| Anna Meredith ≡ Black Prince Fury EP (2012) |
Anna Meredith — Black Prince Fury EP
• Anna Meredith is known as a leading young composer — and Never Wonder shows off her talent for off–beat arrangement.
Born: 1978
Location: New York
Album release: October 15, 2012
Record Label: Moshi Moshi Records
Duration: 18:23
Tracks:
01.) Nautilus 5:31
02.) Rhododendron 3:35
03.) Never Wonder 3:12
04.) Orca 6:05
• Anna Meredith performs both alone and with band members; Chris Mayo, Dan Hammersley, Mark Bowden & Sam Wilson as Anna Meredith + Horsebox.
Website: http://annameredith.com
Label: http://www.moshimoshimusic.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/annahmeredith
Review by Mike Powell; November 6, 2012 // Rating: 7.2
• After a performance of early 20th–century English composer William Walton’s first symphony during a recital in Liverpool earlier this year, the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain stood up, set their instruments on their chairs, and, for about 10 min utes, proceeded to act like synchronized cavemen.
• They hissed, they clapped, they drummed on their bellies, and moved in ways that you generally don’t see in concert halls. The piece was called “HandsFree”; the composer was Anna Meredith, a Scottish woman in her mid–30s. You don’t need to know who Walton was or what his first symphony sounds like to understand how a bunch of teenagers yelling after it might prove refreshing.
• Black Prince Fury, Meredith’s first EP as a solo musician, is playful, spirited, visceral, and smart.
• Aside from the pummeling brass section of “Nautilus” and an AOR rock sample in “Never Wonder” that is too good to spoil, the EP sounds like it was made entirely with drum machines and synthesizers all cut to sound flat, bright, tough and tiny– the aural equivalent of plastic toys. It’s easy to grab a hold of due to how much emphasis Meredith puts on rhythm. They aren’t hummable, but they are drummable, snappable, and other impact–related forms of participation. Half the time it sounds like the real joy here for her was creating situations where she could play Tetris with her own polyrhtythms– once brainy, always brainy.
• In her track review of “Nautilus”, Laura Snapes compared Meredith’s music to that of Björk, Planningtorock, and These New Puritans, for whom Meredith has opened on tour. To my ears, Meredith’s real ancestor is Moondog, a New York street musician who also made tough, puzzling miniatures that drew as freely from the pop and jazz of his time as they did from what might have been more readily identified as “classical music.” (Meredith has already been the composer–in–residence at the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and currently occupies the same position at the Royal Philharmonic Society.) Like Moondog, the character of Meredith’s music is triumphant and warlike, but the scale of it is cartoonishly small– most of the time it only sounds like the work of a few people working in a living room.
• And like Moondog (or like the electronic producer Max Tundra, or James Blake‘s first EPs) Meredith’s music feels dense, busy and isolated, but essentially fun, as though it was designed first and foremost to amuse the people making it. At 18 minutes, Black Prince Fury is just a toe or two in the water; whether she’ll make more is unclear, but considering how deadeningly self–serious the worlds of classical and electronic music can be, a few more teenagers drumming on their bellies would be a nice thing. Fortaken: http://pitchfork.com
Anna Meredith
• Anna Meredith is a composer and performer of electronic and acoustic music.
• She has been composer in residence with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and the PRS/RPS Composer in the House with Sinfonia ViVA.
• She came to public attention through her 2008 work froms for the BBC Last Night of the Proms which was broadcast to 40 million people and has since written another BBC Prom commission, her first opera (Tarantula in Petrol Blue — with libretto by Philip Ridley) and collaborated with the beatboxer Shlomo — writing the Concerto for Beatboxer and Orchestra. Anna is also a judge for the BBC Young Musician of the Year, a mentor for Goldie for the TV show Classic Goldie and a frequent guest and commentator for the BBC Proms and other Radio 3 and 4 shows.
• She was the classical music representative for the 2009 South Bank Show Breakthrough Award and won the 2010 Paul Hamlyn Award for Composers.
• Anna's most recent pieces include, Four Tributes to 4am for orchestra, electronics and visuals by Eleanor Meredith, and HandsFree, a PRS NewMusic20x12 Commission for the National Youth Orchestra, which has been called "mesmerising" and "exhilarating" by The Times, "a tour de force" by the Guardian and "wicked" by the Independent and was recently performed to great acclaim at the Proms.
• Alongside her acoustic work, Anna is building a reputation for her eclectic electronic work which she has performed throughout Europe alongside a diverse range of artists including supporting These New Puritans in Berlin, James Blake, Seb Rochford and Max de Wardener at Ether 2011 and a solo set at La Carriere de Normandoux. Projects in 2012 included sets at Soudwave Festival in Croatia, Ether Festival and the release of her debut EP — Black Prince Fury on Moshi Moshi Records.
Review by Michael Cragg
• guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 3 October 2012 09.00 BST
• A recent review of classical music maverick Anna Meredith's experimental work with the National Youth Orchestra, HandsFree, referred to her as "one of Britain's leading young composers", which sounds about right. Parallel to this, however, is a burgeoning career in the field of slightly off the wall electronica, Meredith utilising her obvious skills as an arranger to create dramatic, tension–filled nuggets such as Nautilus, the lead track on her forthcoming EP, Black Prince Fury.
• Premiered here is another new song, Never Wonder, which is built around a hypnotic cross–stitch of electronic gurgles and tweaked synths that glide along elegantly for the first 90 seconds. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, a distorted sample taken from Jennifer Rush's 80s power ballad classic The Power of Love descends on the song like a veil of nostalgia, a disconnected voice intoning "because I'm your lady and you are my man". It's simultaneously hilarious, oddly moving and deeply unsettling.
| Anna Meredith ≡ Black Prince Fury EP (2012) |
• Anna Meredith is known as a leading young composer — and Never Wonder shows off her talent for off–beat arrangement.
