Hi Friends!

I haven’t had a chance to write for a long while…  Since Hana was born in November of last year, in fact.  I also haven’t been able to do any publicity for quite some time, but this is a gig that I think is really worth shouting out about.  I’ll be playing a quartet with some of my favourite musicians of all time: Jim O’Rourke, Joe Talia, and Ilan Volkov.  Also on the bill is the amazing duo Syzygy’s.  You have to hear them to believe them, I love their music so much (Harry Partch 11-limit / 43 note per octave microtonal pop).

Gig is on the evening of the 22nd, entry is ¥3,000 with reservation.

Details here:

https://www.super-deluxe.com/room/4469/

Duo album with Tim Olive, recorded in Kobe Japan, Summer 2015.  Mastered by Alan Jones (Laminal Audio).  Released by Kendra Steiner Editions.

https://kendrasteinereditions.wordpress.com/2017/08/22/new-album-from-samuel-dunscombe-and-tim-olive-zanshi-kse-371/

I’m thrilled to announce that at this years’ Bendigo International Festival of Exploratory Music, we’ll be putting on a full concert of works for massed clarinets!

First up on the program is my revision of Horatiu Radulescu’s Capricorn’s Nostalgic Crickets for 7 clarinets…  Three years in the making, involving several visits to his estate in Switzerland, interviews with original players, and the cataloguing of over 420 unique clarinet multiphonics…

And then the world premiere of a work of my own making – Small Infinities Together for 49 clarinets!  We’re assembling a fantastic team of clarinetists from Bendigo and Beyond…  If you would like to join us in playing this project, please follow the link to sign up!

There is room for players of all skill levels and from all walks of life.  We would love for you to join us!

Tell your friends, have them tell their friends…  Let’s get the word out!

http://www.bifem.com.au/2017/argonaut-clarinet-orchestra

A couple of gigs worth checking out if you happen to be in Berlin at the end of July…

Firstly, on the 30th of June I’ll be playing a quiet piece about snakes, on a program together with Manuel Lima and Michiko Ogawa, at Studio 8 in Wedding…

Then on August 6th, at the same venue, Michiko Ogawa (cl), Rebecca Lane (fl), Lucy Railton (vcl), Johnny Chang (vln), and I will play a new work by Taku Sugimoto…

On August 8 I’ll play in trio with Lan Cao and Gregor Siedl (venue details to be confirmed)…

Somewhere in the middle of this, I’ll also play a gig with Michael Thieke and some other friends…  Stay tuned for that one…

This Saturday, for anyone who happens to be in Athens, I’ll be performing Christian Wolff’s Burdocks with a fantastic ensemble including Ilan Volkov, Judith Hamann, James Rushford, Manuel Lima, Robyn Schulkowsky, and others.  The whole festival program is online here, and promises some pretty awesome listening experiences!

A very special event, my revision of Radulescu’s Capricorn’s Nostalgic Crickets receives it’s premier performance at KontraKlang (Berlin) this week.  I’ll be joined by clarinetists Kai Fagaschinski, Xavière Fertin, Theo Nabicht, Michiko Ogawa, Michael Thieke, and Miao Zhao.  Together we will create spectral magic.

For details on time + place, please visit the KontraKlang website: http://kontraklang.de/

And here’s some information on the piece itself, together with a (thankfully brief) description of the lengthy working process I had to go about making this new revised version: https://samueldunscombe.tumblr.com/post/160373032196/httpkontraklangdeconcertantoniadis-ghikas-rad

July 2nd.

Samuel Dunscombe and Tetuzi Akiyama Duo.
Kouhei Harada and Joe Talia duo.
Daysuke Takaoka solo.

Ftarri, Suidobashi.

June 26:

Samuel Dunscombe + Toshimaru Nakamura duo
Ghost Bastards [Darren Moore + Cal Lyall]
Masahide Tokunaga solo

As my time in Bern draws to an end, it’s time to think about my upcoming gigs in Japan.  The first will be a duo with Toshimaru Nakamura, also featuring Akiyama Tetuzi solo.  If you are in Tokyo, please come down to one of my favourite venues in the world – Ftarri in Suidobashi.  Information on my other Japan tour dates to come soon.

