Peter Hollo: cello (1,2,3,4,5)
Alex Haas: synths & electronics (3)
Gareth Davis: bass clarinet (1,2,3,4,5)
Stijn Hüwels: guitar & electronics (3,4,5)
Oene van Geel: viola and stroh violin (1,3,5)
Gulli Gudmundsson: el. bass, double bass and ebow (1,2,3,5)
Michel Banabila: soft. instruments, sampler, electronics (1,2,3,4,5)
DRAGONFLY
SOLAR WAVES
COLLECTOR
BREAKING POINT
BREATHE
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.
Cat. nr. 026TR
Limited edition / 150
Design by Yasar Saka
Artwork by Gerco de Ruijter
Alex Haas courtesy of Sonicontinuum
Mastering by Marlon Wolterink / White Noise Studio
All tracks composed & produced by Michel Banabila
