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Reidemeister Move plays

BORROMEAN RINGS

Robin Hayward — microtonal tuba
Christopher Williams — contrabass

Performing Borromean Rings might be compared to playing a board game such as chess. Notation is used to define a field of possible moves for navigating within harmonic space. Unlike chess however the idea is not to overcome the other player, but rather to challenge them to explore continually fresh avenues within the harmonic framework laid out by the score.

Listen

Format

Picture Disc + digital download
30:59 min
limited edition of 300 hand numbered copies
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Credits

  • Composed by Robin Hayward
  • Recorded in August 2014 at Rutenberg church, Brandenburg, Germany
  • Recording and mix by Werner Dafeldecker
  • Master by Frederik Knop, Listeners Mastering Studio
  • Graphic score by Robin Hayward
  • Cover design and Reidemeister Move logo by Wendelin Büchler

Some praise…

“Microtonal tubist Robin Hayward and contrabassist Christopher Williams secrete sedated moods between chest and solar plexus, leaving chakras tingling in puzzlement”
A Closer Listen (USA)

“… like two animals circling in a maze”
The Sound Projector (UK)

“Borromean Rings is a challenging yet deeply meditative listen, and is certain to reward those with deep ears and open minds.”
— Decoder Magazine (USA)

“Feierliches In-sich-Gehen…”
— Skug, Journal für Musik (AT)

“…it’s nice to be escorted by the sheer influence of instruments transmitting, first and foremost, an impulse to act calmly and live “in the moment”
— Touching Extremes (IT)

“…It is a slow and majestically played piece, … Sombre and quite intense music.”
FDW, Vital Weekly 1029 (NL)

“Chi ha già avuto modo di apprezzare il genio del musicista inglese non dovrebbe abbisognare dei miei consigli…”
Sounds And Silence ZINE (IT)

Reviews

The rings referenced in the title of Reidemeister Move’s album are found neither in a jewelry store, nor in the center of a redwood. Instead, Borromean Rings are native to knot theory, a mathematical branch of topology studying closed, looped curves in three dimensions. Comprised of two long tracks, both compositions are guided by a graphical score setting parameters for harmonic modulations. Moving slowly through the loosely structured framework, microtonal tubist Robin Hayward and contrabassist Christopher Williams secrete sedated moods between chest and solar plexus, leaving chakras tingling in puzzlement. In homage to the circle, nature’s simplest knot, it’s unclear who is leading whom, both players pacing the other, sinking slowly into fog. Each ragged ebbing teases partial pitches; each phrase resonates long as breath or bow allows, approaching, yet evading, harmonic resolution. Vibrating with a perilous mantra, Reidemeister Move explores a lugubrious prudence congealing in stoic repose.
— Todd B. Gruel, A Closer Listen

Das Berliner Label Corvo Records hat es wieder geschafft, eine für mich besondere Musik zu veröffentlichen. Es ist eine äußerst fruchtbare Zusammenarbeit mit dem Komponisten und Musiker Robin Hayward, der in der Formation Reidemeister Move auch als Interpret vertreten ist. Die Picture Disc zeigt einen Kreis aus Notenlinien mit dem Kernmaterial der Platte im Basschlüsselsystem notiert. Inhaltlich dreht es sich hier um die Borromäischen Ringe. Wikipedia: „Die Borromäischen Ringe sind eine spezielle Anordnung von genau drei (biegsamen, nicht ebenen) Ringen, mathematisch gesprochen, eine Verschlingung mit drei Komponenten, für die die Eigenschaft gilt: Löst man einen der Ringe heraus, so sind auch die beiden anderen frei. Das heißt, die Ringe sind paarweise unverschlungen, obwohl alle drei zusammengenommen unlösbar miteinander verschlungen sind. …“ Diese speziellen, inneinander verwobenen Ringe sind in dieser Komposition stark verankert. Durch eine bewusste Atemführung und die besonderen Mischungsverhältnisse der Intervalle zueinander entstehen Flächen, die auch eine klare Zuweisung zu den Instrumenten nicht immer automatisch zulassen. Der Kontrabass, der in seinem Register mit der speziellen Auffächerung der Obertöne und der Bewegung wie ein Blasinstrument anmutet, verschlingt sich mit einer Tuba, die mit Haywards gezielter Spielart mich stark an das tibetanische Horn „Dungchen“ und auch betende, murmelnde Menschen erinnert. Diese kontemplative organische Musik wirkt aber niemals statisch oder stoisch. Es ist eine unglaublich interessante und genaue Arbeit, die die HörerInnen in eine tiefe, bewegte Ruhe versetzt. Große, große Empfehlung meinerseits, von den Katzen gar nicht zu sprechen!
— hirscha, freistil

