This release is the first major survey of the music of Michael Parsons. Spread across two discs, Patterns of Connection features chamber and solo music dating from 1962, whilst Parsons was still a student at the Royal College of Music, to the present day. The music presented here spans a wide range of writing - tonal and chromatic, simple and complex - but always coheres to the rigorous ordering principles underlying the music, while displaying a striking sensitivity for sound, line and texture. Parsons has composed for and worked with, the members of Apartment House for the past 20 years, and this album reflects their long-standing, deep engagement with this inquisitive and bold music.
The co-founder of the Scratch Orchestra, alongside Cornelius Cardew and Howard Skempton, British experimentalist Michael Parsons focused his compositional energies following the dissolution of the group on developing work influences by systems and constructivist principles. Parsons' work is characterised by rational approaches to pitch ordering and rhythmic procedures, influenced by the conceptual underpinning of visual artists such as David Saunders and Jeffrey Steele. Since the mid-1990s, Parsons has combined these interests with techniques rooted in the experimental music of the 1950s and 60s, resulting in pieces that explore a unique openness in instrumentation, pitch and rhythm.
Apartment House
Philip Thomas piano
AUDIO
REVIEWS
'A work of essential value' Xpressing Music
RECORDING INFORMATION
Tracks CD1: 1-3, 7-8, 14-17, 20; CD2: 3, 7-9, 13-16, 19 recorded 21-24 March 2017, Craxton Studios, London
Tracks CD1: 4-6, 9-13, 18, 19; CD2: 1, 2, 4-6, 10-12, 17, 18 recorded 20 April 2017, Phipps Hall, University of Huddersfield
Recording producer: Simon Reynell