“from shelter” is music written in 1997 for choreographer Lane Lucas’s dance/theater work “Shelter,” which deals with “the concept of metamorphosis, and the way connections between people can bring us to a greater awareness of our place in life.” The gently undulating three-section “Three Short Stories” and the beautifully insistent “My burning skin to sleep” form a suite that very successfully stands apart from the theater/dance work for which they were composed. Three violas calmly stroll through their pitches, starting and stopping to form little pieces within pieces, all leading to an alluring voice and gently off-kilter piano music, an evocative extended coda to the string music that preceded it.
Features violist Alicia Ultan and vocalist Marghreta Cordero.
“Pure, restrained and rigorously beautiful.” —Alvin Curran
“The work of Steve Peters is of excellent quality…. the suspended resonances and the ethereal voice of Marghreta Cordero create a fantastic atmosphere, mystical and visionary.” —Sands-Zine (Italy)
“Open-space lyricism and beatific atmosphere…vivid, stark, and alluring.” —Dusted
“This is a gentle, social, considerate piece; each component supports and is supported, sheltered and given shelter, by the others.” —Int’l Record Review (UK)
“Beautifully recorded music with suitably artistic packaging…elegant, almost neo-classical pieces that perfectly matched the gray autumn rains out my door…. [T]his is definitely music worth spending time with.” —Randy Raine-Reusch, MusicWorks magazine
“Initially somewhat reminiscent of a sixteenth-century English consort piece, three viola lines—projected in a clean, almost vibratoless, manner by Alicia Ultan—describe slow, graceful undulations punctuated by intermittent silences; they move with, around, or across each other to create euphonious counterpoints. The second half or the ‘suite’ is both a continuation and a metamorphosis: it replaces violas with wordless voices—duskily sung by Marghreta Cordero—and simple, sustained concords on a ‘tinny’ piano (a timbral evocation of poverty and neglect that is wonderfully apt). This is a gentle, social, considerate piece; each component supports and is supported, sheltered and given shelter, by the others.” —Christopher Ballantine, Int’l Record Review
“Three short stories…is absolutely diatonic, absolutely simple, absolutely flat, and consistently surprising; there is a strong air of Satie and early Cage here (Three short stories could be heard as a less homophonic Cage String Quartet in Four Parts), but never so much that the result does not seem fresh and genuinely appealing.… The effect is stunningly gorgeous. This is music that emphatically does not attempt seduction–it is reticent, modest, and requires attentiveness. For that reason alone, it is truly beautiful.… Peters’ music, on the evidence of this disc at least, has in abundance what I miss in so much new American music: strong commitment to an aesthetic goal, and adherence to that goal without compromise. Three short stories is the standout work on this disc…but My burning skin to sleep is in many ways a worthy companion.… Bring on more Steve Peters! —Evan Johnson, Sequenza21
credits
released June 1, 2004
voices, Marghreta Cordero
violas, Alicia Ultan
piano, Steve Peter
Produced by Steve Peters and Jim Fox.
Recorded (August 1997), edited and mixed (November 2003) by Steve Peters, Albuquerque, NM. Piano recorded by Tim Forrest, University of New Mexico.
Acoustic restoration and remixing by Scott Fraser, Architecture, Los Angeles, CA, January 2004.
Mastered by Kevin Gray, AcousTech Mastering, Camarillo, CA.
Design by Jim Fox.
Cover photo, photographer unknown; interior photo, Steve Peters (of his installation delicate abrasions, Klaudia Marr Gallery, Santa Fe, NM);
backcover photo, courtesy of Center for Land Use Interpretation.
Peters composes for concerts, recordings, art venues, public places, dance and theater, radio, and moving image. His work is
often site-based, combining location sound with voices, instruments, electronics, and found or natural objects. He performs with the Seattle Phonographers Union and frequently collaborates with artists in other disciplines....more
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