Fridays on the Spectrum

'The strange library (of Babel)',
composed by Bojan Vuletic inspired by and dedicated to Haruki Murakami und Jorge Luis Borges

Anna Webber - saxophone, flute
Matt Moran - vibraphone
Nate Wooley – trumpet
MIVOS string quartet:
Olivia de Prato - violin
Lauren Cauley - violin
Victor Lowrie - viola
Mariel Roberts - cello
Bojan Vuletić - composition

The composition The strange library (of Babel) is based on two novels of authors who could not be more different but yet seem to be strongly connected in a spiritual kinship. Haruki Murakami pulls the reader into a vertigo of events that are openly irrational and funnily cruel. It is an absurd and dangerous story from the perspective of a boy imprisoned in a strange library. Borges describes an universal library where all knowledge of the past, present and future is stored and thereby becomes not a resource of knowledge or even wisdom but a cruel space that overburdens the people. The two novels complement each other on various levels and this is reflected in the musical conception of the composition The strange library (of Babel). In regards to Murakami, a rich world of whimsical colours, odd and shifted rhythms, floating tempos and dotty phrasing is unfolding with single voices and encountering characters. In contrast the musical world corresponding to Borges reflects the lostness of the humans within the vastness of the library and its senseless yet structured field of information. And in those moments, when a rational approach to the novels’ streams seems impossible, instinctive improvisation takes over.

The strange library (of Babel) is part VII of composer Bojan Vuletic’s ongoing composition cycle RecomposingArt (2011– ), which takes inspiration from artworks in the fields of poetry, art, photography, theatre, dance, cinematography and literature through recomposition. Vuletic takes these works out of their context in a completely subjective manner, transporting them into a new, purely musical and independent form. So far the following compositions have been premiered and performed in New York and Germany:

2011 ‘Atemwende’ - 9 poems by Paul Celan (approx. 65 minutes) for trumpet and string quartet
2012 ‘Unschaerfe’ - 8 pictures by Gerhard Richter (approx. 55 minutes) for string quartet
2013 ‘L’ écume des jours’ - novel by Boris Vian (approx. 70 minutes) for concert harp, trumpet, tuba and string quartet
2014 ‘Code Inconnu’ - movie by Michael Haneke (approx. 65 minutes) for bassoon, trumpet, violin and percussion
2015 ‘Metamorphosis / A Report to an Academy’ - novels by Franz Kafka (approx. 65 minutes) for vibraphone, trumpet and string quartet
2016 ‘Guernica’ - painting by Pablo Picasso (approx. 60 minutes) for saxophones, trumpet, tuba, vibraphone and string quartet

Co-production with ASPHALT Festival Duesseldorf, funded and supported by the Ministry for Families, Children, youth, Culture and Sports of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia and the city of Düsseldorf, Germany.

Gabriel Zucker - piano, compositions
Anna Webber - saxophone
Eric Trudel - saxophone
Nolan Tsang - trumpet
Artemisz Polonyi - voice
Walter Stinson - bass
Alex Goldberg - drums

Gabriel Zucker’s indie jazz orchestra The Delegation was founded in 2013, and has already broken new ground in New York’s dynamic music scene. Combining an array of disparate influences into a unique and emotionally immediate sound, The Delegation has performed throughout the Northeast, Canada, and Europe, and Zucker’s compositions for the group have received awards from ASCAP and the American Composers Forum JFund grant. The group’s singular musical philosophy has been profiled at length by the Ottawa Citizen, Jazz Gallery, and the American Composers Forum.

Last fall, The Delegation brought its unique concept to life with the release of Evergreen (Canceled World), Zucker’s maximalist 12-movement composition that serves as the band’s sprawlingly ambitious debut record. The record was awarded 4.5 stars in Downbeat Magazine, and 4 stars in All About Jazz. In the World Music Report, Raul da Gama wrote: “In Zucker’s almost confrontational writing I find the vision of one who is hugely expressive. Here is a young man with a profound sense of tone and colour and how it can be wrought from diverse instrumentation to be affectingly ‘cantorial’, expressive and hugely symphonic too.”

With protean production by Zucker and pop producer Chris Connors, the nearly-two-hour record features everything from angular rhythmic grooves to Radiohead-inspired soundscapes to jarring electronics-infused chamber music to enigmatic lullabies, and is one of 2016’s only contemporary releases on the prestigious ESP-Disk label.

The Delegation
Gabriel Zucker