As you listen to this album from start to finish, a blissful feeling will emerge, as with forest bathing or any activity that helps you connect with the elements of water and earth… The listener participates fully in this multi-sensory experience of recording, composing, and performing, in a moment that transcends time and merges the past with the present. You are invited to join an open-ended journey through budding fruit trees, wildflowers, and hidden creeks.

Valentina Bertolani, musicologist


Farpoint Recordings & Ars Subtilior are delighted to announce the release of As Trees Grow by Gayle Young. Microtonal recordings of frozen waterfalls, truffle mycelia, fruiting trees in Umbria, ephemeral spring wildflowers in Canada: join us on a journey across a rich tapestry of music for piano and electronics by the radical Canadian composer, instrument designer and sound artist Gayle Young.

Xenia Pestova Bennett presents a triptych of piano works by Young.

Collaboration is at the heart of this recording. As Trees Grow was composed during a residency at the Civitella Ranieri Foundation in 2014, where Young met fellow resident composer Ed Bennett and pianist Xenia Pestova Bennett. This fateful meeting resulted in Pestova Bennett’s premiere of As Trees Grow at Café Oto (London) with live-electronic treatments by Ed Bennett. Electronic processing was created by Bennett in collaboration with Young in the days before the premiere, as the three collaborators worked on enhancing the piano’s resonance in sections of the piece.

Ice Creek combines the piano with the sounds of an ice-covered waterfall recorded through a series of tuned resonators, exploring Debussy’s harmonic language. This unusual technique creates striking and aurally beguiling effects, amplifying different harmonic resonances and drawing the listener into the sounds and inviting engagement with the environment and human impact on nature. The piano inhabits and weaves a unique path through the soundscape, guiding the listener. Young and Pestova Bennett collaborated extensively in preparation for the 2018 Premiere in Calgary, continuing developing the music after the premiere by working remotely.

Forest Ephemerals: Four Flowers was written for pianist Eve Egoyan and is structured around a text describing spring wildflowers that grow in forests before tree leaves are formed: violet, trout lily, trillium, and jack-in-the-pulpit. Young references pieces by Charles Ives and includes foraging recipes in the accompanying texts.

As Trees Grow is also available via Bandcamp.
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As Trees Grow by Gayle Young

Xenia Pestova Bennett, piano
Ed Bennett, live electronics

Track listing:

01 Ice Creek [8:00]

Forest Ephemerals: Four Flowers (total duration) [17:20]

02 Part I Forest Ephemerals [1:50]
03 Part II Violet [3:00]
04 Part III Trout Lily [2:45]
05 Part IV Trillium [4:45]
06 Part V Jack-In-The-Pulpit [3:40]
07 Part IV Perennial Ephemerals [1:20]

08 Ice Creek High [4:00]
09 As Trees Grow [20:30]
10 Ice Creek Low  [4:00]    [53:50]
 
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All compositions by Gayle Young
Produced by Xenia Pestova Bennett and Ed Bennett
Executive Producer, William Blakeney for Ars Subtilior

Ars Subtilior is a Canadian production company formed in 2020 by William Blakeney. The label features electro acoustic releases by leading Canadian composers, many of whom have been featured in MusicWorks magazine.
 
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We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts in funding this project and the Arts Council of Northern Ireland for the loan of the Steinway D concert piano for the purpose of this recording. We also gratefully acknowledge support from the University of Nottingham IRC Flexible Fund as well as the Sonic Arts Research Centre, Craig Jackson, Jonny McGuinnes and Paul Stapleton of Queen’s University Belfast.