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1. Clarinet duo (4:16)
2. Two clarinets and guitar
(15:21)
3. Trio 10 (12:23)
4. Improvisation 2018-06-10
(26:40)
We began working together in 2016, when Michiko and I
commissioned a new quintet work from Taku (which we
later recorded and released as the CD Taku Sugimoto
Quintets: Berlin, San Diego on the
“Meena” division of the Japanese label Ftarri).
Since that time, we would meet regularly in Tokyo to play improvised music
together, mostly at the Ftarri store in Suidoubashi, but sometimes also at l-e osaki. We began to
make scores for each other to play, and our concerts would usually take the
form of three scored pieces of music, followed by a long improvisation. What
you can hear on this CD is a sort of recreation of that concert experience,
with three scored works and one improvisation. Tracks 2 and 3 (compositions
by Samuel Dunscombe and Michiko Ogawa,
respectively) were recorded live at Ftarri, and the
improvisation on track 4 was recorded at l-e osaki.
The first track, Taku Sugimoto’s clarinet duet, was
recorded in Michiko Ogawa’s front room.
The three works have a shared sense of aesthetic, but
each explores quite different ideas. Taku’s piece is an exploration of just intonation within
a nonrigid but linear timeline, mine looks at “spectral scordatura” (to
borrow Radulescu’s phrase) filtered through a
starkly reductive lens, and Michiko Ogawa’s work is an endless compulsive
re-sounding of a simple series of pitches in free flowing time (but always
with a set order).
—Samuel Dunscombe
Each copy of «2 Clarinets + Guitar» includes a
glass-mastered CD containing recordings of each of the three compositions—one
by each member of the trio—as well as a recording of a group improvisation.
Also included are copies of the three scores, each printed on a postcard that
is addressed to the individual composer. Should the listener be so inclined,
they are invited to sacrifice the scores in favor of providing feedback,
recording their thoughts or reflections, or expressing their appreciation
directly to the artists.
Samuel Dunscombe: clarinet
Michiko Ogawa: clarinet
Taku Sugimoto: guitar
Recorded and
mixed by Samuel Dunscombe
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Samuel Dunscombe Is
a performer-composer specializing in the use of clarinets, computers, and
microphones. His work spans areas including free improvisation, complex-notated
repertoire, field recording, audio engineering, and live electronics. He has
collaborated with a range of artists, from Anthony Pateras to Eva-Maria Houben; Taku Sugimoto to Iancu Dumitrescu and Ana-Maria
Avram; Richard Barrett to Toshimaru Nakamura; Pierluigi Billone to Klaus
Lang; and Cat Hope to The Necks. His recordings are available on Editions Wandelweiser (DE), Ftarri
(JPN), and Marginal Frequency (USA). In 2018, he was awarded a Doctor of
Musical Arts from the University of California (San Diego), with a
dissertation focusing on the plasmatic music of Horaţiu
Rădulescu and the creation of new
performance-ready scores of Rădulescu’s works
from the 1970s. Dunscombe subsequently lived in
Tokyo and Melbourne (where he held the position coordinator of woodwinds at
Monash University) before moving to Berlin in 2019. He works as the official
archivist for Lucero Print and the Horaţiu Rădulescu Archives in Daillens,
Switzerland.
Taku Sugimoto is a composer, guitarist, and
improviser who has been a crucial figure in experimental music since the
1990s. Currently, he is increasingly active as a composer while maintaining a
strong interest in improvisation. In recent years, he has performed, worked,
and collaborated closely with Radu Malfatti, Manfred Werder, Stefan Thut, Cristian Alvear, Christian Kobi,
Simon Roy Christensen, Johnny Chang, Takeshi Masubuchi,
and Minami Saeki. He
is a member of Suidobashi Chamber Ensemble, an
ensemble focusing on performing compositions of contemporary or experimental
music.
Michiko Ogawa is a musician specializing in the
clarinet, born and raised in Tokyo, Japan. She performs not only classical
repertoire but also contemporary and experimental music, including free
improvisation and film soundtrack work. She has appeared at many festivals
and concert series, including the Tokyo Experimental Festival (2013), Supersense Festival of Ecstatic Music (Melbourne,
Australia 2015), the Monday Evening Concert series (Los Angeles, 2016), WasteLAnd (Los Angeles, 2016), Inland (Melbourne, 2015,
2016), Kontrakrang (Berlin, 2017), Maerzmusik
(Berlin, 2018, 2019), and Brisbane International Film Festival
(Brisbane, 2018). She has worked with composers including Toshi
Ichiyanagi, Helmut Lachenmann,
Richard Barrett, Hunjoo Jung, Cat Lamb, and Chikako
Morishita and with performers including Charles
Curtis, Anthony Burr, Erik Carlson, Greg Stuart, Taku
Sugimoto, Vicki Ray, Erika Duke-Kirkpatrick, and Shalini Vijayan, among
others. She also has been collaborating with musicians Samuel Dunscombe, Taku Sugimoto, James
Rushford, Carolyn Chen, and Manuel Lima.
She frequently collaborates with visual artists, such Angela Jennings,
Lindsay Bloom, and Brianna Rigg. In 2019, Michiko was awarded a doctorate
(DMA) from the University of California (San Diego), under Prof. Anthony Burr
with a dissertation focusing on the film music of Teiji
Ito.
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