The duo Reidemeister Move take their name from mathematical knot theory. On Borromean Rings, the low-end dexterity of Robin Hayward’s microtonal tuba engages the bowed bass of Christopher Williams in a kind of acoustic chess game. Their twin instrumental voices resemble a modulating foghorn, coinciding in unison or a calculated interval apart, as they nudge each other to explore avenues within a harmonic space defined by a graphic score. The music’s quiet intensity is ruffled by interference beats and interrupted at one point by a plosive shock.
— Tristan Bath, The Wire

Na berlínském labelu pro improvizovanou hudbu Corvo Records vyšlo album (v podobě barevného vinylu a v počtu pouhých 300 kopií) Reidemeister Move plays Borromean Rings. Natočila jej v srpnu 2014 v kostele v braniborském Rutenbergu dvojice uznávaných avantgardních instrumentalistů – skladatel a hráč na mikrotonální tubu Robin Hayward a kontrabasista Christopher Williams.

Tubista Robin Hayward se narodil v Brightonu (1969), od roku 1998 žije v Berlíně. Zavedl některé revoluční způsoby hry na svůj nástroj (vynalezl např.noise-ventil), než v roce 2009 vyvinul první mikrotonální tubu. Založil experimentální soubor dechové komorní hudby Zinc&Copper, úzce spolupracuje se skladateli Christianem Wolffem, Alvinem Lucierem a Éliane Radigue. Natočil tři alba sólové tuby – Valve Division (2005), States Of Rushing (2009) a Nouveau Saxhorn Nouveau Basse (2014), na konec dubna je plánováno další (Rubble Master). Natáčel též s Axelem Dörnerem, Luciem Capece, Robertem Fabbricianim, Julií Eckhardt, Annette Krebs a Rhodrim Daviesem. Kontrabasista Christopher Williams se narodil v San Diegu (1981), studoval hudbu nejen ve Spojených státech, ale také v Barceloně, kde nějaký čas žil (2003-2009), než přesídlil do Berlína. Zde získal doktorát; jeho práce se týkala tématu notace pro improvizátory. Spolupracuje s význačnými soubory, taktéž tanečními, hraje s celou plejádou výrazných osobností improvizační scény (Derek Bailey, Justin Bennett, Hans W.Koch, Barbara Held atd.).

Borromean Rings, čili Boromejské kroužky, znamenají tři topologické prvky, jež jsou navzájem propojeny. Muzikanti k nim přistupují v podstatě jako ke grafické partituře, něčemu jako abstraktnímu minimalismu. Zároveň ale ony tři propojené kroužky představují cosi na způsob deskové hry, podobné šachům; ovšem s tím rozdílem, že myšlenkou není překonat druhého hráče, ale nutit jej znovu a znovu zkoumat nové tahy v hudebním vyjádření. To je souborem kompletního příspěvku obou aktérů, ať již po stránce tématické, rytmické, harmonické i dynamické. Kompozice, zaznamenaná na LP, trvá 31 minut. Je vystavěna z dlouhých souzvuků i dvojhlasů, v nichž se tuba a kontrabas (hraný smyčcem) různě překrývají, splývají či navazují a vrší. Vedoucím hlasem je zprvu, zdá se, tuba – po 18.minutě se stále vehementněji prosazuje kontrabas. Témbrové chuchvalce mají různou dynamiku i zabarvení, pracuje se také s nepravidelností v nástupech a dozvucích, oba hlasy se navzájem inspirují, přičemž mezi nimi panuje shoda i napětí. Vzájemnému pnutí napomáhají také překvapivé odmlky a pomlky, dokonce i úder na basový korpus (22. minuta), posléze údery dokonce dva, v závěru i drnknutí. Každá taková maličkost, znamenající narušení nadvlády témbrů, působí až eruptivně, nebývale expresivně. Ovšem za předpokladu, že posluchač je patřičně ponořen do hudebního magmatu. Škoda jen, že hudební tok nakonec neústí nikam. Chybí mi tam coda, něco určitého, k čemu oba hudebníci směřovali a doputovali; museli mít před sebou přece nějaký cíl! Nebo ne? Že by sama cesta byla cílem? Nevím, to bych ale použil jiný obrazec. Ať tak, či onak, je to hudební výlet jaksi od něčeho nikam…
— Jan Hocek, His Voice

The stillness of a reticent Sunday identified by voluble weather (and a tiny measure of migraine) was decorated by a somewhat ephemeral composition by microtonal tubist Robin Hayward, half of the Reidemeister Move duo with contrabassist Christopher Williams as the opposite fifty percent. The score for this piece is circular, and was printed on the white vinyl of this edition; both the conceptual elements and the physical object of our discussion are observable at the above link.

