The Return of Written/Unwritten

In June this year we collaborated with pianist Matthew Bourne in our Written/Unwritten, which involved collaboration between musicians from both notated and non-notated backgrounds.  On Friday 18 November Written/Unwritten returns, and this time we’ll also be joined by experimental percussionist Vladimir Tarasov.  Ahead of the workshops for this event, Matthew tells us a little about his current musical preferences, and reflects on his previous Written/Unwritten experience.

Back in June, you were listening to Shostakovitch’s String Quartet No.13, Peter Gabriel’s eponymous debut album and Ben E. King’s Stand by Me.  What’s on your favoured playlist right now?

Joanna Newsom: Have One on Me, Olivier Messiaen: Catalogue d’Oiseaux, The Fall: Totally Wired – The Rough Trade Anthology, Dirk Bogarde: Lyrics for Lovers

Tell us a little about your previous experience of working with the London Sinfonietta. Is there anything you might do differently this time?

Matthew Bourne in rehearsal

It was a great experience and I learned a lot from the London Sinfonietta players.

I sketched out some rough ideas and took them along to the workshops and we recorded the results. I then decided which sections would be kept or altered, worked on a new piece and finally ordered the sections.This time the line-up is roughly the same so I’ll be sticking quite closely to the original piece albeit a little shorter in duration…

You’re also to be joined by percussionist Vladimir Tarasov.  How do you think this might alter the process and end performance?

I have no idea! It’ll be fun finding out, though.

Check out our blog next week for an update following the first batch of workshops for Written/Unwritten.

Matthew Bourne’s 12 Questions

Creative pianist and composer Matthew Bourne first came to national attention as one of the winners of the Perrier Jazz Awards in London, 2001. His unique ability to create powerful imagery through an esoteric piano language fused with spoken word samples earned him the Innovation Award at the BBC Radio Jazz Awards in 2002, and he continues to reap acclaim for his limitless musical imagination.

He is currently collaborating with the London Sinfonietta players to create new material for the ensemble’s Written/Unwritten festival, to be premiered on 3 June 2011. Read on to find out how he answers the Sinfonietta’s quickfire questions … 

Matthew Bourne at the first collaborative session with the LS players. Photo © Briony Campbell

What – or where – is perfection?

Interesting question – I don’t think it really exists even though one may wish that it did…

Who is your favourite hero from fiction (book/comic/film/opera)?

Any character played by the actor Corey Feldman in any film from the 1980′s.

What’s your favourite ritual?

Listening to The David Jacobs Collection on BBC Radio 2 whilst soaking in a hot bath with a glass of Bushmills Whisky at 11pm on Sunday nights. I LOVE his shows…

Which mobile number do you call the most?

It’s a close call between my two best friends, Jonny Flockton and Paul Bolderson (AKA Pb’s. or ‘Peebs’) – Human beings par excellence.

What do you fear the most?

Not having a family of my own someday.

What other talent or skill would you like to possess?

Shoeing a Horse – to become a Farrier.

Tell us about a special memory you have of Kings Place.

Playing duo concerts with Pete Wareham in the Rotunda Bar & Restaurant…

Tell us about a special memory you have of working with London Sinfonietta.

Haven’t done that yet but I’ll let you know in due course!

What’s your favourite website?

I have two longstanding favourites, actually: www.donaldrollerwilson.com & www.pentagram.com

If you could programme your ideal show, which artists (living or dead) would you bring together?

Richard Pryor, Laura Nyro, Lord Buckley, Grace Jones and Scott Walker.

What is the most important lesson life has taught you?

Impermanance and the unforgiving power of mother nature…

What is the most played piece of music on your MP3 player or in your CD collection?

Most recently it’s been Shostakovitch’s String Quartet No.13, Peter Gabriel’s eponymous debut album and Ben E. King’s Stand by Me…

Hear the world premiere of Matthew’s collaboration with the London Sinfonietta at Written/Unwritten on Friday 3 June,  and click here to read Principal percussionist David Hockings’ blog about how the collaboration got started.

www.matthewbourne.com

David Hockings on Matthew Bourne, improvisation and percussion-related injuries …

London Sinfonietta’s Principal percissionist David Hockings is taking part in Written/Unwritten, our genre-busting festival where composed and improvised music collide. Together with a handful of players, he is working with Matthew Bourne in a new collaboration which will be premiered at Kings Place on Friday 3 June 2011. Read on to find out how things got started …

David Hockings, London Sinfonietta's Principal Percussionist. Image © Briony Campbell

Working with Matthew last week was a very interesting experience, mainly because he’s a really interesting guy. It’s often difficult to begin a collaboration when musicians from quite different backgrounds come together, five of us (LS) versus one of him, so far the odds are good!  However as almost always happens, as soon as we begin to make music a sixth sense cuts in and the creative process begins, no barriers exist.

Matthew has a background largely based around improvisation, and guess what… we don’t. In order to “get going”, we used material selected from Berio’s Sequenza for Oboe that after several attempts we organised into a short repeatable section of music. During the rest of the sessions this process continued based on original material roughly sketched out by Matthew. Virtually everything we tried was recorded so that between now and our final sessions later in May, Matthew will have an opportunity to formulate some of the musical building blocks into one or more pieces.

As well as all this quite challenging work we did find time to exchange stories on how performing various works over the years we had all managed to injure ourselves, my own involving a football ratchet to the head, totally self-inflicted of course and drawing blood. Matthew’s involved staining various pianos with blood as a result of over enthusiastic plucking.

It would be wrong of me not to mention Matthew’s incredible technique on the piano, but perhaps the most surprising area that I think any of us have come across was his method of reaching the highest or lowest notes on the piano whilst both hands were busy in the “central area”: he uses his feet. Another injury story waiting to add to the list perhaps?

Matthew Bourne demonstrates his signature technique ... Image © Briony Campbell.

Whether this will be present in the final work/s who knows, you’ll just have to come and see for yourselves.

David Hockings

Keep an eye on the London Sinfonietta blog over the next few weeks, as Written/Unwritten gets ever closer.

Click here to find out more about London Sinfonietta’s Written/Unwritten festival at Kings Place, book your tickets and view for more photos from this collaborative workshop.