Meet our favourite emerging artists.
The third edition of Nonclassical's annual series of EPs Outside the Lines brings together work by our four Associate Composers for 2019–20, alongside a piece by Alex Ho and performed by the winner of Nonclassical's Battle of the Bands in 2019, Reylon.
It's a diverse selection of tracks, each capturing the essence of the artists' individual practices. Dan Samsa's ‘Saturn' opens the EP with a jolt – a piercing sample is chopped up and repeated, ringing through an echoing haze of electronics like a sonar pulse. It's followed by Blasio Kavuma's 'Mvnt (in blue)', a work that nods to Debussy's piano preludes. Performed by Lydia Lallemant, it's taken from a set of piano pieces that combine the African tradition with contemporary classical, it melds the lyricism of blues and jazz with tone-clusters and unusual textures.
’The Embalmer' by Lola de la Mata responds to the artist living with a chronic condition which causes long periods of fatigue. The piece explores themes of retaining, seizing and emerging – layered vocals create dissonance and natural beating, which fight to cut through a veil of instruments.
Yfat Soul Zisso captures the feeling of modern isolation in 'Together, alone'. It's a plaintive microtonal work for string quartet (Zisso's research specialism is microtonal music). The melodic line uses standard tuning, creating a tension with the quarter-tonal accompaniment – representing the alienation one can feel even when surrounded by other people.
Finally, there's the elegant and contemplative 'Rituals & Resonances' by Alex Ho, performed here by Chinese-American yangqin (a type of Chinese dulcimer) player Reylon. It's a piece that explores the diasporic paradox of feeling nostalgic for your place of origin – perhaps a place you've never lived, let alone visited. Alex and Reylon are co-founders of Tangram, an artistic collective dedicated to Chinese diasporic culture.
Dan Samsa – Saturn
Blasio Kavuma – Mvnt (in blue)
Lola de la Mata – The Embalmer
Yfat Soul Zisso – Together, alone
Alex Ho – Rituals & Resonances