Wet Ink Ensemble Releases Wet Ink Archive: 04 'Smoke, Airs'

Wet Ink Ensemble today releases the fourth edition of its new, monthly online journal of adventurous music and conversation, the Wet Ink Archive: 04 "Smoke, Airs." The issue includes ECHOES OF ECHOES: Memory, Perception and Contemplations on hcmf//, by Alice Teyssier; LISTENING TOWARDS OPENNESS, by Eric Wubbels; and ARCHIVE CONCERT: Creative Premieres, Wet Ink's June 2018 season finale concert featuring music by Lea Bertucci, Darius Jones, Ingrid Laubrock, Charmaine Lee, and Peter Ablinger with commentary from the composers and an introduction by Wet Ink co-director Sam Pluta. Archive 04 also celebrates Wet Ink's latest record release, Smoke, Airs - the end product of a multi-year collaboration between Wet Ink, Charmaine Lee, P.A. Tremblay, Bryn Harrison, Kristina Wolfe, and the University of Huddersfield - out Friday, September 25, 2020 on Huddersfield Contemporary Records.

Wet Ink co-director Eric Wubbels writes, "The amazing artists featured in Wet Ink Archive: 04 work primarily in and between traditions where the coexistence of improvisation and composition within a musical form is not radical, but assumed."

In Echoes of Echoes, multitalented flutist/vocalist/scholar Alice Teyssier offers a nuanced and personal look "under the hood" of an ambitious three-year project centered around the 2019 Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival (hcmf//). Teyssier, who joined Wet Ink as guest flutist for workshops, performances at hcmf//, and the studio recording of these four new works by Charmaine Lee, P.A. Tremblay, Bryn Harrison, and Kristina Wolfe, shares musical analysis gleaned from interviews with the composers, while offering ruminations on how changing circumstances - both expected and extraordinary - affect our perception of time, musically and otherwise.

In Listening Towards Openness, Eric Wubbels has compiled a wonderfully in-depth resource for curious listeners and shares his incisive take on the work of seven vital artists whose work occupies an "intermediary, hybrid space" along the continuum of notation and improvisation. Featuring music by influential figures such as Anthony Braxton and Eliane Radigue alongside innovative voices including Luke Stewart, Kaja Draksler, and more, Wubbels's list is a must-read and a must-listen for new music lovers.

Wet Ink's first edition of "Archive Concerts" features the ensemble's June 2018 season finale, including the premieres of works by Ingrid Laubrock, Darius Jones, Charmaine Lee, and Lea Bertucci as well as Wet Ink's first performance of Peter Ablinger's remarkable graphic score, Black Series. The large ensemble was composed of the composers alongside Peter Evans (trumpet), Weston Olencki (trombone), and the Wet Ink septet. Putting this concert together with these singular artists was a very special experience, as Wet Ink co-director Sam Pluta eloquently sums up in his introductory remarks: "The joys of dialog and collaboration bore joys of listening, created friendships, enacted future dialogs, and hopefully, in a small way, pushed the horizon of future realities."

The mission of Wet Ink Archive parallels that of the Ensemble: sharing the body of work generated within the group, celebrating the music of longtime collaborators, and providing a platform for emerging and underrepresented artists. Each issue includes three articles ranging from personal reflection to in-depth musical analysis, accompanied by newly released music and archival documentation.

Sign Up to Receive the Wet Ink Archive Here.

About Wet Ink Ensemble
The Wet Ink Ensemble is a collective of composers, performers and improvisers dedicated to adventurous music-making. Named "The Best Classical Music Ensemble of 2018" by The New York Times, Wet Ink's work is rooted in an ethos of innovation through collaboration, extending from the music and the unique performance practice developed in the "band" atmosphere of Wet Ink's core octet of composer-performers, to projects with a broad range of renowned creators, from Evan Parker to George Lewis to Peter Ablinger, and committed performances of music by young and underrepresented composers, from today's most promising emerging voices to the next generation of artists.

Hailed for "sublimely exploratory" (The Chicago Reader) and "dense, wild, yet artfully controlled" (The New York Times) performances and "uncompromisingly original music by its members, and unflagging belief in the power of collaboration" (The New Yorker), Wet Ink has been presenting concerts of new music at the highest level in New York City and around the world for over 20 years. Wet Ink's programming celebrates the nexus of composition, improvisation and interpretation, from early collaborations with Christian Wolff and ZS to pioneering portrait concerts of Peter Ablinger, Mathias Spahlinger, Anthony Braxton, and the AACM composers, work with renowned creative musicians such as Ingrid Laubrock, Peter Evans, Darius Jones, and Katherine Young, and long-term collaborative projects with Wet Ink's four acclaimed composer-members (Alex Mincek, Sam Pluta, Kate Soper, and Eric Wubbels).

Wet Ink has been in residence at institutions including Duke University, EMPAC (Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center), Columbia University, the Royal Academy of Music (UK), and The Walden School, among many others, and has been featured on numerous recordings. Highlights include Katharina Rosenberger's TEXTUREN, which was awarded a German Record Critics Prize, and solo records by Alex Mincek (Torrent), Kate Soper (IPSA DIXIT), Sam Pluta (Broken Symmetries), Eric Wubbels (Duos with Piano, Book 1), and Josh Modney (Engage), all of which were celebrated on various "Best of" lists by The New York Times, The New Yorker, Bandcamp Daily, Sequenza 21, and The Nation. Wet Ink has released four acclaimed solo albums (Wet Ink Ensemble; Relay; Wet Ink: 20, which features the Wet Ink Large Ensemble; and Glossolalia/Lines on Black).

Wet Ink is co-directed by an octet of world class composers, improvisers, and interpreters that collaborate in band-like fashion, writing, improvising, preparing, and touring pieces together over long stretches of time. These directors are Erin Lesser (flutes), Alex Mincek (saxophone), Ian Antonio (percussion), Eric Wubbels (piano), Josh Modney (violin), Mariel Roberts (cello), Kate Soper (voice), and Sam Pluta (electronics). The Wet Ink Large Ensemble is a group of extraordinary New York City musicians that come together to play the world's most exciting and innovative music. Learn more at www.wetink.org.

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