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It's really no good time: two valuable persons died.
I learned just now, that Tom Cora died April, 9. Only 44 years old. His death touches me very hart, as he belongs to my first 'musical friends'. I listened to his cello the first time at a Skeleton Crew-Performance at akzente in my hometown Wiesbaden, 16 years ago.
Tom was a tireless innovator of free music. He worked as composer, he accompanied film shows of an old soviet film by Tziga Vertov, he was member of 'THE EX' and many many other formations and he played wonderful solo concerts.
I met him from time to time, at the MIMI-Festival in southern France, at the TAKTLOS-Festival in Zürich or in Hamburg, he toured a lot. He spent his last years in Southern France.
You can read the New York Times's obituary at http://www.rarefaction.com/Cora.html.
John Zorn and Fred Frith, old companions, played at a memorial concert in the New York Knitting Factory. He will be missed at the upcoming MIMI-Festival in July.
By this music and by the conversations with him, I learned a lot. He helped me to understand free music, when he described his musical attitude:
Think about your improvisation and when the moment arrives, play something else. Surprise yourself! By this you will be much more open for the music of your co-musicians.
In 1992, I noted after a conversation with him:
It seems that the greatest difficulty is to find the end. Don't try to find it, it's there already.
We miss his calm, fine attitude, his sound stays with us.
Tatjana Didenko died last week in Moscow. |
Tatjana Didenko
at her writing desk ©I found this photo in the cache of my browser and I don't know the URL, sorry |
I met her in 1991 in Wolgograd at the Festival Unknown Movement, organized by Sergej Karcaev. He found the ways to present his phantastic videos to a nationwide audience in her magazine as well.
I met Tatjana last year at the KUKART-Festivl in St. Petersburg and at a concert in Moscow in Autumn, for the last time. She was ill, but in good manner. Death came too early.
The MIMI-Festival will take place in the Arena of Arles in Southern France July 23 to July 27. This festival, lead by the restless Ferdinand Richard, belongs to the forerunners of free music and gathers a crowd of musicians, producers, friends, music lovers every year. Here I met a lot of friends, found new friends, here our contacts to Russia started, when we met Vitali Fedko in 1990. This year, the Moscow Composers Orchestra will take part.
I will report on this festival at Avant@art for sure.
Tom Cora was one of the regular guests or participants of the festival, he will be missed.
Every two years, the TheaterAcademy Interstudio in Carskoe Celo near St. Petersburg organizes the Kukart-Festival.There will be an Interim-Festival this year:
Kukart three-and-half.
Russian and swiss artists and musicians meet, present their work and exchange ideas.
I am sorry that I cannot go there this year.
Our House is an interesting project by a performance-group from Berlin: a small house will be transported by train to Chelyabinsk in Russia, in the southern Urals, and the artists follow the train or accompany it. When arrived in Chelyabinsk, the house will be placed at one of the main squares of the city and it will serve as a meeting-point or point of action for three weeks.
This event is realized in cooperation with Lev Gutowski, head of the Chelyabinsk Centre of Contemporary Art and leader of the music- and performance - group New Art Ensemble.
You can read about the project Our House at
http://www.urc.ac.ru/our_house/.
By the way, Lev Gutovsky won first prize as best photographer at the contest Best CD-Design 1997 in Moscow last year. Congratulations!
Russian rainpipes always drive me sentimental and now I found a photo in the booklet of a new CD (Yesterday) from Moscow. (You can admire another pipe following the walk through Carskoe Celo.... )
LongArms Records, Moscow, released three new CDs with russian pianomusic. The pianists are
Alexey Lyubimov and Anton Batagov, who play compositions by Vladimir Martynov, Georges Peletsi, Alexander Rabinovitch, Sergej Zagny and Anton Batagov.
I listened to Anton Batagov's performance the first time in Wolgograd 1991 and I really admire his playing. He knows the New Music, 'learned' from Philipp Glass, recorded the Vingt Regards sur l'Enfant Jesus' by Olivier Messiaen (Melodiya 1990), he masters Kunst der Fuge and his music for december melts the snow with minimalistic persistence. He surely is one of the most interesting pianists of our time, even when he prefers the label 'composer'. His interpretations as well as his compositions are the best....
Please, switch to the presentation of the new CDs . For sure, there are some MP3 pieces!
Anton Batagov: | Music for December |
Vladimir Martynov: | OPUS POSTH |
Anton Batagov: | Yesterday |