Moons — Moons (CD)
Tracklisting
01. natural:neutral (Judith Berkson) (8:19)
02. breath in order to be completed (Christine Tavolacci) (43:48)
03. 18 Flowers in a Row (10:55)
04. inside seconds (8:32)
Format CD (with liner notes)
Catalog Number EV016
Press Release (PDF)
About
MOONS is a quartet of composer/performers Judith Berkson (accordion/voice), Laura Cetilia (cello), Katie Porter (clarinet/bass clarinet), and Christine Tavolacci (flutes). Having performed experimental music for years in various configurations, the quartet seeks to create works for ourselves that we have always wanted to hear. This debut 4-track album was recorded at an artist residency at Westminster University in Salt Lake City, Utah, May 26-27, 2023.
In Judith Berkson’s natural:neutral tuning is used as a gateway for memory, attention. and perception. Scordatura tuning in the cello creates a neutral third with the clarinet, a harmonic interval that sounds somewhere in between a major and a minor third. The slightly out of tune intervals within the ensemble sound familiar but are simultaneously not. These changes in the tuning reframe the intervals and pitch relationships we may recognize or deeply remember, where a slight shift of pitch can alter the experience within us; a kind of listening between the present and the past. Christine Tavolacci’s breath in order to be completed is a collection of writings, illustrations and musical compositions based on a series of 26 divine visions that Hildegard experienced throughout adulthood. Fear, insecurity, and the confines of a patriarchal religion created extreme hesitation around sharing these visions, and it was not until she suffered a major illness that she gained the strength to freely share these works in her early forties and create . Inspired by impermanence, Katie Porter’s 18 Flowers in a Row is a collection of very minimal graphic scores in a notebook, with just a few notes, gestures, texts, and hand drawn flowers, written specifically for the beautiful playing of Laura, Judith, and Christine. As a place for us exist in together, each flower can last any length of time, but often exist in just the same amount of time as a pop song, so these are in song-form, moment-form, and will never be the same twice. Meditating on systems that collapse and expand upon themselves, the piece uses our own texts about abstract change in our lives, and how we cannot always see what is right in front of us. Throughout inside seconds, Laura Cetilia make use of the smallest intervals in Western music theory, the minor and major second. At times this interval is suspended by one or two players while another slowly slides from one note to the other with her singing voice. this gesture is done very quietly, almost imperceptibly, so that one just senses a slight shift in tonality. There is a sort of shimmering harmony where the dissonance within these seconds is treated as a delicate timbre, negating traditional resolution. the title also references the measurement of time. there is no unifying pulse or meter in this piece. Instead the players rely on their own felt-time, entering and exiting at their own pace.
Credits
releases November 8, 2024
Moons:
Judith Berkson (accordion/voice)
Laura Cetilia (cello)
Katie Porter (clarinet/bass clarinet)
Christine Tavolacci (flutes)
Recorded by Tim Xu on May 26-27, 2023 in Jones Recital Hall & Florence J. Gillmor Hall at Westminster Performing Arts Center at Westminster University in Salt Lake City, UT.
Produced by Moons & Jordan Dykstra
Mixing Engineer: Bob Bellerue
Mastering Engineer: Sean McCann
Layout and Design: Jordan Dykstra
Special Thanks: Jordan Dykstra, Kimi Kawashima, Devin Maxwell, and our families.
Cover image of Europa courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech/SETI Institute. Moons image courtesy of ISSUE Project Room, photographed by Cameron Kelly McLeod.
© & ℗ Basilita Bonita Publishing (BMI)
*** Free Digital Files
If you would also like to receive the digital files for your CD purchase, please email your order number and we will send the files.
Tracklisting
01. natural:neutral (Judith Berkson) (8:19)
02. breath in order to be completed (Christine Tavolacci) (43:48)
03. 18 Flowers in a Row (10:55)
04. inside seconds (8:32)
Format CD (with liner notes)
Catalog Number EV016
Press Release (PDF)
About
MOONS is a quartet of composer/performers Judith Berkson (accordion/voice), Laura Cetilia (cello), Katie Porter (clarinet/bass clarinet), and Christine Tavolacci (flutes). Having performed experimental music for years in various configurations, the quartet seeks to create works for ourselves that we have always wanted to hear. This debut 4-track album was recorded at an artist residency at Westminster University in Salt Lake City, Utah, May 26-27, 2023.
In Judith Berkson’s natural:neutral tuning is used as a gateway for memory, attention. and perception. Scordatura tuning in the cello creates a neutral third with the clarinet, a harmonic interval that sounds somewhere in between a major and a minor third. The slightly out of tune intervals within the ensemble sound familiar but are simultaneously not. These changes in the tuning reframe the intervals and pitch relationships we may recognize or deeply remember, where a slight shift of pitch can alter the experience within us; a kind of listening between the present and the past. Christine Tavolacci’s breath in order to be completed is a collection of writings, illustrations and musical compositions based on a series of 26 divine visions that Hildegard experienced throughout adulthood. Fear, insecurity, and the confines of a patriarchal religion created extreme hesitation around sharing these visions, and it was not until she suffered a major illness that she gained the strength to freely share these works in her early forties and create . Inspired by impermanence, Katie Porter’s 18 Flowers in a Row is a collection of very minimal graphic scores in a notebook, with just a few notes, gestures, texts, and hand drawn flowers, written specifically for the beautiful playing of Laura, Judith, and Christine. As a place for us exist in together, each flower can last any length of time, but often exist in just the same amount of time as a pop song, so these are in song-form, moment-form, and will never be the same twice. Meditating on systems that collapse and expand upon themselves, the piece uses our own texts about abstract change in our lives, and how we cannot always see what is right in front of us. Throughout inside seconds, Laura Cetilia make use of the smallest intervals in Western music theory, the minor and major second. At times this interval is suspended by one or two players while another slowly slides from one note to the other with her singing voice. this gesture is done very quietly, almost imperceptibly, so that one just senses a slight shift in tonality. There is a sort of shimmering harmony where the dissonance within these seconds is treated as a delicate timbre, negating traditional resolution. the title also references the measurement of time. there is no unifying pulse or meter in this piece. Instead the players rely on their own felt-time, entering and exiting at their own pace.