Due to the instrumentation, the frequency spectrum considered is obviously limited to the lower ranges. The sounds emitted by Hayward and Williams (who employs arco throughout, except for a couple of plucked dots) evolve gradually but firmly, allowing the acoustic particles to enter that state of consonant oscillation which strengthens a given note as it unfolds. The consistency of the essentials results in profound parallelisms, all the more effective when the pitches are close – namely, very often. Needless to say, the “classic” throbbing of adjacent partials constitutes a predominant trait; at adequate volume, the outcome impresses in several parts of the opus. However, the music works fine even at levels barely exceeding a whisper, providing that the listening environment is noiseless.

A definite plus: overly protracted pauses are absent. There are just a few hints to muteness scattered around the entire track, as if the musicians wanted to briefly regroup after an intense concentration. Then they start again, leading us through new juxtapositions informed by the warm broadness of their joint timbres. In absence of dramatic turnarounds it’s nice to be escorted by the sheer influence of instruments transmitting, first and foremost, an impulse to act calmly and live “in the moment”.
— Massimo Ricci, Touching Extremes

Both the project name Reidemeister Move and the composition title Borromean Rings are borrowed from the mathematical field of knot theory. The graphical score — composed by microtonal tuba inventor and maestro Robin Hayward and imprinted directly on the vinyl LP– echoes its Euclidean origins, being circular in nature and essentially offering the players a “field of possible moves for navigating in harmonic space.” For this recording, Hayward and his tuba are joined by contrabassist Christopher Williams. Throughout the proceedings, the duo are constantly weaving about each other while maintaining their footing within the framework of the score. The deep, foghorn-like pulsations of the tuba are echoed in the buzzsaw timbre of bowed contrabass as the piece slowly unfolds. As unhurriedly as the music is delivered (there are sometimes even short periods of near-silence as Hayward and Williams rest between extended passages of low-end resonance), it is striking in its subtlety and depth. One never gets the feeling that either of the players is falling behind the other; the tuba is exposed and enhanced by the deep vibrations of the bass. Borromean Rings is a challenging yet deeply meditative listen, and is certain to reward those with deep ears and open minds.
The LP — which itself is a fine work to behold visually — can be had by venturing over to the Corvo Records shop, but is limited to 300 copies so act quickly.
— Bryon Hayes, Decoder

 

Wo träfe das “Jenseits des…” besser zu, als bei den auf Corvos Sublabel Global Pop First Wave von Holger Lund kompilierten Reihen “Saz Beat” (mit westlich angepischertem Pop von Soft Folk über Hard Rock und von Müezzin-Psychedelik bis Disko-Funk in der Türkei der 60er & 70er) und”The Trip (Psychedelic Music from the Hippie Trail)”, auf dessen Routen von Italien in die Türkei und weiter nach Nepal mehr Bizarrerien aufschnappt werden als einst von Marco Polo? Aber wie steht es mit dem Horizont daheim? Reidemeister-Bewegungen ist ein nach dem Mathematiker Kurt Reidemeister benannter Begriff aus der Knotentheorie, und Borromäische Ringe nennt man die spezielle Verschlingung dreier Ringe,mit der dann Jacques Lacan, als ein Modell für die Struktur des menschlichen Begehrens, seine Sinthom-Theorie schlang aus dem Realen, Imaginären, Symbolischen und eben dem Sinthom, als dem Element, das den (oder die) Knoten überhaupt erst zusammenhält. Haupt-Reidemeister ist Robin Hayward an der mikrotonalen Tuba, so dass auch eine weitere Bedeutung von Reidemeister mitschwingt, als eine veraltete Bezeichnung für im Metallgewerbe Tätige. Mit Christopher Williams am Kontrabass,selber ein Spieleerfinder (etwa “Arcanum 17” für Reidemeister Move) und überhaupt Wayfarer on the Body-Mind Continuum, der in Berlin die Neue-Musik-Reihen Kontraklang und Certain Sundays mitorganisiert, spielt er hier ein Spiel nach von ihm entworfenen Regeln. Es ist ein Spiel, das in seinem harmonischen Rahmen keinen Gewinner sucht, sondern nach Möglichkeiten und Alternativen. Mich erinnert es stark an “Travel Stain”, Haywards Tanz (zusammen mit dem Gitarristen Seth Josel) um eine graphische Partitur aus hexagonalen Bienenwaben. Auch klanglich ist es wieder eine Folge dröhnminimalistischer Umbra-Klänge. Bogenstriche am dunkelsten Ende des Kontrabassregisters und brummig getutete Haltetöne steigen in Halb- und Ganztonschritten treppauf, treppab. Aus der steigenden und sinkenden Tonhöhe und der unterschiedlichen Länge monotoner, in sich ruhender Klänge entsteht eine “Litany for the Whale”, eine ‘Melancholie des Widerstands’, ein Nebelhornkonzert, deren Agenten, wenn nicht am Begehren, so doch am Kurs Richtung Undsoweiter festhalten. Never mind the icebergs, never mind the Sonnenfinsternis.
— RBD, Bad Alchemy 88

