released November 23, 2022

MPK (2005) Thanos Polymeneas – Liontiris
for double bass and live electronics

"MPK stands for Memoriam for Peter Kowald, and it is dedicated to the great Double Bass player, free improviser and exceptional human being. Although the piece does not aim to make direct references to or attempts to imitate the music of Kowald, it is inspired from the great musician's metaphysical credo for music and life. I had the luck to meet Peter at an early stage of my musical life: that encounter inspired, informed and shaped my personality and music, more than I thought at the time. This piece also pins the moment when my life path crossed that of my brother Gonçalo Almeida and together we got inspired by the vortex of people and events surrounding us. It is quite an early work of mine, and —for good or bad— my practice has changed ever since. However, revisiting this work brings beautiful bittersweet memories of my early adult life and long everlasting friendships, as if looking into a dusty box full of old family pictures. I won't bother you with technicalities about the piece, because I think what matters more is the context it was made in and what that context means to us. " Thanos Polymeneas - Liontiris

Thanos Polymeneas - Liontiris PhD, is a sound artist and educator. His body of work includes compositions, audiovisual installations, experimental music-theatre performances, algorithmic and interactive visual works. He is regularly commissioned music for theatre and dance performances. Aside his creative labour, he is an Associate Lecturer at National & Kapodistrian University of Athens.
His works have been presented, among others, at Athens and Epidaurus Festival, Holland Festival, Todays Arts, Attenborough Centre, Modern Body Festival, Kalamata International Dance Festival, The Athens Concert Hall, Onassis Foundation, Tectonics Festival, Biennale of Young Artists from Europe and the Mediterranean.
»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»

Walk (2007 - revised 2020) Michał Osowski
for double bass solo

"The intention of the composition was to create a sonic image suggested by the title. It is kept in rather slow tempos, ad libitum, has an improvisatory character, and is built on the succession of loosely connected musical episodes.

The second part of the piece is dominated by a meditative character oscillating between moments of suspension and a moderate movement, exploring the sound of double bass harmonics combined with the alterations in the ways of employing the bow.
The ongoing drone-like structures of this part are built of highly difficult to execute progressions of double stops: the artificial harmonics accompanied by the tone of an adjacent string, being moved onto the following pairs of strings by shifting the fingers gradually across the fingerboard while bowing legato.
Due to the difficulty of performing these progressions, the piece (in the 2nd movement) can be seen as a flageolet etude." Michał Osowski

Michał Osowski is a composer working interdisciplinary, creates projects based on interactive installations of his own original design that are often set in uncommon locations and involve audience participation. Occasionally, he also composes and performs live electronic music.
»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»

Mangled Counteract (2022) Pedro Melo Alves
for double bass solo

"Mangled Counteract is a short piece for solo doublebass based on the irregular repetition of fixed sound events. It was written for Gonçalo Almeida in 2022, when I was obsessed by the exploration of rhythmic pendulums and how they perfectly converge and diverge with all kinds of imperfections inside. So this piece is both a raw approach to the concept of broken balance as it is a stable embracing and somewhat ethereal landscape on itself. After a short and disturbed introduction which evokes a pathos of human awakening, we find ourselves entering a bubble of suspended reality, where some sort of minimalist and loose sense of pulse and ostinato keeps freely evolving around the opposition of the same repeating sounds, in a macro sense of order, without it ever being in perfect balance. As the piece evolves we get a ritualistic mood being installed, with some occasional interludes of converging and diverging energy, which eventually land on a seemingly eternal limbo, cut only by a melody in distress. And as the bubble of suspended reality appeared, it suddenly disappears." Pedro Melo Alves

Pedro Melo Alves has studied Jazz Drums (ESMAE, Porto, 2011), Jazz and Classical Piano (ESTAL, Lisbon, 2014) and Music Composition (ESML, Lisbon, 2015).
Explorer of the expanded possibilities of percussion, improviser and composer for small and large formations, his work is known for the exploratory attitude and for boldy intersectioning different aesthetic circuits from jazz and erudite, to electronic, experimental and rock music. Pedro has been increasingly present in the international music scene, playing with musicians such as Mark Dresser, Ra Kalam Bob Moses, Joe Morris, Sun Ra Arkestra, Eve Risser, Luke Stewart or Theo Ceccaldi.
And today he plays and composes for his Omniae Large Ensemble, The Rite of Trio, In Igma, his percussion duets with João Pais Filipe or Pedro Carneiro, and is a part of many national and international projects, such as Luís Vicente Trio and Alma Tree with Ra Kalam Bob Moses and Vasco Trilla.

»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»

Ritual More or Less Defined (2017 – revised 2022) Friso van Wijck
for prepared double bass, tape and live electronics

" Ritual More or Less Defined is composed for and dedicated to Goncalo Almeida, a very dear and long time friend, inspirational human being and phenomenal musician.
Over the years Goncalo and I collaborated in various bands and projects as rhythm section (bass and drums), stylistically ranging from straight ahead/conventional (well…sort of) to the most “open” music possible.
During the working process for this composition, Goncalo gave me input with various sound possibilities, playing techniques and preparations for his instrument. Recordings and electronic manipulations of these and other sounds form the basis of the sound file that is the sonic backdrop for this piece.
The compositional material played in real time to this backdrop comments, adds, blends, contrasts and evolves from “pure sound/pitch-less noise” to full bodied bass sound. Eventually it gets stuck on a long phrase that disintegrates, sinking into the lowest possible detuned sound, thus returning to noise again.
The title refers to the various notational approaches used in this composition (ranging from graphic/open to strict/conventional), and its ritualistic nature." Friso van Wijck

Friso van Wijck is a composer, drummer/percussionist, visual artist and educator based in Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
He studied composition at Rotterdams Conservatory with Peter-Jan Wagemans, Klaas de Vries, Robin de Raaff and Rene Uijlenhoet, and jazz drums at the jazz department of the same institute.
As a composer he worked a.o. with Asko ensemble, Nieuw Ensemble, Doelen Ensemble, Mondriaan String Quartet, Doelen String Quartet, David Kweksilber Big Band, Zapp String Quartet, De Helling, Tjeerd Oostendorp and Asko/Schoenberg Ensemble, Ricciotti Ensemble, Ensemble Intercolor, Kãna percussion trio and various own groups.