Revolution Ensemble EPK
Revolution Ensemble is an experimental group dedicated to pushing physical and musical boundaries through exploring improvisation, graphic scores, electronics and interdisciplinary collaborations. Based in Montreal, the core members are Gordon Fitzell and Tommy Davis, who invite other artists on a rotating basis to perform for specific project-based performances. They have collaborated on performance projects in Canada, France and the United Kingdom including the Strata New Music Festival (Saskatoon), GroundSwell Winnipeg, the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival (UK), Sonorities Festival (Belfast), and the World Saxophone Congress (Strasbourg).
REVIEWS FOR GORDON FITZELL
“A moody chiaroscuro of sound”
“Evocative ... exquisite ... like the elegant wind storm that rustled through the ensemble near the beginning, and the open, pulsing electronic chord that ended the piece”
“Philosophical ... shades of pianissimo”
“Atmospherically internalised”
“The strange imaginary animals in Gordon Fitzell’s “Evanescence” ... seemed to be from outer space. Mr. Fitzell uses electronic and avant-garde techniques, like running a wet finger around the edge of a glass, to create an eerie, throbbing, trancelike canvas, through which at one point a raspy cello line penetrates like the moan of an angry Martian”
Reviews for Tommy Davis
“You heard the lush saxophone playing...interacting with the dancers and drawing ambient sound from the room itself. Beautiful harmonies sang in contrast to mysterious knockings and hums, and finally to ungodly, soul-shattering blasts.”
“...Use overblowing to create symphonic textures... [and] unearthly echos. [The] use of odd instruments like found-object percussion and horns made of long tubes took you to other worlds.”
Media
r/evolution is a moto perpetuo work featuring uncommonly long phrases, trajectories and transformations. The piece requires extended circular breathing and the virtuosic execution of multiple simultaneous performance techniques. These techniques include multiphonics and other false fingerings, whisper tones, vocalizing/growl, pitched key clicks, and a blended teeth-on-reed embouchure. Fluidity of co-presentation and transformation across these techniques is essential to the continually evolving character of the work. Commissioned with the support of the Winnipeg Arts Council, the work is dedicated to saxophonist Tommy Davis.
r/evolution for augmented tenor saxophone and immersive interactive speaker array. The version of r/evolution involves live performative electronic audio in which contact and clip microphone signals are processed in real time to create an expanded and immersive listening environment.
The score for Metropolis combines manipulated photographs with graphic notation and elements of conventional music notation. Each system of music features a different colour scheme, which, together with intervallic, gestural and sectional indications, constitutes an important synaesthetic component of the piece. The work was commissioned through the Manitoba Arts Council by saxophonist Allen Harrington and pianist Laura Loewen, who in 2006 were the first Canadian finalists in the world’s most prestigious saxophone competition—the Adophe Sax International Competition in Belgium. Metropolis appears on the album Metropolis (Parma Records, 2014) by the Harrington Loewen Duo.
For multiple suspended speakers.
A mobile art installation for five sonic luminescent orbs, :spin explores the concepts of spatiality and energy transference through the use of multiple ambulatory sound sources. This approach affords each listener a unique auditory and visual perspective on an ever-changing immersive environment. The work was first installed at the Lisbon Architecture Triennale in Portugal in 2007, where it ran for two months. It has also been presented at the Cluster New Music + Integrated Arts Festival, the Winnipeg New Music Festival, and at the ISCM World Music Days in Bruges, Belgium.
Multiple microphones signals are processed in real time to create an expanded and immersive listening environment. The electronic version of r/evolution was premiered at the 2016 Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival in Huddersfield, United Kingdom.
Recording engineer: Phillip Tock.
This work earned First Prize in the electroacoustic category at the CBC Radio National Competition for Young Composers in 1999, and Second Prize at the 1998 SOCAN Awards for Young Composers. It has received numerous national and international performances and broadcasts. An earlier version of !Zip, entitled Zipper Music II, appears on the 2000 2-CD set Présence II (CEC).
In economics, food product formulation and many other enterprises, the term “bliss point” refers to an optimal quantity of consumption beyond which any further increase would diminish quality. In adapting this concept to music, I opted for a design that challenges the performers to choose the duration that best expresses their interpretation of the work—the sonic bliss point. Dedicated to Sea&Sky, Bliss Point appears on their self-titled 2015 album Sea&Sky.
A peaceful and meditative work; works very well in candlelight or low lighting
Recording engineer: Phillip Tock.
