Zeena Parkins
Z Sides
Cosa Brava is an experimental rock and free improvisation group formed in March 2008 in Oakland, California, by multi-instrumentalist and composer Fred Frith. The band comprises Frith on guitar, Zeena Parkins on keyboards and accordion, Carla Kihlstedt on violin, Matthias Bossi on drums, Shahzad Ismaily on bass and The Norman Conquest on sound manipulation. All About Jazz described their music as somewhere between folk, Celtic, modern chamber, Latin, funk, Eastern, and prog-rock. Cosa Brava reco…
Dam Against The Spring Tide
Composer/Performer Zeena Parkins announces the release of two multi-part compositions, inspired by discoveries she made combing through the Walter Benjamin archives in Berlin. “Past Turned Space” features virtuoso players William Winant/percussion and Brett Carson/keyboards navigating a set of vignettes, flickering in response to Benjamin’s intimate descriptions of childhood memories. “Dam Against the Spring Tide” is graced with an all-star band of composer/performers, including: Zeena Parkins/a…
Ritual Mechanics
The ensemble is all powerhouse performers but, like a stream is one stream with one name below the confluence, though they may lend their distinctive voices, this is a singularly cohesive unit that subsumes individual style. Each musician recorded themselves separately, except Angharad Davies and Magda Mayas, who were recorded by Tony Buck.
Hit Parade of Tears
"Hit Parade of Tears" is an album inspired by the short stories of Japanese author Izumi Suzuki, married to musician Kaoru Abe, who tragically ended her life at the age of 36. Suzuki's wholly original short stories paved the way for the science fiction genre and in many ways predicted the cyberpunk movement. Ikue Mori and Zeena Parkins have created a beautiful and mysterious collection of musical miniatures that reference Suzuki's sensibility with remarkable feeling and compassion. A touching tr…
LACE
Tip! There’s music inside of lace stitching, and electro-acoustic composer, improviser, and harpist Zeena Parkins has spent years finding it. Her lace pieces use images of lace as musical scores for ensembles to play, building webs of sound that emerge from its contours. LACE is a boxset of artifacts including an LP of two of Parkins’ multi-movement works, “LACE I.” and “LACE II.,” presented for the first time on recording. The pieces were performed by percussionist William Winant, electronic mu…
Scale
Scale, addresses issues of observation, embodied transferences, telepathy and duration employing swipes, knocks, resonators and hypnotic patternings on the acoustic harp with the less controllable sounds of radio waves, homemade synths and feedback. Inspired by the timings and sensations of natural phenomena including daylight’s slow emergence at dawn and the pulsing ambiance of ocean currents. Nature as both utopic and disruptive. Attention is situated in an often luscious, contemplative sonic …
Spectral Malsconcities
The evolution of the string quartet repertory has accelerated during the last half of the twentieth-century and beyond as composers from both the mainstream and the avant-garde have mined its seemingly inexhaustible creative resources. This CD features the virtually unprecedented combination of string quartet and percussion. It contains three works by prominent American experimentalist composers from several generations exploring the ensemble’s unique sonic resources in diverse stylistic setting…
Stone, Brick, Glass, Wood, Wire - Photo-Graphic Scores 1992-95
**2 x CD box** Fred Frith's large, flexible ensemble project using marked photographs and rules as scores and featuring as permanent members Ikue Mori and Zeena Parkins. Recordings are taken from five concerts, including the first in 1992 at AngelicA festival, and features 44 musicians, including: Jean Derome, Lesli Dalaba, Paulo Angelli, Co Streif, Rene Lussier, Jean Marc Montera, Guy Klucsevek, Myra Melford, Han Bennink, Chris Cutler, Daan Vandewelle, Massimo Simonini, and Hans Koch. Includes …
Shark!
From the much lauded Queen Elizabeth Hall concert and club Link in Bologna, two very different knife-edge tours through sound and structure landscapes; from rollercoaster to glider. 'Indescribeable but wonderful. Quite superb. I would have been happy listening for ten times as long' Gibralter.