Credits
releases November 8, 2024
Moons:
Judith Berkson (accordion/voice)
Laura Cetilia (cello)
Katie Porter (clarinet/bass clarinet)
Christine Tavolacci (flutes)
Recorded by Tim Xu on May 26-27, 2023 in Jones Recital Hall & Florence J. Gillmor Hall at Westminster Performing Arts Center at Westminster University in Salt Lake City, UT.
Produced by Moons & Jordan Dykstra
Mixing Engineer: Bob Bellerue
Mastering Engineer: Sean McCann
Layout and Design: Jordan Dykstra
Special Thanks: Jordan Dykstra, Kimi Kawashima, Devin Maxwell, and our families.
Cover image of Europa courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech/SETI Institute. Moons image courtesy of ISSUE Project Room, photographed by Cameron Kelly McLeod.
© & ℗ Basilita Bonita Publishing (BMI)
*** Free Digital Files
If you would also like to receive the digital files for your CD purchase, please email your order number and we will send the files.
Tracklisting
01. natural:neutral (Judith Berkson) (8:19)
02. breath in order to be completed (Christine Tavolacci) (43:48)
03. 18 Flowers in a Row (10:55)
04. inside seconds (8:32)
Format CD (with liner notes)
Catalog Number EV016
Press Release (PDF)
About
MOONS is a quartet of composer/performers Judith Berkson (accordion/voice), Laura Cetilia (cello), Katie Porter (clarinet/bass clarinet), and Christine Tavolacci (flutes). Having performed experimental music for years in various configurations, the quartet seeks to create works for ourselves that we have always wanted to hear. This debut 4-track album was recorded at an artist residency at Westminster University in Salt Lake City, Utah, May 26-27, 2023.
In Judith Berkson’s natural:neutral tuning is used as a gateway for memory, attention. and perception. Scordatura tuning in the cello creates a neutral third with the clarinet, a harmonic interval that sounds somewhere in between a major and a minor third. The slightly out of tune intervals within the ensemble sound familiar but are simultaneously not. These changes in the tuning reframe the intervals and pitch relationships we may recognize or deeply remember, where a slight shift of pitch can alter the experience within us; a kind of listening between the present and the past. Christine Tavolacci’s breath in order to be completed is a collection of writings, illustrations and musical compositions based on a series of 26 divine visions that Hildegard experienced throughout adulthood. Fear, insecurity, and the confines of a patriarchal religion created extreme hesitation around sharing these visions, and it was not until she suffered a major illness that she gained the strength to freely share these works in her early forties and create . Inspired by impermanence, Katie Porter’s 18 Flowers in a Row is a collection of very minimal graphic scores in a notebook, with just a few notes, gestures, texts, and hand drawn flowers, written specifically for the beautiful playing of Laura, Judith, and Christine. As a place for us exist in together, each flower can last any length of time, but often exist in just the same amount of time as a pop song, so these are in song-form, moment-form, and will never be the same twice. Meditating on systems that collapse and expand upon themselves, the piece uses our own texts about abstract change in our lives, and how we cannot always see what is right in front of us. Throughout inside seconds, Laura Cetilia make use of the smallest intervals in Western music theory, the minor and major second. At times this interval is suspended by one or two players while another slowly slides from one note to the other with her singing voice. this gesture is done very quietly, almost imperceptibly, so that one just senses a slight shift in tonality. There is a sort of shimmering harmony where the dissonance within these seconds is treated as a delicate timbre, negating traditional resolution. the title also references the measurement of time. there is no unifying pulse or meter in this piece. Instead the players rely on their own felt-time, entering and exiting at their own pace.
Credits
releases November 8, 2024
Moons:
Judith Berkson (accordion/voice)
Laura Cetilia (cello)
Katie Porter (clarinet/bass clarinet)
Christine Tavolacci (flutes)
Recorded by Tim Xu on May 26-27, 2023 in Jones Recital Hall & Florence J. Gillmor Hall at Westminster Performing Arts Center at Westminster University in Salt Lake City, UT.
Produced by Moons & Jordan Dykstra
Mixing Engineer: Bob Bellerue
Mastering Engineer: Sean McCann
Layout and Design: Jordan Dykstra
Special Thanks: Jordan Dykstra, Kimi Kawashima, Devin Maxwell, and our families.
Cover image of Europa courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech/SETI Institute. Moons image courtesy of ISSUE Project Room, photographed by Cameron Kelly McLeod.
© & ℗ Basilita Bonita Publishing (BMI)
*** Free Digital Files
If you would also like to receive the digital files for your CD purchase, please email your order number and we will send the files.