Ensemble Ektòs // Semèia Kài Tèrata CD

デンマーク・コペンハーゲンの物音ドローンバンドEnsemble Ektòsが、2022年7月にイタリアの実験レーベル901 Editionsからリリースしたデビュー作です。

静謐な物音ドローン22曲を収録。6面デジパック、シュリンク仕様です。 以下、レーベル解説です。

セプトゥアギンタは、旧約聖書の最初のギリシャ語訳を示す名称で、紀元2世紀のものです。この版の起源を記したアリステアのフィロクラテスへの手紙によると、プトレマイオス2世の依頼を受けたアレクサンドリアの72人の賢者が翻訳を担当したとのことです。テキスト内では、「神童」（τέρας, tearas）という用語は単独で見られることはなく、「記号」（σημεῖον, semèion）と不可分の二項を形成しており、σημεῖα καὶ τέρατα (semèia kài tearata) という表現になっています。

2019年9月に録音された《Semèia Kài Térata》は、コペンハーゲンを拠点とする作曲家と演奏家の四人組、Ensemble Ektòsによる最初の作品です。この作品では、静寂と沈黙の使用を組み合わせた、厳粛でありながら想像力に富んだ道筋が描かれています。ある種のミニマリズムの最も極端な経験を思い起こさせる儀式的な反復により、Semèia Kài Térataは、タイトルにある神秘的な必然性、そして奇跡がしばしば持つ暗い驚きを見事に表現しています。

レーベルその他作品はこちら /// Click here to see more 901 Editions releases available at Tobira. 

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Text by Marco Baldini:

"The Septuagint is the name in which the first Greek translation of the Old Testament is identified, datable to the 2nd century A.D. According to Aristea's letter to Philocrates, in which the genesis of this version is mentioned, 72 sages from Alexandria commissioned by Ptolemy II were responsible for the translation. Within the text, the term "prodigy" (τέρας, tearas) is never found alone but forms an inseparable binomial with "sign" (σημεῖον, semèion), thus forming the expression σημεῖα καὶ τέρατα (semèia kài tearata).

Recorded in September 2019, Semèia Kài Térata is the first work by Ensemble Ektòs, a quartet of composers and performers based in Copenhagen. The work describes an austere yet imaginative path combining stillness with the use of silences. A ritual reiteration recalling the most extreme experiences of certain minimalism and microscopic attention to timbral stratification. Rigorous and evocative, with radical attention to the beauty of the whole sound set, Semèia Kài Térata well manages to identify that sense of mysterious inevitability evoked in the title, as well as the dark wonder that miracles often bear."

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Michał Biel: Soprano Saxophone, Baritone Saxophone
Cosimo Fiaschi: Soprano Saxophone
Francesco Toninelli: Percussion, Objects
Hein Westgaard: Electric Guitar

Recorded by Michał Biel at RMC Copenhagen in September 2019. Mixed by Michał Biel and Francesco Toninelli at RMC. Mastered by Matt Bordin at Outside Inside studio. Photography by Fabio Perletta. Design by Mote Studio.

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Artist bio:

" Ensemble Ektòs is an instrumental group born in spring 2019 in Copenhagen.

The four members found themsleves sharing an interest in stillness, quiet but colourful sounds, and silence. Eager for thoroughness and focus after being involved in a crowded improvised music scene. Since then, their research aims to integrate specific instrumental practices into a conceptual approach to composition investigating themes like chance, removal of the author, contingency or the interaction with natural and cultural phenomena, with an ubiquitous interest in the complexity of reality.

The ensemble benefited from an experimental rehearsal practice built upon the interpretation of Wandelweiser repertoire, transcriptions of field recordings, extreme instumental techniques and mnemonic exercises, which created a solid yet versatile group identity. '

Artist : Ensemble Ektòs

Label : 901 Editions