ArtistInfo

Michel Banabila
Uprooted

Album NL 2019 on Tapu Records label
Electronic and Classical (Contemporary, Modern Classical, Ambient, Minimal, Experimental)

'The Uprooted Orchestra' “Orchestral.” The word’s an adjective, certainly, an unambiguous one. It depicts amassed instruments working in synchrony according to a fixed document prepared in advance. But what if “orchestral” were uprooted? What if “orchestral” referred to what we heard, not how it was recorded? What if “orchestral” welcomed electronic instruments not just into the pit, but into the compositional process? For that is the sound of Michel Banabila’s Uprooted, this album of beautiful, striated, patient music — patient on the surface, deep with turmoil underfoot. When bass clarinet and harmonium rise above a misty string section halfway through “Breathe,” that’s orchestral. When woodwinds trill and pulse against piano on “Dragonfly,” that’s orchestral. Over the years, Banabila has made his share of experimental ambient, wherein future roots cultures are foreseen through a low-tech looking glass. On Uprooted, the tech is transparent. The album has touches of Fourth World, most notably on “Collector” and "Breathe," but Uprooted is orchestral, full stop. It’s also an album entirely forged of material sampled by Banabila from improvisations by invited musicians. Those samples were then constructed into a whole by Banabila, layered sinuously rather than triggered on a rhythmic grid. The fixed orchestral document here is the recording, and it marks the close of the composer’s efforts, not the start of the performers’. Marc Weidenbaum. San Francisco, March 2019.

Musicians

	Michel Banabila , *1961 NL composed by, midi controller, producer, sampler, album by
	Gareth Davis bcl, GB bass clarinet
	Peter Hollo vc, voc, cello
	Gulli Gudmundsson cb, *1971 IS double bass, e-bow, electric bass
	Stijn Hüwels g, *1978 BE electric guitar
	Alex Haas key, perc, g, *1963 US electronics, synth
	Oene Van Geel vl, vn, *1973 stroh violin, viola

Producers

Composers

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