Graham Reynolds - The Difference Engine
$13.00 / On Sale
Called "the quintessential modern composer" by the London Independent, Austin-based composer-bandleader-improviser Graham Reynolds creates, performs, and records music for film, theater, dance, rock clubs, and concert halls, with a wide range of collaborators across a multitude of disciplines. He recently scored Richard Linklater's Last Flag Flying with Steve Care II, Bryan Cranston, and Laurence Fishburne for Amazon Studios, the Rude Mechs' Stop Hitting Yourself for Lincoln Center Theater, Ballet Austin's Belle Redux, and a multi-year commission from Ballroom Marfa, The Marfa Triptych. His Creative Capital Award winning project, Pancho Villa from a Safe Distance, is a bilingual cross-border opera created with librettists Lagartijas Tiradas al Sol (Mexico City) and director Shawn Sides (Rude Mechs). Amidst touring with this opera and other endeavors, Reynolds is currently at work on Golden Hornet's The Sound of Science as both curator and composer.
The Difference Engine was Reynolds' first foray connecting sound and science, celebrating the shared culture of inquiry in the art and science disciplines. Infusing a loose concerto format with the story of Charles Babbage and his invention "the difference engine," Reynolds' composing voice finds itself in a work that is intense and driving, beautiful and intimate, personally expressive and broadly accessible all at the same time. Developed over a course of years, the initial ideas for each movement were introduced and inspired separately before being woven into this one piece. The musical onslaught of the opening movement came to Reynolds during a lecture by LB Deyo on Babbage and his work, inspired by the ferocious pace of both Babbage's thinking and the calculating speed of his invention. Not fully realized in his lifetime, "the difference engine" was the masterwork of the 19th century inventor and mathematician - and attempt to create the world's first computer.
The completed concerto The Difference Engine premiered in 2010 as a 35-piece orchestral performance presented by Golden Hornet in Austin, TX. Soloists Leah Zeger on violin, Jonathan Dexter on cello, and the composer himself on piano fronted the debut, with parts written specifically for their skill set and personal voices. Those voices were then captured for the recordings originally released in 2011. Beyond the original triple concerto and remixes of each movement - by DJ Spooky, Octopus Project, Grammy-award winning producer Adrian Quesada, Peter Stopschinski, and Reynolds himself - the vinyl release includes two brand new remixes contributed by Orion Garcia (Peligrosa) and Demian Galvez (Centavrvs). Both artists are driving forces leading the charge on re-energizing the sounds of Latin America's past, present, and future. The newly re-mastered vinyl fosters an incredible listening experience, whether hearing The Difference Engine for the first time, or re-discovering with a fresh perspective.
Graham Reynolds - Piano
Leah Zeger - Violin
Jonathan Dexter - Cello
Track Listing:
The Concerto
Movement I: The Cogwheel Brain
Movement II: Ada
Movement Ill: Cam Stack & Crank Handle
Movement IV: Late at Night/ The Astronomer
Movement V: The Difference Engine
The Remixes
The Cogwheel Brain (Octopus Project remix)
Cam Stack & Crank Handle (Graham Reynolds remix)
The Difference Engine (Demian Galvez remix)
The Astronomer (Adrian Quesada remix)
The Difference Engine (Peter Stopschinski remix)
Ada (DJ Spooky remix)
Cam Stack & Crank Handle (Orion Garcia I Peligrosa remix)
SSO-07
2018 Sonic Surgery Records