Electrifying percussion and piano duo GBSR (George Barton and Siwan Rhys) present work by, and with, one of Europe’s leading free improvisers and experimental violinists, Angharad Davies.
Three works about the shifting dynamics of relationships and the new perspectives granted by death and its enforced changes. Empty Spaces II (originally commissioned by Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival) uses samples of Angharad Davies’s violin playing (recorded in empty rooms of a disused building) to allow Siwan Rhys to ‘play’ the absent soloist. The violin is used as a jumping-off point for an exploration of absence and a clearing of imaginary space. Rydal Mount (for GBSR and Davies) is a piece rooted in the familiar task of house emptying – in this case the score is constituted by a series of photographs of items discovered and collected by Davies while clearing a relative’s house, the piece breathing new life into a frozen, inaccessible time. Davies’s amazing solo ‘unravelling’ of the violin, Solo Violin and Four Bass Amps, completes the programme.
About GBSR Duo
‘…a wonderful, adventuresome, sensitive pair of musicians’ – Kate Molleson, BBC Radio 3
GBSR Duo – George Barton (percussion) and Siwan Rhys (piano) – combines two of the UK’s finest young contemporary chamber instrumentalists. The duo has built its reputation on a combination of exceptional interpretations of the existing piano-percussion repertoire, committed performances of ambitious new commissions, and inventive collaborations.
Known for their fearless, intense and boundary-crossing performances, GBSR’s work ranges from the twentieth-century modernism of Stockhausen and Ustvolskaya to music by Brian Eno and Aphex Twin; from the exquisite delicacy of composers like Morton Feldman, Eva-Maria Houben and Barbara Monk Feldman to the experimental and cross-genre work of Oliver Leith, CHAINES and Angharad Davies.
With a keen emphasis on commissioning and repertoire-building complemented by the respect and trust of composers, GBSR’s recent world premieres include works from Eva-Maria Houben, CHAINES, Christopher Fox, Angharad Davies, Oliver Leith, Tim Parkinson, Laurence Osborn and many others, and European and UK premieres of works by Nicole Lizée, Barbara Monk Feldman, Lisa Illean, Eric Wubbels and others. Meanwhile their interest in cross-disciplinary work has led to ongoing collaborations with Angharad Davies, Dejan Mrdja, Cameron Graham and other artists.
About Angharad Davies
‘On paper, what she plays would look like nothing: just two notes, a fifth apart. But she fills that slight means with a wealth of nuance’ – Robert Barry, The Wire
Angharad Davies is a Welsh violinist based in London working with free improvisation, compositions and performance. Her approach to sound involves attentive listening and exploring beyond the sonic confines of her instrument, her classical training and performance expectation.
Much of her work involves collaboration. She has long standing duos with Tisha Mukarji, Dominic Lash and Lina Lapelyte and plays with Common Objects, Cranc and Skogen. She has been involved in projects with Tarek Atui, Tony Conrad, Richard Dawson, Gwenno, Roberta Jean, Jack McNamara, Rie Nakajima, Tim Parkinson, Eliane Radigue, Georgia Ruth and J.G. Thirlwell.
Most of her records are released on Another Timbre but she also has releases on Absinth Records, Confrontrecords, Emanem, Potlach and winds measure recordings. Her first orchestral piece was commissioned by London Contemporary Music Festival in 2019.
