Microtub - new LP/CD

[bighonkintuba]

MICROTUB - Star System (Sofa 544; Norway) Consisting of three fully microtonal tubas, Microtub explores group tuba music from the perspective of microtonality. Color-coded sculptural scores are used to define areas of harmonic space in just intonation, presenting geometric structures to be explored by the players over time. The 3-dimensional graphic scores used on the album Star System are subsets of the Hayward Tuning Vine, which arose out of a desire to visualize the harmonic space implicit within the microtonal tuba. Each of the balls represent pitches, and the struts between them musical intervals. In "Star System" (side A), the musicians orbit once around the star-like structure, revealing the harmonic space implicit within it. In "Square Dance" (side B), the various squares and rectangles within the score are gradually explored by the musicians, analogous to a slow dance through harmonic space. Star System was recorded at Sjobygda Art House in Selbu, Norway in April 2013. Mixed by Espen Reinertsen and mastered by Helge Sten. Microtub: Robin Hayward (microtonal F-tuba); Kristoffer Lo (microtonal C-tuba); Martin Taxt (microtonal C-tuba).
LP $24

[bighonkintuba]

More press:
http://avantmusicnews.com/2015/02/23/am ... sofalp544/" target="_blank
(there appears to be a CD version)

Label info:
http://www.sofamusic.no/releases/index.php?id=544" target="_blank

~$16 for the CD, but it's not clear if that includes international shipping. I ordered one and will post if/when it arrives.

[bighonkintuba]

The cost included shipping and arrival from Norway in 6 business days.

[Three Valves]

Is listening to this as tedious as that description??

[bighonkintuba]

Just finished a listen. I quite like it.

I suppose it qualifies as a form of drone music, but I'm not sure. No melody or other recognizable form.

Others who also appreciate some of the weird (sometimes dronish) music that Brian Turner plays on WMFU might like it.

[bighonkintuba]

A review of an earlier Microtub release (appears to be download only). The last paragraph made me chuckle:

Berlin based British tuba virtuoso Robin Hayward has conducted extensive research into the microtonal possibilities of his instrument, and his articles on the subject involve some serious discussion of tuning systems peppered with plenty of forbidding mathematical equations. Fascinating though the subject might be from a theoretical point of view, there's no need for the listener to be familiar with the 17 note undertone rows and altered cent deviations to appreciate the delicacy, sensuality even, of the single 32 minute piece that makes up this debut album of his tuba trio with Martin Taxt and former student Kristoffer Lo, whose idea the project was.

Lo and Taxt plays standard contrabass tubas in C, while Hayward's instrument is a bass tuba pitched a fourth higher and equipped with a specially modified set of valves allowing him to pitch microtonal intervals with extraordinary precision. In the opening section of the piece he's the one responsible for the tiny pitch inflections, elaborated and fine-tuned (literally) during a period of extensive rehearsal.

As English microtonal composer Frank Denyer has pointed out, such fine differences of a few cents tend to be percieved as changes not in pitch but in timbre. Indeed, the fluttering beat patterns and rich, velvety sonorities of Microtub are light years away from the awful farting oompah nightmare most folks might expect in a piece for three tubas. While the central section sounds like the purr of a giant cat, the resemblance to the human voice in the opening and closing sections is striking, despite the musicians' studious avoidance of singing and playing simultaneously.

Dan Warburton

[Three Valves]

Indeed, the fluttering beat patterns and rich, velvety sonorities of Microtub are light years away from the awful farting oompah nightmare most folks might expect in a piece for three tubas.

That is funny!!