2023, Download // 12 tracks // 44:31
Musicians Christoph Gallio soprano, alto & C-merlody / Alistair Zaldua e-violin // Production notes All compositions by Christoph Gallio & Alistair Zaldua (except track 1-6 by Lauren Redhead, 7 & 10 by Christoph Gallio, 11 by Alistair Zaldua) // Recorded 21 September 2022 at Goldsmiths, University of London by Lauren Redhead // Mixed by Alex Ward in London / Mastered by Michael Brändli at Hard Studios in Winterthur // Produced by Gallio / Zaldua & Liam Stefani // Graphic design by Anne Hoffmann // Cover art by Corinne Güdemann
Production Notes
Notes by Alistair Zaldua
This is an album of free improvisation and experimental compositions by Christoph Gallio, Alistair Zaldua, and Lauren Redhead.
Beginning with six short 'Curse Tablets' by the British experimental composer Lauren Redhead, a set of graphic scores that combine ancient historical images with text fragments; she writes: "Curse tablets are petitionary prayer offerings found in Roman (and other) archaeological sites, and can be considered devotional - and sometimes magical - texts and objects."
The Jekyll and Hyde-like character of Christoph Gallio's two-part 'Happy Sad Nothing' is a piece that contrasts a long and meditative cantilena with a shorter and rougher-edged unisons, rather like the repeated chorus of a song.
'Albert's Bells' is a dedication to Albert Ayler, and Alistair Zaldua's 'Davis', is dedicated to the US American activist Michael Ryan Davis (1946-2022).
'Left Lift From Next Door', 'SingSongSing', and 'Abstract' are all duo improvisations, performed with no preceding discussion.
Special thanks to Anne, Alex, Corinne, Jörg Schwertfeger, Lauren and the Aargauer Kuratorium