The American composer, percussionist and festival director Charles Amirkhanian is credited – by the legendary Laurie Anderson, no less – with reinventing the art of audio collage. His new work Ratchet Attach It is a Spitalfields Music commission for multiple ratchets and player piano, and features snippets of other works bound into a single sound world.
This is complemented with a rare performance of the British Composer Award winning work The Harmonic Canon II by another percussionist, curator and composer, Dominic Murcott. This special version of the slow movement of the piece demands a half-tonne double bell and a battery of other metal percussion, and is an aural and visual spectacular .
Dominic Murcott percussion / director
Percussionists from Trinity Laban
Programme Notes, By Charles Amirkhanian
Please note that this programme has changed from the advertised original as pianolist Rex Lawson has had to withdraw from the performance for health reasons. We send our best wishes to Rex, and hope to welcome him to a future festival.
The commission of Ratchet Attach It is supported by The London Community Fund and Cockayne – Grants for the Arts, with additional support from the New Music Commission Fund
We’ve been working with our wonderful friend from Thoroughly Good, Jon Jacob, on a series of podcasts for you to listen to pre (or post!) our events. We hope you enjoy listening!
Episode 1: What’s in the Spitalfields Festival 2021
Jon Jacob speaks to composers Errollyn Wallen, Edmund Finnis, Howard Goodall, and David Fennessey about their new works, including a tribute to those carers who lost their lives in the first wave of the COVID pandemic.
Episode 5: Composer Charles Amirkhanian discusses his work
Ahead of the world premiere by Charles Amirkhanian on Wednesday 7 July, Jon Jacob speaks to Armirkhanian about his work and what inspires this minimalist composer and sound artist.