Program Repertoire
Bliss Point for e-bow piano and alto saxophone by Gordon Fitzell
Garden Electric (electroacoustic) by Gordon Fitzell
Metropolis for piano, saxophone and electronics by Gordon Fitzell
Micrographia for solo tenor saxophone by Samuel Andreyev
Orb of the Sun for solo tenor saxophone and optional electronics by Gordon Fitzell
r/evolution for solo tenor saxophone with electronics and immersive speaker array by Gordon Fitzell
!Zip (electroacoustic) by Gordon Fitzell
Strouche for tenor saxophone by Tommy Davis
Improvisations by Davis/Fitzell
Tommy Davis, saxophones
Gordon Fitzell, electronics
Performances
12-06-22 Lotus Mudra: a sonic meditation for improvising musician(s) recording in Montreal
26-09-18 Interactive Art, Science, and Technology in Western Canada Conference, University of Lethbridge, AB
r/evolution for tenor saxophone and interactive spatial audio by Gordon Fitzell
16-10-18 Music in New Technologies (MINT), Halifax, NS
r/evolution for tenor saxophone and interactive spatial audio by Gordon Fitzell
12-06-17 Tendresses Mixtes - Festival Suoni Per Il Popolo presented by Code d'Accès in Montréal, Canada
r/evolution for solo saxophone (North American Premiere of electronics version) by Gordon Fitzell
Tommy Davis, tenor saxophone; Gordon Fitzell, live electronics
03-12-16 Clare College Music Society: Contemporary Late, Clare College Chapel, Cambridge University, UK
r/evolution for solo saxophone by Gordon Fitzell
Bliss Point for e-bow piano and alto saxophone by Gordon Fitzell
Open Improvisations by Davis, Fitzell and Woo
Tommy Davis, tenor and alto saxophone; Gordon Fitzell, e-bow piano and electronics; Naomi Woo, piano
24-11-16 Sonorities Festival, Queen's University Belfast, Belfast, Northern Ireland
r/evolution for solo saxophone and immersive speaker array by Gordon Fitzell
Gordon Fitzell, electronics; Tommy Davis, tenor saxophone
21-11-16 Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival: hcmf//shorts, Huddersfield, UK
r/evolution for solo saxophone (Premiere of revised version with electronics) by Gordon Fitzell
Gordon Fitzell, electronics; Tommy Davis, tenor saxophoneBliss Point for e-bow piano and alto saxophone by Gordon Fitzell
Gordon Fitzell, e-bow piano; Tommy Davis, alto saxophone
**Supported by the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, the University of Manitoba Desautels Faculty of Music and the Canada Council for the Arts**
26-09-16 Eva Clare Hall, Desautels Faculty of Music, University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, Canada
Bliss Point for e-bow piano and alto saxophone by Gordon Fitzell
Micrographia for solo tenor saxophone by Samuel Andreyev
r/evolution for solo saxophone (workshop/recital of revised version with electronics) by Gordon Fitzell
Gordon Fitzell, e-bow piano and electronics; Tommy Davis, tenor and alto saxophones
**Supported in part by GroundSwell Winnipeg and the University of Manitoba Desautels Faculty of Music**
11-03-16 North American Saxophone Alliance Biennial Conference, Texas Tech University in Lubbock, USA
r/evolution for solo saxophone (Official North American Premiere) by Gordon Fitzell
Tommy Davis, tenor saxophone
12-07-15 XVII World Saxophone Congress, Cité de la Musique et de la Danse de Strasbourg, Strasbourg, France
r/evolution for solo saxophone (World Premiere) by Gordon Fitzell
Tommy Davis, tenor saxophone
06-07-15 Conservatoire de Boulogne-Billancourt, Paris, France
r/evolution for solo saxophone by Gordon Fitzell
Tommy Davis, tenor saxophone
18-05-15 Faculté de Musique, Université de Montréal, Montreal, Canada
r/evolution for solo saxophone by Gordon Fitzell
Tommy Davis, tenor saxophone
10-03-15 Université de Montréal, Montreal, Canada
Metropolis for piano, tenor saxophone and electronics by Gordon Fitzell
The Garden Electric (electroacoustic piece) by Gordon Fitzell
Bliss Point for e-bow piano and alto saxophone (Premiere of saxophone version) by Gordon Fitzell
Orb of the Sun for tenor saxophone and electronics by Gordon Fitzell
Gordon Fitzell, electronics; Tommy Davis, saxophones; Jason Noble, piano and e-bows
12-11-14 Université de Montréal, Montreal, Canada
Metropolis for piano, tenor saxophone and electronics by Gordon Fitzell
!Zip (electroacoustic piece) by Gordon Fitzell
Improvisations
Gordon Fitzell, electronics; Tommy Davis, saxophones; Jason Noble, piano
13-06-14 Strata New Music Festival, Saskatoon, Canada
violence for chamber ensemble by Gordon Fitzell
Metropolis for piano, tenor saxophone and electronics by Gordon Fitzell
Elea for piano trio by Gordon Fitzell
!Zip (electroacoustic piece) by Gordon Fitzell
evanescence for chamber ensemble and live electronics by Gordon Fitzell