Εντελώς παράξενο άκουσμα από ένα label, τη γερμανική corvo records, που μας έχει συνηθίσει στις ηχητικές «ακρότητες». Ο λόγος για το “plays Borromean Rings” των Reidemeister Move, τους οποίους αποτελούν οι Robin Hayward μικροτονική τούμπα & σύνθεση και Christopher Williams κοντραμπάσο. Δύο μπάσα όργανα δηλαδή (το ένα, μάλιστα, μικροτονικό) σε μια επικοινωνία-μονομαχία με νικητή το… βόμβο και τον λελογισμένο θόρυβο. Δίχως ηλεκτρονικές παρεκβάσεις ή άλλα έξτρα βοηθητικά, οι δύο μουσικοί κατορθώνουν να δημιουργήσουν ένα πλήρες drone άκουσμα, που αναπτύσσεται σε 31 λεπτά ακριβώς, ορίζοντας ένα αισθητικό περιβάλλον ικανό να τους πάει παρακάτω… Σε κάτι που θα έχει ως βάση αυτό το συγκεκριμένο ή κάτι άλλο… Οψόμεθα, όπως λένε.

[Ηχογραφημένο σε εκκλησία, κάπου στο Βρανδεμβούργο, τον Αύγουστο του 2014, το “plays Borromean Rings” εννοείται πως αφορά σε πολύ συγκεκριμένη κατηγορία ακροατών, καθώς κινείται στα άκρα του πειράματος. Δεν απαγορεύεται, φυσικά, να το ακούσουν και όποιοι άλλοι…].
— Phontas Troussas, diskoryxeion

These two releases are released on LP by Berlin’s Corvo Records, but for promotional reasons they also made propressed CDs, and let me once again say how much I love CDs, contrary to popular fetishism for vinyl.
A good mastered CD for experimental music is to preferred over vinyl, certainly when such delicate music is pressed on it as with these two. ‘Borromean Rings’ by Robin Hayward (microtonal tuba and composition) and Christopher Williams (contrabass) is one piece that lasts thirty-one minute and while not a continuous piece of music, so it’s easy to cut it in half for LP pressing, it works best when listened as one, uninterrupted piece of music. The piece is a bit like a chess match: ‘notation is used to define a field of possible moves for navigating within harmonic space’, with the difference there is no winner in this match. The score lays down a harmonic framework and the two players keep within that framework. Here we have a very minimal work of two instruments from the lower range of the spectrum, playing sustaining pieces that last anywhere between one and four or so minutes, in which the tuba plays a bit more notes than the contrabass, which is perhaps easier to sustain than the tuba. It is a slow and majestically played piece of music, very low in the sound spectrum, which gives all of this a somewhat soaring tone. Sombre and quite intense music.
— FDW, Vital Weekly 1029

 

Feierliches In-sich-Gehen. Die Rutenberg-Kirche in Brandenburg war im August 2014 Schauplatz dieser Aufnahme. Man wird des sakralen Raumes gewahr, auch wenn dieser grafische Score von Robin Hayward nur den Verstärkerboxen des Wohnzimmers entfleucht. Keine Ahnung, wie Reidemeister Move aka Robin Hayward (mikrotonale Tuba) und Christopher Williams (Kontrabass) das im Detail anlegen. Innerhalb eines harmonischen Rahmens mäandern jedenfalls die beschaulichen Klänge in Form Borromäischer Ringe, die zusammengenommen verschlungen, aber paarweise unverschlungen sind. Die Benennung geht übrigens zurück auf das italienische Adelsgeschlecht der Borromäer, die die Ringe in ihrem Familienwappen hatten und en miniature an den Knöpfen ihrer Uniformen trugen. Doch zurück zum Hörerlebnis. Zur Notation, die ein Feld möglicher Bewegungen definiert, um durch den harmonischen Raum zu navigieren. Nach 31 Minuten Kontemplation ist zu konstatieren: Zwar fühlt man sich an Minimal Music erinnert, doch setzt die scheinbar kreisförmige Komposition weniger auf Repetition denn allmähliches Umherwandern.
— Alfred Pranzl, Skug Journal für Musik

