Released a duo with Alvin Curran for Rossbin

OUR UR, Rossbin Recordings, 2004

Alvin Curran: sampler, laptop, acoustic piano on OUTER CITIES
Domenico Sciajno: laptop & max/msp programming

1. SOMEONE TO WATCH OVER WHAT
2. OUTER CITIES
3. ANATOLIA CENTRALE
4. RUE DE LA GARE 76

Recorded january 17th, 2003 at AC Studio, roma, italy

Track 1 composed by A.Curran (siae), track 2 composed by D.Sciajno
(siae)
using audio samples of A.Curran playing his own composition INNER
CITIES X
on acoustic piano, track 3 composed by D.Sciajno, track 4 composed by
A.Curran/D.Sciajno

Contacts:
alvincurran@compuserve.com
d.sciajno@headroom.ws

Liner notes by Curran:

Sciajno, Domenico (Say "Shah-eeno") comes from an ancient Sicilian
jewish family closely related to the Kabbalists and mystics of the 13-14th
centuries. When these mystics decreed electronic music unfit for
Jews, the Sciajnos said "to hell with that" and converted to Christianity -
enabling them to continue their work in live electronics. In a word, Domenico
is carrying on a very ancient family tradition.

He and I met by pure chance at an international conference of sound
smugglers organized by the Palermo "cupola", held annually in a remote
seaside hotel outside of the Hague in the Netherlands. At the time,
he was a contrabassista.....whose job was to look out for the cops, when the
others went into action - stealing sounds from ports, train stations,
markets, landscapes, banks and even people. This is as close to the truth,
as the avantgarde is to the Marx Brothers. Our real meeting at the Royale
Konseravtorium of the Hague, where he was an excellent student, was
the beginning of a long friendship and many fruitful collaborations,
among them: A giant sound installation in the magnificent baroque park of
Donaueschingen 1999; performances in" Brute Beat Brut Bruit" with the Alter Ego
Ensemble and Frankie Hi NRG; as founding member of the Alvin Curran
Filharmonia; a collaborative sound and video work SINKING PIANO of a floating and slowly sinking piano- for the Taktlos Festival 2002 and numerous sound
designs for my radio works like UN ALTRO FERAGOSTO, and WOLFINGS-- after a duo performance at the University in Florence (2001) we realized as
improvisers that our musical sensibilities were in absolute alignment. Domenico
is wild fennel.. without which half the wonderful dishes in the Sicilian
cuisine could not exist - totally unpredictable but never late, he approaches
everything with a master's imagination, and outside of women, there
seems to be no artistic or technical problem he cannot solve.. It was
natural that we should make a CD of Duo Projects, and went about recording a few
sets just one year ago in my studio near Genzano di Roma. The best of
those sessions are included here as well as two other works- one based on
my piano improvisations (here brilliantly processed by Dome) to sound like it
was played on an ancient piano about 5 kilometers from the microphone.
The other "Rue de la Gare" was a pure sound collaboration we made in an attempt
to win a prize. We did not win, but like everyone else, felt that we should
have.
Most of the electronics is derived from my extensive sample archive
and keyboard performance style - much passing through Max/MSP patches of
Dome's and Ali Momemi's. Like my own story, un-necessary to tell here, the
rest is fiction.
Alvin Curran 

  >>>> REVIEWS about OUR UR

Frans De Wart
Vital weekly 421

ALVIN CURRAN & DOMENICA SCIANJO - OUR UR (CD by Rossbin)
It was only a few weeks ago that I wrote about Alvin Curran's music, that I didn't know it that well and that his 'Lost Marbles' was a most welcome introduction. And now, merely two weeks, I am reviewing his collaborative work with laptop musician Domenico Sciajno. Don't believe a word that is written in the booklet - I very much think it's all a lie (I forgot what it said about people from Sicily being liars, but this is all bullshit). Curran and Scianjo came together in the studios in Rome on January 17th, 2003, armed with laptops (both of them), sampler, acoustic piano (Curran) and Max/Msp (Scianjo). They improvised for some time, and the results are four tracks to be found on this release. The first and fourth piece come close to traditional improvised music, even when electronics play a dominant role - hectic and fragmented, closely to the older Musica Electronica Viva sound. It's the two middle pieces that I found more interesting. 'Outer Cities' uses the acoustic piano
and offers a dense atmosphere of electronica which works well in the combination with the ambient approach of the laptops. 'Anatolia Centrale' is more noise oriented, but here too the densely layered electronics work quite well. Coupled with the two more regular improvising tracks, this is a collaboration that worked quite well. (FdW)
Address: http://www.rossbin.com


