Curtis Glatter/Nathan Hubbard
Rivulet
Circumvention 043 (2005)
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Curtis Glatter/Nathan Hubbard
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Curtis Glatter vampyr (27:39) Rivulet is an accumulation of Glatter/Hubbard's collaborative efforts in composition and improvisation for percussion duo. The pieces on Rivulet use percussion and electronics to create a soundworld inspired by the works of filmmakers Jean Cocteau, Carl Dreyer and others. The pieces seek to find new answers to questions of how sound and image relate. While the pieces are not "soundtracks", often the structural outlines and modes of interaction come from the filmmakers' works and aesthetics. In Vampyr, the performers' interaction with each other and their shifting background forms the momentum for the pieces. Mobile: Alabaster uses overlapping textures as a recompositional tool to give the piece graduated forms of expectancy. Meikyu makes use of cutup techniques, where the form (plot) is presented in different orders - giving the options for different views of the same story. purchasing - Circumvention Music - Bandcamp |
| reviews of Rivulet (CMCD039) |
| "Rivulet" Circumvention Music San Diego-based duo began a long-running and fruitful collaboration in 2001, following Curtis Glatter's exodus from Michigan. This release embodies the main emphasis of their work, in the compositional/improvisational performance of new music for silent films - creating artful & imaginary soundtracks for the cinematic works of Carl Dreyer, Jean Cocteau, et al., with the use of percussion (Glatter) + electronics (Hubbard) - and otherwise reconfiguring the relationship between sound, image and audience expectation. Ever-shifting background unease, and an interaction of mounting momentum (#1); the use of texture + overlap in gradual recomposition (#2); linear interruptions of a scissored nature allowing for cut-up tale telling (#3) & a universe of alternatives…….. Way out, even without the visuals. Mitch LeMay KFJC Los Altos Hills CA |
| Curtis Glatter is a member of Nathan Hubbard’s Skeleton Key Orchestra. In addition, the two percussionists have been working together as a duo since the early 2000s. Rivulet is their debut album. It consists of three compositions written in 2001-2002, premiered between 2001 and 2003, and recorded in the studio throughout 2004. Each piece is designed as a soundtrack to silent films by Carl Theodore Dreyer (Vampyr), Jean Cocteau (Mobile:Alabaster) and Akira Kurasawa (Meikyu). I’m not sure if there is such a thing as a “usual” percussion duo, but this pair surely is not a usual percussion duo. Glatter and Hubbard play an extremely large assortment of instruments, from tuned percussion (vibraphone, glockenspiel, etc.) to all kinds of trash metal and found objects (including music stands and shovels), but also prepared piano, chord organ, turntables, samples of previous gigs, field recordings, and megaphone. Vampyr is a shocking workout in the art of extremes, bouncing to and fro between trashy two-men bashing and supernaturally quiet episodes of whispers and atmospheres. Mobile:Alabaster is less manic, structurally more complex and generally more immersive. Here, musicianship and composition skills shine as the piece builds bridges between free improvisation, musique concrète and chamber music. Dominated by bamboo xylophone and vibraphone, Meikyu is by far the most melody-driven piece of the set -- a good thing, since by then the listener is getting tiresome of pie-plate drum kits. Simple cycling motives are intertwined with field recordings, electronics, and prepared piano to form evocative soundscapes that sadly lack the narrative development found in Mobile:Alabaster. Rivulet offers a perplexing yet stimulating listen. Of course, and even though that is not all this album is about, a good predisposition toward the percussive realm is strongly recommended. - François Couture/All Music Guide |
| Curtis Glatter/Nathan Hubbard Rivulet (Circumvention/Trummerflora) Two percussionists (and that means they each play more than a dozen instruments in each piece) who really know how to take sound into new places. Not for the meek or those who don't wish to be challenged. If you've got the patience, however, you will find some truly glorious noise. - Aiding and Abetting |
| All About Jazz Italy - Vittorio Lo Conte - translation by Bablefish The two last recordings of Nathan Hubbard, operating artist on the West Coast, are respective a pair with the percussionista Curtis Glatter and a collection on CD of its compositions of the last years, executed from various ensembles with all the possible combinations orchestrates them, from the quartet of sassofoni to that one of percussions passing for pianoforti it prepares to you and orchestras with it arches. The pair with Curtis Glatter not only draws inspiration from the musical world: it is introduced like ideal sonorous column of works of the cinema and of the theatre, like the dedications to Carl Dreyer, Akira Kurosawa and Jean Cocteau they make to intuire. A rich music of effects and spazii, new in the way in which the percussivi instruments they come uses you, in way sometimes separated, to evoke however rich feelings of expectations, like along "Vampyr", with atmospheres that resist the tension for along time, evocative of facts and personages who space at the same time in the fantasy of executory and asccoltatori. The brano dedicated to Jean Cocteau è più legacy to the jazz like ritmico aspect, an pleasant change of march after along rambling in tries of an outlet of light in the previous brano and on "Meikyu" an unusual one succeeds in vibrafono to pull before on melodie that all it comes wrapped in with of concrete sounds that dull from tapes and instruments prepare to you. An unusual sonorous landscape that sure troverà in tuning many listeners to the search of new cues. These two works could wake up the interest of coreografi and directors and serve like unusual sonorous column for their works. |
The two multi-instrumentalists and Sampler, Phonographer and Sound-experts Curtis Glatter and Nathan Hubbard created a truly avant-garde work with "Rivulet." The 3 Tracks on the CD were played in between May and December 2004. Both musicians used many instruments, above all miscellaneous rhythm-instruments, that use her/it/them not only in the classic sense, for it considerably. Field Recordings are to be heard, sounds of the outside world, with microphone picked up and mixed at the laptop. translation courtesy babblefish |
| tech info/recording thoughts |
| The Glatter/Hubbard recording Rivulet was recorded over about a years time, during which time we changed our minds several times on the concept and scope of the project. The pieces were recorded in sections and slowly put together, often overdubbing on top of ourselves or processing previous performances. My main setups changed for each pieces, but in general, they are as follows - Vampyr mainly features me playing frame 1/electronics and samples, often from old gig recordings, field recordings, prerecorded tape pieces or records. I also play quite a bit of found percussion and various cymbals (mostly in the section Das Blut), as well as concert bass drum in the Bone Box section. Mobile: Alabaster makes use of my solo kit (16" bass drum, 14" floor tom, 14" Ayotte snare, a junior conga, a small 6" PVC tom and various cymbals) and sampler. In addition, the section The Profanation Of The Host uses conch shell, tamalin frame drum and voice. Meikyu makes use of (mostly) tuned percussion, vibraphone, prepared piano, toy glockenspiel, tibetan bells, street light reflectors and chord organ, in addition to several field recordings used as foreground and background thru-out the piece. This record was recorded at the space, DPH Studios and Termite Studios, as well as using several site-specific spots (most notably the parking structure IV @ SDSU). I recorded, mixed and edited the record, Steve Langdon mastered it, we used my mixed media work rivulet for the artwork and Ward Baxter did the layout. |