Don’t seem to have heard a record from Berlin tuba player Robin Hayward since 2010’s States Of Rushing on Choose Records, an LP whose memorable cover image spoke volumes about the steely precision of this ultra-minimal player who has done so much to chill the bones and cool the jets of many young hot-heads who cluster like flies around the Exploratorium. Hayward’s with us today credited with playing the “microtonal tuba” and joined by Christopher Williams, another Berlin player who carries the contrabass and once made a record with Derek Bailey in 2004. Together, the duo call themselves Reidemeister Move, and on Plays Borromean Rings they perform one of Hayward’s compositions. It can’t have escaped your notice that the score – a graphic score, at that – for the piece is printed directly on the record as a picture disk, thus forming a neat packaging of ideas and sound into a single cohesive unit. This sort of imaginative approach is one of the hallmarks of Corvo Records, I think, each release in their small but select catalogue exhibiting a successful marriage of visuals, sound, and packaging.

The graphic score for Borromean Rings is a very precisely-rendered string of information, as severe as computer code, and its sequence or logic is not plain to the untrained eye. Yet the intention behind Borromean Rings is not to create a ring-fenced barrier of inescapable rules, rather to free up the players in some way…the concise text printed within likens the composition to a game for two players, whose rules are intended to help each player “explore continually fresh avenues within the harmonic framework”. In trying to explain this kind of thing to myself, I usually reach for the metaphor of a map, one that’s intended to help the walker find their way around a strange clump of terrain. As for rules-yet-no-rules, I always understood (perhaps wrongly) that this was the essence of Cecil Taylor’s method, when directing his typically epic collaborative works of energy jazz.

Full marks for the concept and the method, then. But Reidemeister Move Plays Borromean Rings isn’t a very exciting listen. The lower-register drones are played with care and precision, but with zero passion; the even-ness of the work starts to grind down the listener in short order, much like a house painter who is skilled at applying a perfectly smooth layer of white paint throughout the house, slowly working in his methodical way. It’s not clear to me how the players are manoeuvring for position, if that’s what the game of Borromean Rings entails; I’m unable to perceive the intended avenues of exploration in what seems to me more like a series of slowly-executed turns on the exact same spot, like two animals circling in a maze. Much as I like the picture disc format, the music suffers from being pressed in vinyl this way, and the surface noise on my copy marred my appreciation of what I suppose is meant to be pristine, blemish-free minimalism.

On the positive side, the sound of these particular instruments is something I can enjoy for long stretches, and there is an unhurried pace to the playing that is evidence of the discipline and skill of both players, able to sustain long tones and extraordinarily precise fingering for long periods of time without once disturbing the chilled atmosphere. Werner Dafeldecker, of Polwechsel fame, did the recording in a church in Brandenburg. The label owner Wendelin Bücher designed the package, and even came up with a logo design for Reidemeister Move; it’s printed quite small, and it’s not quite in the same league as a Black Metal emblem, but it’s a nice touch. Numbered and limited to 300 copies; arrived 26th April 2016.
— Ed Pinsent, The Sound Projector 7/2017

Scrivendo della Corvo Records in un articolo, ne parlavo come di una naturale erede della compianta Absinth, e almeno due di questi dischi confermano quella mia affermazione (Robin Hayward e Gilles Aubry erano presenti anche in quel catalogo). Oggi è infatti proprio la Corvo Records a porsi quale più attenta documentatrice di quanto avviene nella scena sperimentale berlinese e nelle derive a essa collegate.
In “Plays Borromean Rings” il duo Reidemeister Move (Robin Hayward e Christopher Williams) suona una complessa partitura grafica ispirata agli anelli di Borromeo (riportata nello splendido picture in vinile bianco latte). Per quanto sono riuscito a capire al contrabbasso e alla tuba microtonale è concessa una relativa libertà armonica pur essendo entrambi costretti a mantenere un legame l’uno con l’altro. A livello pratico viene a crearsi una catena formata dai suoni circolari dei due strumenti, suoni profondi e grevi, che in alcuni momenti si interrompe in flash di silenzio per ricomporsi in un punto diverso dello spazio. Chi ha già avuto modo di apprezzare il genio del musicista inglese non dovrebbe abbisognare dei miei consigli, per gli altri la scoperta non può essere più rimandata.
— Mario Biserni, Sands Zine

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