Extended Techniques

This episode presents an overview of major works by award-winning composer duo Roman Grygoriv and Illia Razumeiko, the creators of 12 operas and the founders of Opera Aperta – a laboratory of experimental opera in Kyiv. Plunging into their unique archeological process of creation, we position their work alongside music and ideas of major 20th – 21st century artists and thinkers: Richard Foreman, David Lynch, Jorge Louis Borges, Umberto Eco, Les Kurbas, Hanna Havrylets, Karlheinz Essel and Jorge Sánchez-Chiong. Grygoriv and Razumeiko’s Chornobyldorf won the Opera and Music Theatre Award by the Royal Philharmonic Society in 2024 and received eight sold-out shows at LaMaMa Experimental Theatre Club in New York. Their most recent work, GAIA-24. Opera del Mondo, will be presented at O.Festival in Rotterdam and at the Venice Biennale. Continue reading →

This episode is a tribute to an award-winning downtown New York free-jazz poet and concert aficionado, Steve Dalachinsky. It features Dalachinsky’s studio and concert recordings with Thurston Moore, Tom Surgal, Vito Ricci, Vernon Reid, Matthew Shipp, Aaron Novik, Please the Trees, Pasquale Cangiano, Asiff Tsahar and Marcos Campello, and an interview with one of his publishers, Matvei Yankelevich. Find the complete playlist and notes for this show at extendedtechniques.com Continue reading →

“I think that creativity, which is evidence of the artistic path, is not merely a set of examples of different stages of development; rather, it transcends the temporary cultural situation in some mysterious way – this is the hope of every author.” Ukrainian composer Valentyn Silvestrov (b. 1937) wrote this in a letter to a friend in 1978, and his creative work indeed exemplifies the balance between timeliness and timelessness that characterizes the most compelling art. While tracing his artistic path from the avant-garde period of the 1960s, to quietness and simplicity triggered by his interest in Zen Buddhism, to his never-ending postludes and sublime bagatelles, we contemplate his intriguing statements about music and “the end of history.” Having lived most of his life in Kyiv, Silvestrov recently began to respond to historical events. The episode ends with his vocal works dedicated to the 2014 Maidan protests and piano pieces motivated by his 2022 forced emigration to Berlin. Find the complete playlist and notes for this show at extendedtechniques.com Continue reading →

In this episode we present selected works of British singer, trumpeter and composer Phil Minton, with a focus on his extended vocal techniques: from freely improvised abstract pieces for solo voice, unusual renditions of classical and jazz repertoire, avant-garde compositions inspired by Daniil Harms and Joseph Brodsky works to choral work based on the letters of Ho Chi Minh. Find the complete playlist and notes for this show at extendedtechniques.com Continue reading →

In the first episode of Extended Techniques podcast we cover contribution of John Cage to extending timber and compositional techniques: using any object to make music, development of new percussion instruments, prepared piano and electronics; invention of chance procedure and indeterminancy. Following foreword to Silence, we talk about John Cage and his ideas in the way that exemplifies them. Find the complete playlist and notes for this show at extendedtechniques.com Continue reading →