The end of January will see me return to Japan for a short tour of 10 days.

Whilst there, I’ll perform duos with Toshimaru Nakamura, Seijiro Murayama, and Kouhei Harada, and  a trio with Daysuke Takaoka and Darren Moore.  I’ll also continue the recording project I began with Seijiro in August.

See ‘Schedule’ for exact dates/locations.

November will see me travel with my ensemble Golden Fur to Tel Aviv for the next installment of Ilan Volkov’s Tectonics festival.  Whilst we are there as ensemble in residence, we will collaborate with artists including Klaus Lang, Maya Dunietz, and Hans Koch (among others).

An exciting opportunity for me to leave my temporary nest in Bern!

With my number of performances of this epic masterpiece entering double digits, I’m starting to feel like a veteran of performing this piece.  Sept-Oct sees this continue, as Aviva Endean and I prepare to tour the piece around Europe.

25.09 – Bern
01.10 – World Music Days, Ljubljana
06.10 – Clapton Ensemble, London
07.10 – KontraKlang, Berlin
10.10 – Gerngesehen: Raumklänge, Köln

Many thanks to the fantastic folks at WasteLAnd for producing this fantastic video of Curt Miller and I performing Pierluigi Billone’s 1+1=1!

June/July will see me return to Japan for 5 weeks.  During this time, I’ll perform with Jaap Blonk, Murayama Seijiro, Mitsui Yoshiko, Yoshimoto Yumiko, Darren Moore, Morishige Yasamune, and others.

I will also record an album with Tim Olive (Kobe), and undertake a creative residency in Shizuoka prefecture with Michiko Ogawa.

I’ll be returning in September to continue my recording work with Murayama Seijiro, and to play some more concerts.

Next week I will be performing my latest composition at Bread and Salt (San Diego), together with clarinetist Michiko Ogawa.

The piece is an 18 minute long work for 2 live clarinet players, and 24 pre-recorded clarinets.  It’s a slow descending quarter-tone scale in stacked multiphonics, graded from dark to light.  A slow descending meditation, and when everything is going at once quite a powerful bodily experience.

Below you can find a short excerpt from the tape part, featuring between 2 and 12 simultaneous clarinet multiphonics.

Continue reading →

In the third week of March this year, Curt Miller and I travelled to Boston to perform Pierluigi Billone’s 1+1=1 (our third performance so far as a duo, and my 6th in total).  In addition to this, we got the chance to work with Pierluigi for 8-9 hours workshopping the piece, going over the score together, discussing influences, etc etc.

You can read about the end result (a performance in Boston University’s Gallery 808) in Steve Smith’s excellent review of the Billone residency for the Boston Globe.

A big thank you to Joshua Fineberg, and the rest of the crew at BU, for making this happen.

Tonight in LA I will be returning to the Monday Evening concert series.  There will be an exciting performance of Jakob Ullmann’s Disappearing Musics, in which I will perform in an ensemble with Michael Pisaro, Ulrich Krieger, Mark Menzies, James Rushford, Judith Hamann, and Christine Tavolacci.

BREAKING NEWS!  Owing to a last minute “situation,” I will also be performing Luigi Nono’s A Pierre Dell’Azzurro Silenzio, Inquietum together with flautist Rachel Beetz.  The diffusion, using a modified version of my own performance patch, will be performed by James Bean.  This piece is a beautiful bridge between the sound worlds of Jakob Ullman, and the final work on the program, Horatiu Radulescu’s 3rd piano sonata (performed by Yegor Shevtsov).

For more information on the program, please read here: http://www.mondayeveningconcerts.org/events/020915.html

A lot has happened since I last updated this website.  I worked with Iancu Dumitrescu and Ana Maria Avram to develop interpretations of their work, played as a concerto soloist, began what should be a many-years-long process of touring and presenting Pierluigi Billone’s 1+1=1, presented Parking Lot Park — 6 on-site sound installations and a drive-in movie in San Clemente Canyon…  And the list goes on from there.

