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Crane: Review

 

FLUXUS: 1960s july 24th 2015

Review from The Artificialist of Southland Ensemble’s July 24th 2015 performance of Fluxus music from the 1960s.

“...Southland knocked it out of the park…"

 

"A cool, trippy end to Southland's season.” - Damjan Rakonjac

 

Review from The LA Times of Southland Ensemble’s July 24th 2015 performance of Fluxus music from the 1960s.

“...southland has a flair for going back to the future by bringing to new life neglected experimental works from the '60s and '70s. The young players treated the anarchic Fluxus works from the early '60s with an encouraging degree of genuine understanding and captivating deadpan humor.” - Mark Swed

 

Alex Ross’ The Rest Is Noise mentions Southland Ensemble’s Fluxus show

ASHLEY april 1st 2015

Review from Sequenza 21 of Southland Ensemble’s April 1st 2015 performance of the Early Music of Robert Ashley at REDCAT

"The Southland Ensemble continues to add an important dimension to the cultural life of Los Angeles with outstanding performances of the late 20th century masters.” - Paul Muller

TENNEY december 19th 2014

Review from the Artificialist of Southland Ensemble’s December 19th 2014 performance of the music of James Tenney.

"New is about what people do and feel more than how they draw up mental definitions. And it changes. New becomes old and old new not by mind-locked ratiocination but through flick of wrist and breath of embouchure. New is a posture, and it’s embodied by those who feel it and then have the panache to show it off. Southland knew just how to display Tenney’s gorgeously waxing and waning drones. They felt the late music and showed it off just in time.” - Damjan Rakonjac

OLIVEROS september 9th 2014
Review from Sequenza21 of Southland Ensemble’s September 9th 2014 performance of the music of Pauline Oliveros.

"The concert concluded with Rock Piece (1979) and for this each member of the Southland Ensemble picked up a pair of rocks from a pile stacked in the center of the performance space…"

 

"The players started in a circle at the center of the space and moved outward from there, filling the Human Resources building with the clicking and clattering of rock striking rock. Listening to all this, the hearer often imposes a perceived rhythm for short stretches – even where none is intentionally created…"

 

"The Southland Ensemble has become a reliable resource for new music in the Los Angeles area, staging concerts of works by Christian Wolff and Alvin Lucifer in the past year. Their next concert will be December 19, 2014 featuring the music of James Tenney.” - Paul Muller

 

ASHLEY june 8th 2014 

Review from NewMusicBox of Southland Ensemble’s June 8th 2014 performance of Robert Ashley: Early Works.

"There was a palpable sense of energy in the room, which felt transformed into another world for the duration of the smartly staged, almost ceremonial performance. The ensemble chose to perform their selection of Ashley’s works continuously without a break, sometimes even simultaneously. Boundaries were blurred—not just between the pieces themselves, but also between music and theater, between audience and performer, between performance and life. This confusion could have been alienating, but in the hands of these committed players, it was instead bewitchingly mysterious." - Isaac Schankler

LUCIER january 21st 2014

Review from Sequenza 21 of Southland Ensemble's performance on January 21st 2014 of Alvin Lucier's music.

"This concert by the Southland Ensemble of works by Alvin Lucier, successfully realized at the boundary of music and acoustic science, provides us with a rare glimpse of the many creative possibilities that await us there." - Paul Muller

KIDS PLAY CAGE september 8th 2013
Preview from the LA Times for Kids Play Cage

"The challengers in this case, those who led the workshops, are members of the Southland Ensemble, a new group of young musicians and composers with a fascination for the experiments of the American avant-garde. At a concert performance at Automata, a gallery in Chinatown, the ensemble realized a graphically notated score from  “Changing the System” by Christian Wolff, the remaining member of Cage’s New York School.

The performance was terrific, true both to Wolff’s 1970s activism (the title came from a line by Tom Hayden) and to the need for reinvention. The piece asks more questions than it answers, and requires the players to come up with creative solutions within a contemporary context. That, of course, is also a credential for teaching music, so the kids should be in good hands.” - Mark Swed

WOLFF august 9th 2013
Review from Sequenza 21 of Southland Ensemble's first performance: CHANGING THE SYSTEM by Christian Wolff. This performance took place at Automata on 08/09/13.

"This performance of Changing the System had all the essential ingredients: exotic venue, political relevance and a score that gives wide latitude to the performance realization. The outcome for the audience is that it is more of an event to be experienced and less like a concert that is simply attended and heard.” - Paul Muller

 

© Southland Ensemble 2013-2015

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