Field Music

The two years since Commontime have been strange and turbulent. If you thought the world made some kind of sense, you may have questioned yourself a few times in the past two years. And that questioning, that erosion of faith - in people, in institutions, in shared experience - runs through every song on the new Field Music album.

In the autumn of 1984 Anthony Phillips (ex-Genesis) was commissioned by music publishers De Wolfe to write and record an album of library music for use on TV and Film. In marked contrast to the solo 12-string pieces he was working on at the same time for Twelve, the library project had a number of requirements in the initial brief, one of the key ones being the use of then-contemporary electronic drum and synthesiser sounds.
Anthony composed a number of tracks for the project and scored a selection of them which were then recorded by some top session musicians (credited on the original album sleeve under the name 'X-Cess') in De Wolfe's London studio in the spring of 1985…

Fifteen years before Chopin wrote his first “nocturne”, Irish pianist/composer John Field composed his Nocturne No. 1 in E-flat major, followed by at least 15 more pieces in the same style. In these short works for solo piano, Field–who was one of the most celebrated pianists in the world during the first quarter of the 19th century–put form to the idea of a contemplative, lyrical composition, specifically tailored to the piano’s expressive capabilities. These “night” pieces are primarily characterized by a dominant, gracefully flowing melody, with most of the harmonic activity in the pianist’s left hand. Although other pianists have recorded at least some of Field’s Nocturnes–most notably John O’Conor (Telarc) and Miceál O’Rourke (Chandos)–Benjamin Frith’s own uniquely inflected, poetic readings have a satisfying aura of intimacy cast in the warm colors of his well-tempered, expertly recorded piano. Although O’Conor’s playing is more lyrical, with more fluid legatos, Frith generally takes more time–and these invariably lovely pieces blossom just as fully and brilliantly.

This is the second, and perhaps more aggressively experimental, installment in the Bang on Can All-Stars’ acclaimed commissioned composer series. Like its predecessor, More Field Recordings once again explores strange new terrain where found sound, samples and archival audio collide with contemporary classical music, written by a wide range of artists and performed by the All-Stars.

This release brings together ALL of Morton Feldman’s compositions for cello and piano, including unpublished works and a first recording.