Spaces Unfolding + Pierre Alexandre Tremblay - Shadow Figures

Neil Metcalfe - flute
Philipp Wachsmann - violin
Emil Karlsen - drums
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Pierre Alexandre Tremblay - electronics

The trio of Neil Metcalfe, Philipp Wachsmann and Emil Karlsen has been working together as Spaces Unfolding since 2021. Created initially as a vehicle for acoustic exploration, the trio’s debut album ‘The Way We Speak’ was recorded in the acoustics of London’s St Mary’s Old Church. This time the trio is joined by Pierre Alexandre Tremblay (electronics), a practitioner offering multiple dialogues between instruments and electronics. Expanding on the initial idea of acoustic influence, the trio is now situated within an electronic environment in what is a reflection on our relationship with technology.

read more about the project here

“I first met Pierre Alexandre in 2021 at the invitation of Alex Bonney to record with their duo ‘light.box’. This was in fact just a couple of months after the recording of ‘The Way We Speak’, which was engineered by Bonney. The session culminated in ‘The Undanced Dance’, issued on Bead spring of 2023.

What initially struck me about his approach to electronics was his acute sensibility as a performer. His abilities to capture and react to minute timbral nuances allowed for quick directional changes, resulting in dynamic and manoeuvrable musical exchanges. I immediately knew I wanted to work more closely with him and we have since collaborated in various ad-hoc contexts cultivating a fruitful musical relationship for which I’m grateful. This project was born out of an interest to situate the trio within an electronic space, a continuation of the approach of our first recording. I consider the roles of these spaces as intertwined and their shared influence on group interaction as central.

An attempt to define this work might seem superfluous. I do however believe outlining an overall framework encourages new insights which would otherwise be lost. Shadow Figures is a work dedicated to exploring our relationship to technology, a relationship with increasing visibility in the public domain sparking much debate regarding our position in a shifting technological landscape. A deep structure of undercurrents, seemingly invisible but with real implications on human life. These shadows disrupt, corrupt, interrupt and imitate human actions with potential to influence our behaviour and reshape our perspectives.

In the context of this work, I’m particularly interested in the tension between acoustic instruments and electronic processing, emphasising transformational possibilities and consequent challenges that arise. Within this dialectic relationship, hierarchical structures emerge, questioning the degree of our true freedom and autonomy. There are no clear answers, what remains is a continuous search for agency and of ‘self’. These parallels, although encouraging reflections, do not diminish the fact that this work is a statement in its own right and should be regarded as such.

For me, improvisation reflects the ‘now’ and Shadow Figures is just this - a work that could not have been made in any other time or place.

Thanks for supporting a living music.”

Emil Karlsen (2024) 

press reactions

In Praise of Shadows (Pt.1,2 and 3) is dedicated to Japanese author Jun’ichirō Tanizaki

Pt.1 – Philipp Wachsmann / P.A Tremblay
Pt.2 – Neil Metcalfe / P.A Tremblay
Pt.3 – Emil Karlsen / P.A Tremblay

Recorded 21st December 2023 by Pierre Alexandre Tremblay at Huddersfield University
Mixed/mastered by Chris Sharkey
Cover photo, art work and design by Emil Karlsen
Photography by Kristian Løvstad
Produced by Emil Karlsen for Bead Records
Thanks to PRS UK for supporting the release of this material
All rights reserved
BEAD 50

Untamed with moments of reflection, uncertainty, Shadow Figures pitches an environment and its sounds, its unseen wound-up, ratcheted and twisted objects with more skeletal, shaved, sieved and high-pitched avant-garde expressions.   - Dominic Valvona (Monolith Cocktail) full review

Yet another gem to its catalog, one of the most diversified in the universe of improvised music for decades. - Jean Michel Van Schouvwburg (independent) full review