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monopiece + Jaap Blonk

by monopiece

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  • Full Digital Discography

    Get all 3 monopiece releases available on Bandcamp.

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of monopiece with Rodolfo Córdova "Live at C4NM", monopiece + Jaap Blonk, and this trio. , and , .

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1.
Open Piece 07:30
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2.
Of A Piece 05:19
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3.
Piece Afloat 08:35
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4.
Piece Unease 09:22
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5.
Serious Piece 02:29
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6.
Duopiece 03:41
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7.
Piece to Play 07:19
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8.
Short Piece 01:37
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9.
Piece Closed 07:35
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about

"If improvised music is about dialogue, then this is a great conversation; everybody talks, shuts up and responds and everybody leads as much as everybody waits "-Vital Weekly

The improvising trio Monopiece lists its instrumentation as guitar, percussion, and electronics, but electronics describes far more than one third of its texture, since both guitar and percussion are amplified and electronically processed. On this release they are joined by the Dutch vocal artist Jaap Blonk in recording spontaneously generated music, edited and subtly processed to reflect the communal nature of its creation without interrupting the strong, improvised narratives of each piece.
In improvised music, the interaction between musicians usually plays a primary role in the musical story that unfolds, made clear to listeners since each player is associated with the familiar sound of their instrument. Perhaps this is why electronics dominated improvising ensembles are so rare; and when there is an electronics player present they are often relegated to the role of creating novelty, rather than interacting within the vocabulary that more standard instruments share. Nevertheless, electronic ensembles have been active, if on the fringe of free improvised music since the 1960s, exemplified by groups like Electronica Musica Viva (MEV) and AMM, whose music favors long pieces with slowly evolving textures where the interaction between players is often obscured.
Monopiece’s music by contrast features much shorter pieces made up of clearly delineated conversations between sonic streams, sometimes identifiable with recognizable instruments but always relying on the ability to make quick changes of timbre and texture in shaping real-time compositions. Jaap Blonk’s contribution to this character is a perfect fit, bringing an embodied voice into the mix, but one which can leap quickly from tones and phonemes to noises of seemingly electro-mechanical inspiration. His voice provides the corporeal focus of these hallucinatory, electronic songs.

-Chris Brown

credits

released April 27, 2020

Jaap Blonk- Voice and Electronics
Nathan Corder-Electronics
Matthew Robidoux- Guitar
Timothy Russell-Percussion

Recorded April 18, 2018 at The Center for Contemporary Music, Mills College, Oakland, California | Mixed and Mastered by Nathan Corder
Produced by Nathan Corder | Executive prodution by Travassos for Trem Azul | Design & artwork by Travassos

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monopiece Oakland, California

Nathan Corder, Matt Robidoux, Tim Russell

plus esteemed guests: Rodolfo Córdova, Jaap Blonk, Tom Weeks, Aurora Josephson, Danishta Rivero, Willie Winant, Anastasia Clarke, Naomi Harrison-Clay, Breonna Taylor

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