Composer, improviser, and trumpet player Nate Wooley continues to cement his place as an American iconoclast by releasing the complete recordings of his revolutionary solo [Syllables] compositions. Pleasure of the Text Records is releasing the deluxe 4 CD set consisting of two reissues of out-of-print early works: 8 [Syllables] (originally released on Peira Records 2013) and 9 [Syllables] (originally released on Mnoád 2014) as well as the premiere recording of his
150 minute epic For Kenneth Gaburo.
The Complete Syllables Music is the first collected edition of trumpet experimentalist Nate Wooley’s groundbreaking solo compositions. His attempt to sidestep a positive/negative value based musical aesthetic and to expand his own preconceptions of what the trumpet tone should be led him to the construction of a new compositional language, based on adjusting the physical parameters of how one makes sound. This new way of thinking was based on the shape and positioning of the oral cavity necessary to produce the phonetic sounds in speech; using the International Phonetic Alphabet as a new kind of tone-row to create structures on the position of the teeth, tongue, throat and nasal cavity. The result is an approach to the sound of the trumpet that is involved in traditional nor extended technique, but treats virtuosity as a non-issue. The box set features the first two works in this vein, reissued from out of print recordings on the Peira and Mnoád labels and is capped off with the most ambitious, and final solo version of the Syllables pieces, the 150 minute long electro-acoustic masterpiece For Kenneth Gaburo.
Personnel: Nate Wooley: trumpet, amplifier, tape, analog synthesizers.
Recorded Disc 1 Recorded at Issue Project Room, Brooklyn, NY Originally Released on Peira Records October 1, 2011 Recorded, mixed and mastered by Philip White.
Disc 2 Recorded at I Beam, Brooklyn, NY Originally Released on Mnóad Records October 7, 2012 Recorded, mixed and mastered by Jeremiah Cymerman.
Discs 3 and 4 Recorded at Curtis R. Priem Experimental Media Performing Arts Center EMPAC), Troy, NY Previously Unreleased Recorded, mixed and mastered by Jeff Svatek.