Swiss percussionist-composer Vincent Glanzmann and American, Switzerland-based drummer-percussionist-composer Gerry Hemingway have been collaborating as a duo since 2015. Both share an interest in expanding and experimenting with their sonic languages, an inquisitive attitude, and, obviously, remarkable virtuosity that assist both of them to play percussion-based music beyond the common ways this kind of music is presented and perceived.
Glanzmann and Hemingway’s ’s 36-minutes, 6-parts «Composition O» enables both of them to deepen their collaborative work and their investigation of percussion-based work. «Composition O» is a work-in-progress, electro-acoustic composition for percussion and microphones, committed to a process of constant evolution. It is based on an imaginative graphic score and its structure and content evolve through reflection, revision, refinement, and/or addition of materials and techniques, all guided by the collaborative musical and compositional musings of its composers-performers. The parameters of «Composition O» are open for discussion and re-evaluation and some of its parameters may change in every performance of it. Glanzmann and Hemingway’s usage of microphones and amplification is an essential element of Composition O, allowing both to shape sounds and integrate their extended percussive techniques with carefully controlled amplification.
«Composition O» was recorded over two days in July 2017 at Studio Graben, Luzern, Switzerland. Despite the academic framework of its guidelines, it is an intriguing and sometimes even playful piece, full of clever sonic inventions but not bound by a strict pulse, or distinct percussive sounds. Hemingway’s vocalizations and harmonica playing inject a storyteller dimension to the layered, rebreathing percussive universe of sounds, and his interplay with Glanzmann is totally telepathic. Glanzmann and Hemingway play wisely with elements of tension building and release, form, and structure in a manner that sketches few, sometimes parallel story-lines, and always enriches their inquisitive dynamics.
Every new listening reveals more nuances, colors, and hidden sonic veins and currents in and withing this beautiful, arresting composition.
Eyal Hareuveni
Vincent Glanzmann (cymbals, floor tom, perc, controlled amplification), Gerry Hemingway (cymbals, perc, harm, v, controlled amplification)