This website no longer reflects what I am up to, and for that reason I feel that it’s time for a revamp.  However, that is a bit easier said than done.  So for now, consider what you see here as ‘under construction’ …  Hopefully I will have something that more accurately presents my activities very soon.

This Thursday I will be presenting a performance piece together with Judith Hamann (cello) and Chris Golinski (percussion), together with tele-presence from Michiko Ogawa (clarinet), Kouhei Harada (guitar and electronics), and Miyuki Inoue (visual design and voice) from Japan.

The piece, entitled Cartography Event, was originally put together for the 2013 Tokyo Experimental Festival last December. In Tokyo, it was presented together with an installation piece, Resonance::Decay, that was a direct continuation of the performance. This presentation in California, however, will only include the performance portion of the work.

Location: Calit2 (UCSD)
Start time: 5pm
Admission: FREE

Here are the details from Calit2: http://www.calit2.net/events/popup.php?id=2279

December sees me return to Japan for another tour, this time presenting work with my trio (GHD – Golinski-Hamann-Dunscombe), in addition to playing solo.

Tokyo Experimental Festival (TEF) – Cartography Event / Resonance:Decay (December 5-8)

Cartography Event: On December 5th GHD Trio will be performing together with Kouhei Harada, Miyuki Inoue, and Michiko Ogawa, as part of the Tokyo Experimental Festival at Tokyo Wonder Site (Shibuya).  The piece uses free improvisation, together with some specified material, to create an ‘acoustic event articulating space.’

For the next 3 days (6th-8th Dec) material recorded in our performance at Tokyo Wonder Site will circulate through in the room undergoing electronic processing, gradually disintegrating and fracturing, until it at the end of three days it will have become a new, unrecognisable sonic entity.

Flying Teapot and Gendai Heights (December 9 & 13)

Two free improvisation shows with the wonderful Tokyo guitarist Yoshimoto Yumiko.  The first at Flying Teapot on the 9th December, the second at Gendai Heights on the 13th December.

Test Tone @ Super Deluxe (December 10)

GHD Trio will play as a quartet with Cal Lyall (guitar), as part of the Test Tone series.

Fun of Unidentified Small Singing Animals @ 20202 (December 22)

Playing a new solo piece for bass clarinet and field recordings.  Also on the bill Minoru Sato, Ootayouhei Trio, and DJ Peaky.  At the gallery 20202.

My solo recital from the Bendigo International Festival of Exploratory Music (BIFEM2013) is up online for all to hear.  It was broadcast on Julian Day’s New Music Up Late program, on ABC Classic FM, 20th September 2013.

http://www.abc.net.au/classic/content/2013/09/20/3844335.htm

The Bendigo International Festival of Exploratory Music has launched!  4 days of exceptional music, from artists and composers from around the world.  The festival program looks truly stunning, with an enormously rich and broad range of music on offer.  I am honoured to be taking part in THREE concerts: a solo recital featuring works by Lachenmann, Nono, Lucier, and Myself; a rare performance of Pierluigi Billone’s 1+1=1 (truly phenomenal piece); and as part of the opening night “Argonauts” gala concert, playing a new work by Mauricio Pauly.

Book tickets here: http://www.thecapital.com.au/Whats_On/BIFEM

More info here: http://www.bifem.com.au

Or watch the condensed 15 second trailer here: http://vimeo.com/70751312

I will be participating in the 2013 Tokyo Experimental Festival, together with collaborators Judith Hamann, Chris Golinski, Miyuki Inoue, Kouhei Harada, and Michiko Ogawa.  More details on this very exciting news to come soon.

Here are the dates for my upcoming Japan tour.  I will be playing a number of different programs at different venues… Continue reading →

I just got word that an application my trio (Golinski, Hamann, Dunscombe) made to the Cage101 festival at Sultan Idris University (Malaysia) was accepted.  Also on the horizon this summer/winter – my first solo festival performance (at BIFEM), an exciting collaboration with clarinettist Aviva Endean, a tour of Japan (with performances venues/universities/galleries in 6 different cities), and possibly some further performing and lecturing in Australia, among other things.

I feel so lucky and honored to be given these opportunities!