BRIAN ON BAGATELLEN

Alvin Curran/Domenico Sciajno Our Ur Rossbin 015

On the face of it, the teaming of Curran and Sciajno is quite enticing. Curran, the MEV veteran, has done some beautiful work over the decades although, for my taste, much of it (like the compositions “For Cornelius” and “Era Ora”) was in an avant-romantic vein parallel to that mined by Rzewski. Still, some of his more purely electronic and experimental works have been intriguing and the idea of a collaboration with the fine Sicilian electronicist (and, in the past, bassist) Domenico Sciajno, recently represented in fine light on the duo with Giuseppe Ielasi on Erstwhile as well as a wonderful solo bass album on Fringes, portended some excitement.
Expectations are only partially met, however. My suspicion is that, however diligently Mr. Curran has attempted to keep up with trends in contemporary electro-acoustic improvisation, his core lies elsewhere, no longer in a line directly from the experimentation of MEV but more in a melding of culturally nostalgic phenomena (particularly those of the Jewish tradition) with certain aspects of free improvisation as it was practiced in the 60s and 70s. Sciajno attempts to accommodate but, to the extent pieces on this disc succeed, they tend to work far better the more Sciajno comes to the fore and asserts his own conception.
The album opens with “Someone to Watch Over What”, the already aggravating title alluding, obviously, to the old standard which is interpolated throughout in brief phrases on sampled violin or piano, popping up amidst fairly harsh electronics. There’s something of a collage effect, heavy on the samples, and on the whole the piece reminds me of Curran’s off-and-on successful collaboration with ROVA from a decade or so back. The problem with the piece, the weakest here, is both the kitschy use of the theme (intentional though that may be) and the lack of commitment to really push in that direction if that’s what you want. We’re left with something that may have been fine were it to appear in the Tzadik catalog where this sort of referencing is almost the norm but is less satisfying here. Sciajno’s “Outer Cities” (utilizing samples of Curran playing his own composition, “Inner Cities”) works far, far better, a rich soundscape that grips from its opening pulsations, widens its view toward the distant vistas implied by its title and never lets the listener’s interest flag. Curran, on his own, has a tendency toward baroque levels of overkill but here he’s kept nicely in check and the piece absolutely glides from point to point, nudged instead of pushed, implications favored over declarations.
“Anatolia Centrale”, also by Sciajno, begins with layered electronic bleats, apparently involving vocal samples, migrates to a chaotic welter of strings (sounding as though one is inside a vast, metallic cello) and proceeds across diverse panoramas, balancing nimbly between arbitrariness and subtle intent. At times, the introduction of a given section seems spurious and overdone as it’s initially heard though often, in retrospect, it seems oddly apt. One suspects that Curran supplies the allusions to intoned vocals and, again, they’re a bit bothersome, feeling far more forced and spiritually hokey than one would like. As the track wends its way, attractive moments arise, but it scurries down pathways of lesser interest a bit too often. The final piece is a joint collaboration, again largely sample-based and packed to the gills with them. Here, the abundance of material, if only because its sheer density, works just fine over its much briefer stretch, an appropriately rich bit of dessert, perhaps. Overall, I can’t shake the feeling that Curran doesn’t quite fit in with Sciajno’s approach. To be fair, it could just as easily be the reverse save for the fact that the one brilliant work here is credited to the younger musician. “Our Ur” is worth it for that track alone and, of course, other listeners may be more in tune with Curran’s heady and hazy referencing. Maybe further joint ventures between the two will yield deeper, meatier explorations. 

  Sciajno's composition released on the CD 'The Laptop and Electronic Music'

Contemporary Music Reviews released with the last issue a composition by Sciajno in a compilation titled 'The Laptop and Electronic Music' curated by Kim Cascone. The other tracks are by Nosei Sakata, Richard Chartier, Steinbrüchel, Kotra, Rosa Arruti, Taylor Deupree, Andrey Kiritchenko, Coeval, Jason kahn, Tad Turner (vatic), Toshimaru Nakamura, Merzbow.