Tern - In Air
Philipp Wachsmann - violin / electronics
Martin Hackett - Korg MS10
Emil Karlsen - drums
“Tern’s instrumental emancipation looks to raise the bar for subsequent 21st-century improvisation going forward.
”
Recorded partly at Wachsmann’s studio and at the Sounds Like THIS festival in Leeds, Tern “reveal a vast palette of colour as they dance between the darkest shadows and the most vivid and dazzling light (…) fine music for all the senses.”
All music by Philipp Wachsmann (PRS), Martin Hackett (PRS) and Emil Karlsen (TONO)
Track 1 and 2 recorded by Chris Sharkey at Sounds like this festival, Leeds - 12/03-2020
Track 3,4,5 recorded by Philipp Wachsmann - 07/12-2019
Mix by Philipp Wachsmann
Artwork by Emil Karlsen
BD16
“For me, the instrumentation is unusual as is the relationship each musician has evolved with his instrument. Martin’s analogue electronics takes off into a wide range of emotions from the quasi vocal to abstraction, the unhuman and mechanical to personal expression, fluency with control, articulation, process and surprise. Emil uses space in a different way, as in his solo work, sensitive, subtle, creating colour, projecting spatially in addition to interactions that one might expect from sources of percussion. As for myself, am focussing more recently on the violin as an instrument, as well as an object in its own right, the human embodied as well as potential for athletic narrative. A kind of freedom to be and to do. I value the way that the three spaces of each musician come together and interact to create a sound landscape to which the listener joins completing the fourth space.” -Philipp Wachsmann (1st July 2022)
press reactions
“Excellent testimony to the quirky and detailed improvisation of the British where the emphasis is on dynamics, the sporadic use of silence and restricted playing with a multiplicity of playful options (…).” – Jean-Michel Van Schouwburg
"Tern’s instrumental emancipation looks to raise the bar for subsequent 21st-century improvisation going forward." - Darren Bergstein, Downtown Music Gallery
"Wonderfully idiosyncratic and masterful conversations." - Squidco
Tern (Wachsmann / Hackett / Karlsen) are all exceptional musicians in their own right, and each recognised for their unique approach to creating improvised music. When these three great minds chose to work together they sparked a rare artistic alchemy with startling results, from the subtle and ethereal melodic ideas, to robust and tactile rhythmic volleys, even the roughest of sounds in their repertoire are deeply considered and musically compelling. They reveal a vast palette of colour as they dance between the darkest shadows and the most vivid and dazzling light. This is fine music for all the senses.
”
— Dr Paul Abbott, Director of Events and Enterprise, Leeds Conservatoire & Artistic Director, Sounds Like THIS Festival