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FFEAR (Forum for Electro-Acoustic Research) to Release New Recording "Mirage" on Jazzheads Records.

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FFEAR (Forum for Electro-Acoustic Research) is an adventurous improvising quartet co-led by long-time collaborators Ole Mathisen and Chris Washburne.  FFEAR's prime objective is to research and explore new sonic possibilities by adopting contemporary classical compositional techniques into an improvisational setting. Conventional uses of meter, tonality, and harmony are replaced with multiple meters, microtonality, and open templates of form to forge novel and unexpected paths in improvised music. FFEAR delights in blending and blurring the divide between jazz and contemporary classical music, as well as the visual and sound arts, producing a truly original voice and approach to improvised music all the while staying true to the centrality of groove.              

The title piece, “Mirage," is a suite composed by Mathisen with the idea of creating an orchestration that transcends the sound of the four instruments that comprise FFEAR. Through complex rhythmic layering and microtonal harmony, along with strategic doublings and rich intervallic relationships, a musical mirage emerges. The five movements are organized as a journey towards a vision that turns out to be an illusion. Part 1: Haze, starts out optimistically, but quickly loses the way and the instrumental parts bicker about what direction to take as well as how fast to move, half of the group plays in 11/8 and the other half in 13/8. Part 2: Shimmer, an otherworldly vision appears in the distance, illustrated by the use of microtonal harmony, built off a chromatic system with ten tones instead of the conventional twelve. Part 3: Shapes, the vision becomes more clearly defined as the piece finds a vague key center inflected by micro tonality. Part 4: Scenes, the journey intensifies as the mirage remains out of reach. In Part 5: Haze, the journey ends, circling back onto itself, though now, more grounded and enriched by the experience of getting nowhere.

Frederick Sommer (1905-1999) was an Italian born visual artist who emigrated to the U.S. in 1939. Though best known for his photography, throughout his career he was intrigued by music notation and believed that the best music was also visually and graphically compelling.  Though he had no musical training and did not read music notation he set out to draw a series of what he labeled “drawings in the manner of musical scores".  He drew hundreds over the course of 60 years.  The “scores" host a range of smudged colors and illusive musical lines that circle back upon themselves, borrowed moments of time, that adroitly capture the heated elusive spaces of collective improvisation, those moments when musicians access and channel otherworldly sonic universes. The “Frederick Sommer Suite" is an interpretation by Washburne of five of the scores. Washburne orchestrates the five-movement suite by staying true to the shapes, contours, registers, and flows of the originals.  All notes and improvisations are derived from the images. Sommer did not title any of his “scores", so the titles on these tracks represent ideas and thoughts that emerged as FFEAR sounded out these rich and provocative images. The score for “Sommer No.5: There Is No There There" appears on the front cover of this CD... follow along.  Though some the scores have been performed by musicians in the past, never have they been interpreted by an improvising ensemble, nor have they been recorded and commercially released.  FFEAR is proud to be the first group to do so.

Mathisen's “Standing Waves" is an improvisation that creates a sonic version of a standing wave, the type seen on an oscilloscope measuring voltage. The circular breathing along with slow triadic harmonic movement of the saxophone are meant to emulate a guitar-tapping technique.

Washburne's “U-Bend" was inspired by an article in the Economist discussing that human happiness peaks early in life and then gradually tumbles to its disillusioned nadir at age 46, only to rise once again to its zenith in the seventh decade of life. On a graph it resembles a U, the U-bend of happiness.  He dedicates this track to everyone in their 40s... don't despair! And to everyone in their 70s... congrats!

The recording closes with Mathisen's “Hyperion Conduit" dedicated to the planet Saturn's irregular-shaped outer satellite that tumbles chaotically in perpetuity.  With a scale consisting entirely of ¾ tone steps the band wallows in the groovy tumble.

We hope you enjoy their sonic research!

