Ukiyo (album)

BEST CLASSICAL ALBUM finalist 2010

Ukiyo features Portuguese percussionist Pedro Carneiro performing some of John Psathas's most challenging and exciting work to date.

Ukiyo is the fourth Rattle release by one of New Zealand’s most accomplished and highly regarded composers, John Psathas.

This album may appear to be something of a departure for a composer renowned for his visceral orchestral work, but the mix of sampled and midi-based timbres bring vivid colour and resonance to these intricate and exacting pieces.

Featuring Pedro Carneiro, Jeremy Fitzsimons, Tim Prebble, and Stroma conducted by Hamish McKeichProduced by John PsathasEngineered by Steve GardenEdited and mixed by Steve Garden and John Psathas

The aim of this album was to capture three recent works that featured percussion: One Study One Summary, Ukiyo, and Psyzygysm. This wasn't enough for an album and physical EP's weren't really a thing at this time. We approached Tim Prebble about making a remix of one of the tracks.

About Psyzygysm

My strongest memory of this recording project was receiving from Steve Garden at Rattle the 1200 (one thousand two hundred) takes that we recoreded for Psyzygysm. I listened to all of them forensically and catalaogued what we would edit together. I never want to do that again. But the recording of this piece had such fantastic performances, it was totally worth the time involved. Pedro's mallet playing, Jeremy's performance on dozens of percussion instruments, Lance's drumming, Nick on bass, Donald on Piano...it was a stellar lineu;.

Pedro Carneiro,vibraphone & marimba

Stroma (conducted byHamish McKeich)

Mark Carter, trumpet

Bridget Douglas,flute

Patrick Barry,clarinet

Robert Weeks,bassoon

Su Yi, harp

Vessa-Matti Leppanen, violin

Rebecca Struthers,violin 2

Andrew Thomson,viola

Rowan Prior, cello

Jeremy Fitzsimons, marimba 2,3,4,5, bass drum, bells, snares, tamtam, cymbals, bass drum, finger cymbals, cowbell, glockenspiel, shaker

Lance Philip, drum kit, djembe, congas

Nick Tipping, bass

Donald Nicolson, piano

Commissioned by Carla Van Zon for the New Zealand International Festival of the Arts and the OrchestrUtopica, Portugal, with financial assistance from Creative New Zealand and the Hattori Foundation.

Psyzygysm is dedicated to David Crossan, my guardian techno-angel.

One Study One Summary: Part 1 - Etude

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One Study One Summary: Part 2 - Summary

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Ukiyo

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Psyzygysm

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One Summary Remix by Tim Prebble

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“The most extended work on the disc is Psyzgysm for solo percussion and chamber ensemble. The outer sections of the work are often breathtakingly exciting, fusing virtuoso jazz with a Middle-Eastern melodic style. The phenomenal Pedro Carneiro describes the piece as ‘rushing down hill on a bike with no brakes’. Expertly engineered, edited, and mixed, this is another winner for the Rattle label. Anyone who’s enjoyed previous John Psathas albums is going to love this.”    

— Pressing On, Radio NZ (May 20, 2010)

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