And the less said about her frequent recourse to novelty whistles… There’s no doubting either the idiosyncrasy of her style or her mastery of technique (imagine non-musical vocal coach abstractionism), but with the exception of an occasional arabesque mirroring of Northover’s soprano, she proved unresponsive to her various partners. Whether consciously or not, the instrumentalists all tended to defer to her vocals which, ultimately, I found rather irritating. She was the de facto focal point of each set she featured in, both physically – always situated forward and centre stage for the ensemble performances – and aurally. If Casserley was buried in the mix, Wassermann’s vocal was too prominent. The most interesting setting for Casserley’s work was the blending of Ute Wassermann’s vocalizations with Chris Burn’s smeary trumpet. I was particularly looking forward to hearing Russell’s signature wiry scrabble transformed by Casserley’s sound processing, which I usually hear channelling the more liquid flow of Evan Parker’s saxophony in the context of the latter’s Electro-Acoustic Ensemble, but I was to be (slightly) disappointed.Ĭasserley, who either played a brightly colour-coded interface much like a piano or else plucked samples from a touchscreen tablet, didn’t have much presence in the sound mix, and it was only in the quietest moments that it was possible to individuate his ghostly electronics amid the struck and bowed sounds with which they most often blended. Those four were Nina de Heney, Adrian Northover, Lisa Ullén and Lawrence Casserley.” Six of the musicians (including myself) had played in Quaqua groups before and four had not. Russell told me: “I like to keep a thread running through my Quaqua projects and to also have some new elements each time. Bass, guitar, percussion, piano (Ullen), and voice. Electronics, rabeca, and soprano saxophone. Bass, electronics, and piano (Ullen). 2nd set: Cello, guitar, soprano saxophone, and trumpet. Cello, electronics, percussion, piano (Burn), and voice. 2nd set: Bass, erhu, and alto saxophone. Guitar, rabeca, saxophone, trumpet, and voice. Monday, 1st set: Bass, cello, erhu, and piano (Ullen). Bass, piano (Ullen), rabeca, and trumpet. Bass, guitar, and voice. 2nd set: Cello, electronics, saxophone, and voice. Cello, percussion and erhu, and piano (Burn). Sunday, 1st set: Electronics, piano (Ullen), rabeca, and saxophone. Russell’s scheduling was assiduously democratic, with each musician performing just once or twice per set. #Quaqua in latin full#And Sabu Toyozumi’s erhu, if you were wondering, is a two-stringged ‘spike’ fiddle, or Chinese violin.Įach night there were two sets of four performances, the first and last being by the full tentet. I took Rohrer’s instrument for a modern-style violin, but although it does look similar and play in the same range, the rabeca is in fact a fiddle from northern Brazil, more typically used in Forró music. Violinist Satoko Fukuda was also scheduled, but could not attend. Russell’s invitees this year were: Chris Burn (piano, trumpet), Lawrence Casserley (electronics, sound processing), Nina de Heney (bass), Hannah Marshall (cello), Adrian Northover (alto and soprano saxophones), Thomas Rohrer (rabeca), Sabu Toyozumi (percussion, erhu), Lisa Ullén (piano), and Ute Wassermann (voice, whistles). Notwithstanding Beckett’s coinage, the Quaqua website informs us that: “‘Quaquaversality’ means to point in all directions and the name ‘Quaqua’ is Latin for ‘whithersoever’.” So now we know. “…but all this business of voices yes quaqua yes of other worlds yes of someone in another world yes whose kind of dream I am yes said to be yes…all balls.” (Samuel Beckett, How It Is.) #Quaqua in latin for free#Fete Quaqua is a long-running institution, an annual concert series organised by guitarist John Russell which seeks, as he puts it: “to extend existing collaborations / relationships between musicans in juxtaposition with new ones and thus provide a fertile ground for free improvisation.”
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