Born: 1978
Location: New York
Album release: October 15, 2012
Record Label: Moshi Moshi Records
Duration: 18:23
Tracks:
01.) Nautilus 5:31
02.) Rhododendron 3:35
03.) Never Wonder 3:12
04.) Orca 6:05
• Anna Meredith performs both alone and with band members; Chris Mayo, Dan Hammersley, Mark Bowden & Sam Wilson as Anna Meredith + Horsebox.
Website: http://annameredith.com
Label: http://www.moshimoshimusic.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/annahmeredith
Review by Mike Powell; November 6, 2012 // Rating: 7.2
• After a performance of early 20th–century English composer William Walton’s first symphony during a recital in Liverpool earlier this year, the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain stood up, set their instruments on their chairs, and, for about 10 min utes, proceeded to act like synchronized cavemen.
• They hissed, they clapped, they drummed on their bellies, and moved in ways that you generally don’t see in concert halls. The piece was called “HandsFree”; the composer was Anna Meredith, a Scottish woman in her mid–30s. You don’t need to know who Walton was or what his first symphony sounds like to understand how a bunch of teenagers yelling after it might prove refreshing.
• Black Prince Fury, Meredith’s first EP as a solo musician, is playful, spirited, visceral, and smart.
• Aside from the pummeling brass section of “Nautilus” and an AOR rock sample in “Never Wonder” that is too good to spoil, the EP sounds like it was made entirely with drum machines and synthesizers all cut to sound flat, bright, tough and tiny– the aural equivalent of plastic toys. It’s easy to grab a hold of due to how much emphasis Meredith puts on rhythm. They aren’t hummable, but they are drummable, snappable, and other impact–related forms of participation. Half the time it sounds like the real joy here for her was creating situations where she could play Tetris with her own polyrhtythms– once brainy, always brainy.
• In her track review of “Nautilus”, Laura Snapes compared Meredith’s music to that of Björk, Planningtorock, and These New Puritans, for whom Meredith has opened on tour. To my ears, Meredith’s real ancestor is Moondog, a New York street musician who also made tough, puzzling miniatures that drew as freely from the pop and jazz of his time as they did from what might have been more readily identified as “classical music.” (Meredith has already been the composer–in–residence at the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and currently occupies the same position at the Royal Philharmonic Society.) Like Moondog, the character of Meredith’s music is triumphant and warlike, but the scale of it is cartoonishly small– most of the time it only sounds like the work of a few people working in a living room.
• And like Moondog (or like the electronic producer Max Tundra, or James Blake‘s first EPs) Meredith’s music feels dense, busy and isolated, but essentially fun, as though it was designed first and foremost to amuse the people making it. At 18 minutes, Black Prince Fury is just a toe or two in the water; whether she’ll make more is unclear, but considering how deadeningly self–serious the worlds of classical and electronic music can be, a few more teenagers drumming on their bellies would be a nice thing. Fortaken: http://pitchfork.com
Anna Meredith
• Anna Meredith is a composer and performer of electronic and acoustic music.
• She has been composer in residence with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and the PRS/RPS Composer in the House with Sinfonia ViVA.
• She came to public attention through her 2008 work froms for the BBC Last Night of the Proms which was broadcast to 40 million people and has since written another BBC Prom commission, her first opera (Tarantula in Petrol Blue — with libretto by Philip Ridley) and collaborated with the beatboxer Shlomo — writing the Concerto for Beatboxer and Orchestra. Anna is also a judge for the BBC Young Musician of the Year, a mentor for Goldie for the TV show Classic Goldie and a frequent guest and commentator for the BBC Proms and other Radio 3 and 4 shows.
• She was the classical music representative for the 2009 South Bank Show Breakthrough Award and won the 2010 Paul Hamlyn Award for Composers.
• Anna's most recent pieces include, Four Tributes to 4am for orchestra, electronics and visuals by Eleanor Meredith, and HandsFree, a PRS NewMusic20x12 Commission for the National Youth Orchestra, which has been called "mesmerising" and "exhilarating" by The Times, "a tour de force" by the Guardian and "wicked" by the Independent and was recently performed to great acclaim at the Proms.
• Alongside her acoustic work, Anna is building a reputation for her eclectic electronic work which she has performed throughout Europe alongside a diverse range of artists including supporting These New Puritans in Berlin, James Blake, Seb Rochford and Max de Wardener at Ether 2011 and a solo set at La Carriere de Normandoux. Projects in 2012 included sets at Soudwave Festival in Croatia, Ether Festival and the release of her debut EP — Black Prince Fury on Moshi Moshi Records.
Review by Michael Cragg
• guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 3 October 2012 09.00 BST
• A recent review of classical music maverick Anna Meredith's experimental work with the National Youth Orchestra, HandsFree, referred to her as "one of Britain's leading young composers", which sounds about right. Parallel to this, however, is a burgeoning career in the field of slightly off the wall electronica, Meredith utilising her obvious skills as an arranger to create dramatic, tension–filled nuggets such as Nautilus, the lead track on her forthcoming EP, Black Prince Fury.
• Premiered here is another new song, Never Wonder, which is built around a hypnotic cross–stitch of electronic gurgles and tweaked synths that glide along elegantly for the first 90 seconds. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, a distorted sample taken from Jennifer Rush's 80s power ballad classic The Power of Love descends on the song like a veil of nostalgia, a disconnected voice intoning "because I'm your lady and you are my man". It's simultaneously hilarious, oddly moving and deeply unsettling.