Oliver Leith - Good Day Good Day Bad Day Bad Day (2020)

2021-02-26T16:21:45Z

Oliver Leith - Good Day Good Day Bad Day Bad Day (2020)


1		Good Day Good Day Bad Day Bad Day Part 1	6:44
2		Good Day Good Day Bad Day Bad Day Part 2	2:08
3		Good Day Good Day Bad Day Bad Day Part 3	4:46
4		Good Day Good Day Bad Day Bad Day Part 4	4:26
5		Good Day Good Day Bad Day Bad Day Part 5	5:51
6		Good Day Good Day Bad Day Bad Day Part 6	9:41
7		Good Day Good Day Bad Day Bad Day Part 7	2:16
8		Good Day Good Day Bad Day Bad Day Part 8	8:31

Ensemble – GBSR Duo
Percussion – George Barton
Piano, Keyboards [Electric Keyboard] – Siwan Rhys

A unique and extraordinary 45-minute composition for piano & keyboards + percussion, written for the GBSR duo: George Barton & Siwan Rhys. Composed in 2018, and recorded in March 2020 by Mark Knoop. ---anothertimbre.bandcamp.com

Damn this is a good title. It feels self-explanatory and yet it keeps you listening for a deeper meaning behind it. As such, it matches the music perfectly as each successive movement adds a layer of sentiment that hovers close to wistful melancholy, gently rocking itself into more troubled depths. Oliver Leith’s good day good day bad day bad day is a forty-five minute duet for percussion and keyboard, played here by the GBSR duo: George Barton and Siwan Rhys. A keenly observed ambiguity presides over the piece, not least in the sounds themselves: a mixture of samplers and instruments such as the waterphone blur the lines between each musician’s role, when heard on record. The inventive use of instrumentation adds depth and complexity, while the duet form of the piece gives clarity. Together, they manage to combine the bright and the plaintive into an indivisible whole. It feels like a piece that will continue to grow and change for the listener, even as a single recording.

This is Leith’s longest work to date yet its musical language is more direct (compared to the handful of pieces heard to date). There’s a simplicity that appeals to the listener in the manner of the populist wing of the minimally modern composers, but with an emotional sophistication which just deepens with each successive listen, where so many others would quickly wear themselves out. The piece does not necessarily get darker as it proceeds, just more sweetly inextricable in the complexity of its mood. The piece welcomes you in as it refuses to explain itself, like a favourite love song that gratifies your need for sadness. At the first performance, Barton and Rhys played on stage surrounded by domestic furniture, as though in their living room, “a private thing, a home space, some mugs, a rug, maybe a lamp in the middle of a concert hall.” The two musicians play with an evenness and interior calm that makes the music’s formal structure and changes in instrumentation flow naturally without apparent effort. They make it all seem inevitable, even as the outcomes remain unknown, with a transparency that makes their playing inseperable from the music. ---Ben Harper, cookylamoo.com

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Oliver Leith - Medusa (2020)

2021-03-03T14:11:42Z

Oliver Leith - Medusa (2020)


1.	Manicure 04:50
2.	Tiny Snake Eyes 04:12
3.	Hump 04:06
4.	Dress Tail 02:50
5.	Stone Men 03:36
6.	Tongue In Ear 05:07

It is with great pleasure that Accidental Editions presents ‘Medusa’, from London based composer Oliver Leith. Winner of the prestigious Royal Philharmonic Composition prize in 2014 and the British Composer Award in 2016, Leith has previously worked with, among others, the London Sinfonietta, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Ives Ensemble and Mimitabu. His work is unpredictable and exciting, with moments of minute detail giving way to bold sonic spasms. We are thrilled to be able to add his name to our growing list of friends and collaborators.

‘Medusa’ is an aural document of the work undertaken by Leith in 2017, in collaboration with Australian artist Michelle Ussher for the exhibition ‘Medusa’s Room’. The work, which displayed at both Station gallery in Melbourne and the Art Gallery of Western Australia, combined the mediums of ceramic, oil paint, crochet and sound to communicate a contemporary interpretation of the Medusa legend. Using phallic, ceramic ocarinas hand crafted by Ussher and some simple shakers, Leith has delicately created an emotive and expressive sonic encounter. The work is quiet and precise, slowly morphing through ever increasing layers of abstraction from the droning opener, ‘Manicure’, to the fidgeting and meticulous ‘Stone Men’. This culminates together to form a stripped back and cinematic listen.

This is the first time that the work has been made available outside of the original exhibitions and provides a unique chance to experience Leith’s compositions in a whole new environment. ---accidentalrecords.com

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Classical

Oliver Leith - Good Day Good Day Bad Day Bad Day (2020)

Oliver Leith - Medusa (2020)