Bow Spring

Sara Stowe and Matthew Spring have a repertoire of their own, created during a collaboration lasting twenty years. A range of sounds and themes inspire their performances; the resonance of string against wheel and bow. Introduced by the artists, their programmes span medieval songs of the troubadours, to Elizabethan and Spanish lute songs, to the pastoral imagery of English and French music of the eighteenth century.

Once the curious listener digs into the music on Bow Shoulder it becomes difficult not to ask why it’s taken a decade for its impeccable contents to see the light of day. The recording was made in Chicago at the Loft—the studio and rehearsal space of Wilco, the exploratory rock combo, whose members Nels Cline (guitar) and Glenn Kotche (percussion) contributed to this album—the day after Huntsville performed in the city’s Millennium Park, sharing a bill with On Fillmore, Kotche’s duo with bassist Darin Gray. That evening Cline and Kotche joined Huntsville for the final part of its set. In the studio Huntsville’s Ivar Grydeland, Ingar Zach, and Tonny Kluften were joined at the Loft by Cline, Kotche, Gray and keyboardist Yuka Honda (co-founder of Cibo Matto and an accomplished composer) for a fully improvised session.

It seems odd that in their four decades of existence (admittedly, with some definite gaps in activity) Brand X has never officially released any type of concert video document. Then again, perhaps it's not all that surprising. Brand X has always been a musicians' band. Image never seemed to be a concern. It is fitting that this line-up would be the one to have the honor of being captured in the first Brand X concert film…

It seems odd that in their four decades of existence (admittedly, with some definite gaps in activity) Brand X has never officially released any type of concert video document. Then again, perhaps it's not all that surprising. Brand X has always been a musicians' band. Image never seemed to be a concern. It is fitting that this line-up would be the one to have the honor of being captured in the first Brand X concert film. During its first era, in the late 70s, the band would change its line-up not just from album to album or tour to tour, but sometimes even from night to night. Mind you, this was never a bad thing; Some of the finest musicians in the jazz/fusion/progressive rock movements came through the band, leaving their mark and bringing their own approaches and styles into the performances and recordings…

Itzhak Perlman was born in Tel Aviv on 31st August 1945 to a family of Polish origin. He was drawn to the violin from the age of three, but when he was four he contracted polio, losing the use of his legs. Despite his handicap, he began learning the violin a year later, and his first teacher was a café violinist. Very soon, he joined the Tel Aviv Music Academy where he studied for eight years with Rivka Goldgart, a teacher of Russian origin.