MUSIC FOR TWO FLUTES
WESTON OLENCKI & LAURA COCKS
MUSIC FOR TWO FLUTES
composed & performed by Weston Olencki & Laura Cocks.
recorded July 2021 in Brattleboro, Vermont.
both works realized with no electronic processing or overdubs.
•••
I… ceòl meadhonach, for C flute & C/bass flutes (29:36)
II… SLUB, for two C flutes (21:01)
Release: February 5, 2024 / HR20 [Hideous Replica]
SLUB, for two C flutes, composed by Laura Cocks.
about:
Performed entirely through techniques of buzzing into the mouthpieces, SLUB builds a weird inner world of physical disturbance, broadcasted to an immersive externality / an object read through its range of possibility to create an environment read through its range of instability.
ceòl meadhonach, for C flute & C/bass flutes, composed by Weston Olencki.
about:
From the Kilberry Book of Ceol Meadhonach, published in 1908 by Captain John Campbell and Archibald Campbell:
"The music of the Highland bagpipe is usually said to be divided into three categories: Ceol Mor, the "big music" or Piobaireachd; Ceol Beag, the "little music," that is quicksteps and dance music, and Ceol Meadhonach, the "middle music" which lies between the other two, and consists of such tunes as are neither constructed in the measure of Piobaireachd, nor adapted for the quick march or dance."
PRESS
“There’s a captivating fragility to these asymmetric patterns, the feeling that everything could scatter and break without warning… A spellbinding duo of tracks. Highest recommendation.”
“The composition unfolds in the form of repetitive drone-phrasings powered by breaths so forceful they overwhelm the instruments’ normal capacities, the metal bodies rattling and buzzing in a controlled cacophony that would make a purist cover their ears…it strives toward a charged meditativeness, hypnotic and electric…In a subdued flurry of atonality and precise extended techniques, the topographies of the flutes themselves are sketched out in increasing detail, every curve and key lit up by sonic contrast dye.”
“…elemental directness. The two use their instruments as resonators and filters for an array of partially-voiced mouth noises, alternately squealing, honking, braying, rasping and squelching in a bravura effort to redefine the instrument… It harks back to a bolder age of experimentation.. Both pieces are monumental slabs of sound.”
“When a distinction is drawn between objective sound research and the necessity for aesthetic considerations, an evolutionary approach emerges to engage with a given acoustic object. This phenomenon is exemplified by the experience of flutists Weston Olencki and Laura Cocks, who showcase the impact of this shift by performing two of their own works for this action-packed album. By adopting this procedure, the artists provide a demonstration of the effectiveness and implications of their methods, opening up new avenues for listeners to become acquainted with a kind of music that literally takes no prisoners.”
Weston Olencki is a musician, composer, and sound artist. Their current work is centered around questions of instrumental music and its contexts/constructs, various mediated practices of listening and improvisation, and the technological, material, and cultural histories of rural space/time. They have been fortunate to present work at the Borealis Festival, ISSUE Project Room, REDCAT, Ghent Jazz Festival, philharmonie luxembourg, Squeaky Wheel, the American Academy in Rome, Roulette Intermedium, and the OPTION series, and was awarded the Kranichsteiner Musikpreis from the 2016 Darmstadt Ferienkurse.
Various recording projects have been released by HatHut, Not Two, Sound American, Carrier, New Amsterdam, Clean Feed, Anticausal Systems, Dinzu Artefacts, SUPERPANG, Notice, Creative Sources, and Out of Your Head. Their first solo brass release SOLO WORKS featured on Bandcamp Daily’s Best Experimental Music of 2020. They currently live and work out in the mountains of rural Vermont.
Laura Cocks is a flutist who works in a wide array of environments as a performer of creative and experimental music and “creates intricate, spellbinding works that often have a visceral physicality to them.”
Laura is the executive director and flutist of TAK ensemble and performs regularly with groups such as Talea Ensemble, the Association of Dominican Classical Artists, International Contemporary Ensemble, Wet Ink Ensemble, and many others. Laura has recorded on labels such as ECM, Sound American, Denovali, Double Whammy Whammy, Winspear, Supertrain, Gold Bolus, New Focus, Carrier, Centaur, Orange Mountain Music, and TAK editions for projects spanning experimental, contemporary classical, improvisatory, and pop sonic landscapes. Laura has worked with many composers to premiere and record new works, and has given the world premieres of hundreds of works. Recent notable collaborations include new solo pieces from Bethany Younge, Natacha Diels, and Weston Olencki, and large-scale commissions from Eric Wubbels, Tyshawn Sorey, Michelle Lou, DM R & Joy Guidry, Ashkan Behzadi, and Seth Cluett.