Rave Reviews for Ken Thomson's Restless with Ashley Bathgate & Karl Larson

Composer and Bang on a Can All-Stars member Ken Thomson released his latest album Restless (Cantaloupe Music/Naxos) on October 28, 2016. Restless includes Thomson's Restless (2013-2014) and Me Vs. (2012) performed by Bang on a Can All-Stars cellist Ashley Bathgate and Brooklyn-based dynamic virtuoso pianist Karl Larson. This album marks Bathgate and Larson's recording debut as a duo. The composer and performers decided to release Restless primarily on vinyl, with each piece neatly taking one side, in a nod to the vinyl albums of Thomson's childhood, as well as a way of suggesting to listeners that they digest each piece individually, in its entirety. The album will also be available digitally.

Restless follows Ken Thomson's 2013 album Thaw (Cantaloupe Music) performed by the JACK Quartet, which was named the No. 1 Classical CD of 2013 by Rhapsody and was featured on NPR's list of "10 Songs Public Radio Can't Stop Playing." iTunes wrote, "While Thomson can be a prankster, these suites show a serious side worth hearing," while Time Out New York described the album as, "Brainy, gritty and visceral, the music leaps off the disc."

Thomson, Bathgate, and Larson have worked together on many Bang on a Can projects throughout the years, collaborating on new music through the All-Stars (of which Bathgate and Thomson are members), the Summer Music Festival at Mass MoCA, worldwide tours, and more. Thomson says, "Working with Ashley and Karl over the process of putting together Restless was really phenomenal. The two of them, who had played together but never this deeply, began to develop this intense and empathetic rapport. It's especially notable because Restless is not really a cello solo with piano but a real duo. During the recording session, the perfectionism of both became clear, but each honored the other generously."

Restless (2013-4) for cello and piano and Me Vs. (2012) for solo piano are two of Thomson's most substantial chamber works. Both pieces consist of multiple movements, last approximately 20 minutes, and are major additions to the solo piano and cello/piano duo traditions. While their forms and instrumentation are a clear nod to traditional idioms, Thomson's signature blend of jazz, punk, and modern art music is still boiling at the surface. These works highlight the composer's masterful manipulation of tension and energy. The music churns, building in a wave of dissonance and density while never leaving traditional harmony behind.

About Karl Larson: Brooklyn based pianist Karl Larson is a specialist in the music of our time, consistently presenting adventurous programs. Larson has premiered many solo piano and chamber pieces, including works by David Rakowski, Ken Thomson, Robert Honstein, Chris Cerrone, and David Lang. Recent performances of note include Morton Feldman's Triadic Memories, Olivier Messiaen's Harawi, and the world premiere of Scott Wollschleger's Meditations on Dust for solo piano and string orchestra. A sought-after collaborator, Larson has worked with many notable musicians and ensembles including Tristan Perich, Ashley Bathgate, Vicky Chow, Erik Carlson, Mantra, Eve Beglarian, the Eco Ensemble, the Sleeping Giant Composer Collective, and Contemporaneous. Larson is also a founding member of Bearthoven, a piano, bass, and percussion trio dedicated to the performance of brand new works. Larson received a Doctor of Musical Arts in Contemporary Music and a Masters in Piano Performance at Bowling Green State University. He is on faculty at the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music.

About Ken Thomson: Ken Thomson, a staple of New York City's contemporary music and jazz communities, is widely regarded for his ability to blend a rich variety of influences and styles into his own musical language while maintaining a voice unmistakably his own. Embracing the combination of complexity in harmony, rhythm, and form while adding a punk-rock aesthetic, Thomson stands alone in his unique corner of today's multifaceted musical world. In addition to being clarinetist for the Bang on Can All-Stars and music director of Bang on a Can's Asphalt Orchestra, he plays saxophone and is one of the three composers in the punk/jazz band Gutbucket. Gutbucket has toured internationally to nineteen countries and 32 states over seventeen years and released CDs for Knitting Factory, Enja, NRW, Cantaloupe and Cuneiform Records. He is on faculty at the Bang on a Can Summer Music Festival. As a composer, he has been commissioned by the American Composers Orchestra, Bang on a Can, the True/False Film Festival, Doug Perkins, and others, and has received awards from New Music USA, ASCAP and Meet the Composer. As composer-performer, Thomson leads an ensemble called Slow/Fast, was created to meld jazz and contemporary concert music. The group released its second album, Settle, on NCM East Records in 2014. He has also worked as a conductor and music director, notably, directing composer Julia Wolfe's Traveling Music at the Bordeaux Conservatory in France in 2009, and has conducted performances of Music for Airports with the Bang on a Can All-Stars, choir, and guest musicians from Melbourne to Buenos Aires. He is a Selmer Paris/Conn-Selmer endorser, and a D'Addario Reeds artist.

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