Morton Feldman’s ‘Patterns In a Chromatic Field’ : Lucy Railton & Joseph Housten

A special performance of Morton Feldman’s ‘Patterns In a Chromatic Field’ by Lucy Railton & Joseph Housten.

“Written in 1981, Patterns in a Chromatic Field is one of US composer Morton Feldman’s lengthy ‘late’ works in which, as he famously explained, ideas of form give way to a sense of scale. Running to more than 90 minutes, it’s a succession of seemingly disconnected patterns, with cello and piano mulling over a few chosen pitches, chords and articulations, maybe moving in and out of sync with each other, before simply moving on to something else. The cumulative effect is almost like experiencing the compositional process unfold before your very ears; and despite the apparent objectivity and detachment of the music, there’s intense subjectivity, too, in Feldman’s minute alterations to his patterns, and his often witty, telling choices as to how they succeed each other.”

Lucy Railton has been an active performer, programmer and music maker since 2008, releasing albums on Modern Love, Editions Mego – GRM Portraits, ECM, SN Variations & Shelter Press. Having emerged from a long-term engagement with classical and contemporary music, she now makes her own work alone or in collaboration with artists and musicians from varied disciplines, including Rebecca Salvadori, Peter Zinovieff, Catherine Lamb, Khyam Allami, Kit Downes, Kali Malone and Stephen O’Malley.

Joseph Houston is a British pianist active in the fields of contemporary and experimental music. Based in Berlin, he performs a wide range of repertoire, recent performances including Feldman, Jennifer Walshe, Scarlatti, Rebecca Saunders, Ives, Klaus Lang, Bartók, Catherine Lamb, and Chiyoko Szlavnics.

Isidora and Biliana had their first encounter in 2019 in Chile. The two artists connected strongly and committed to continue their collaboration. They perform regularly and are joined by different guests. This season, the duo will perform in Duisburg, Berlin, London and Manchester and release their first album.

Isidora Edwards is a Chilean cellist, improviser and composer residing in London. Her work is based on investigation of the sound possibilities of the cello and analogue electronics from a feminist perspective. She is actively exploring the intersection between performativity, materiality and imagination.

Biliana Voutchkova is a dynamic and thoroughly engaged interdisciplinary artist with a truly personal, unconventional artistic language. Through the prism of listening, her early training in classical music and the following years of development as a mature contemporary artist-performer, she explores states of spontaneity and intuitive resonance embodied in her multifaceted activities.