Ori Barel - Small Town
Release Date: May 5, 2017
Label: Centaur Records
Cover Art
Small Town (48:36)
I. Staircases (11:11)
II. Mirror I (3:29)
III. Fibonacci Memory I (11:50)
IV. Mirror II (3:48)
V. Fibonacci Memory II (15:22)
VI. Felipe and the Cat (2:56)
Audio Excerpt
Mirror II - Excerpt From "Small Town"
Composed by Ori Barel
Piano by Kacey Link
Photos
Ori Barel
Kacey Link
Kacey Link
Kacey Link
Album notes
Consisting of six parts in an almost ambient solo piano style, Small Town combines an anecdotal narrative with a loose algorithmic approach. Mirror 1 and Mirror 2 illustrate, as the titles suggest, harmonic mirroring; however, the symmetry is purposefully inexact. Eighth notes are arpeggiated in contrary motion with loops that differ between the treble and bass lines. This technique, along with the damper pedal being continuously depressed, results in a blurring between harmony and melody. Both Fibonacci Memory 1 and 2 slowly reveal notes based on the Fibonacci series. In these pieces, each Fibonacci number represents a one bar unit, and once a new Fibonacci number is reached, the piece restarts. Fibonacci Memory 2 abstracts this basic technique further by incorporating another layer of manual changes on the initial form. Staircases utilizes a fragmental method and each of the fragments are connected by the end of the piece. Felipe and the Cat is anecdotal and somewhat reminiscent to Staircases, although more conclusive. Both pieces function as bookends to the larger work, Small Town.
CREDITS
Composed by Ori Barel
Piano by Kacey Link
Recorded August 20,2015 at Firehouse Studios, Pasadena, California
Produced by Les Cooper
Engineered by Josh Lewis
Mastered by Scott Fraser
Cover Art: Ori Barel
Small Town published by Ordinary Landscapes, ASCAP
Ori Barel - Bio
Ori Barel’s music explores various fields including electroacoustic music, chamber music, electronic music, and orchestral music. His chamber music has been performed by The Formalist Quartet, Kacey Link, Timur Bekbosunov, Kobayachi Trio, and The Ear Unit in venues such as MOSA series (New York), REDCAT Lounge (Los Angeles), Ballhaus (Berlin), Santander Festival (Spain) and Beyond Baroque (Los Angeles). He has performed his electronic pieces at various venues and festivals including: ICMC, Redcat, Soundwalk Festival, Center For New Music (San Francisco), CEMEC Festival in Stanford University, Mills College, and UCSD among others. In addition he has created soundscapes and compositions for various installations by different artists in museums and galleries such as Tel Aviv Museum, Jerusalem Artists’ House and Overtones Gallery (Los Angeles). He holds a B.A. in Music Composition at UCLA and a Masters degree from California Institute Of The Arts where he studied with Michael Jon Fink, Ulrich Krieger and Marc Sabat. He holds a Ph.D. in music composition from the University of California, Santa Barbara where he studied with Clarence Barlow and Curtis Roads.
Kacey Link - Bio
Kacey Link is a pianist and scholar residing in Santa Barbara, CA. As a both a solo and collaborative artist, she performs regularly in Southern California and has given recitals in the United States, France, and Switzerland. She currently serves as music director for Out of the Box Theatre Company and has also worked for Opera Santa Barbara, Kansas City Lyric Opera, and New Theatre of Kansas City. As a scholar, her research focuses on the music of Latin America and she has co-authored the book Tracing Tangueros: Argentine Tango Instrumental Music (Oxford University Press). She holds degrees from University of California – Santa Barbara (D.M.A. in Keyboard), University of Miami (M.M. in Musicology), and University of Kansas (M.M. in Accompanying, B.M. in Piano Performance).