About FFEAR

Ole Mathisen has established himself as someone with a unique voice both as an instrumentalist and as a composer. He has worked on close to 100 CD releases, composed several movie and television scores. He is the leader of Ole Mathisen ZERO- SUM, co-leader of FFEAR, and a member of Chris Washburne's SYOTOS, Alex Garcia's Afromantra, and Mamak Khadem Ensemble. With the group FFEAR, he was awarded the Chamber Music America's “New Jazz Works" grant of 2009. He has been a member of the Jazz Studies Faculty at Columbia University since 2005. Mathisen received a bachelor's degree in professional music from Berklee College, and earned a master's degree in Jazz performance from Manhattan School of Music. He has performed and/or recorded with many of the world's most recognized artists: Louie Vega, Paula Cole, Omar Hakim, Darryl Jones, Hiram Bullock, William Kennedy, Steve Smith, Peter Erskine, Frankie Valli, and Keiko Lee, among many others

Chris Washburne has toured extensively with various groups and concertized throughout the Europe, North, South, and Central Americas, Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean. He has commissioned and premiered over twenty contemporary compositions for trombone and has performed on over 150 recordings.  His Latin jazz group, SYOTOS, is the busiest and most in demand Latin jazz group in New York, performing over 125 concerts annually, including regular performances at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, BAM, and the Brooklyn Museum of Art.  He has been hailed as “One of the best trombonists in salsa..." by Peter Watrous of The New York Times and “one of the most important trombonist performing today" by Brad Walseth of www.jazzchicago.net. He was voted as a “Rising Star of the Trombone" annual Downbeat Critics Poll in 2008, 2009, and 2010. He has recorded over 150 records and has performed with Tito Puente, Celia Cruz, Eddie Palmieri, Muhal Richard Abrams, Ruben Blades, Celine Dion, Gloria Estefan, Justin Timberlake, Bjork, They Might Be Giants, Roscoe Mitchell, Grady Tate, Jaki Byard, Duke Ellington Orchestra, Danilo Caymmi, Daniel Ponce, Ran Blake, Arturo Sandoval, Hilton Ruíz, Lawrence “Butch" Morris, Roswell Rudd, Walter Thompson, RMM Allstar Salsa Band, Eddie Henderson, Anthony Braxton, John Cale, Baba Olatunje, Candido, Freddie Cole, Maria Schneider Big Band, Chico O'Farrill, Leslie Uggams, Dicapo Opera Company, Bang on a Can All-stars, SEM Ensemble, American Microtonal Festival Chamber Orchestra, and the Dinosaur Annex under the direction of Gunther Schuller.   Washburne is Associate Professor of ethnomusicology at Columbia University and the Founding Director of Columbia's Louis Armstrong Jazz Performance Program.

Tony Moreno studied at New York University, the Manhattan School of Music, and individually with Elvin Jones, Stan Koor, Bob Moses, Al “Toodie" Heath, James Priess, and Freddie Waits. His teaching credits include New York University, Columbia University, City College of New York, and others. His touring performances have taken him through the country and the world, to countries including Spain, France, Turkey, Germany, Switzerland, Slovakia, Austria, Italy, Holland, Switzerland, Russia, Portugal, Mexico, and Japan. Moreno can be heard on nearly 70 recordings, both as a leader and as a sideman. He has composed for Diane Klixbull Dance Company, National Geographic documentaries, and for his own recording, Trio Music.

Per Mathisen was born in Sandefjord, Norway. His musical education took place at the Trondheim Jazz Conservatory and Berklee College of Music, and he has been a freelance electric and acoustic upright bassist based in Oslo, Norway since 1994. He has performed with all the major artists in Norway, as well as done tours, recordings, TV, and radio shows. He has played all the major jazz festivals in Scandinavia and has performed in as many as 28 different countries alongside internationally recognized artists. Mathisen is a member of the bands Acuna/Hoff/Mathisen, NYNDK, Olga Konkova Trio/Quartet, Hans Mathisen's New Quartet, Stringzone, Gerald Preinfalk's Tan Go Go and Guiffre Zone, and Ensemble Denada.

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