryan Streber in 2004, formed …Read More …
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