council: bright forms

a new song from my new band with pekka kuusisto

Some years ago, in the foyer of the Ordway Concert Hall in Saint Paul, Minnesota, my friend Kate Nordstrum pulled me aside to tell me that there was someone I absolutely had to meet. His name was Pekka Kuusisto, and Kate was sure that we’d get along famously. Indeed, within a few minutes of meeting, this exuberant, quick-witted Finn with a mop of blonde hair and piercing blue eyes had invited me to his festival in Finland, and a friendship was born.

Over the ensuing years, we made music occasionally, but it wasn’t until I began a residency with San Francisco Performances that an opportunity presented itself for deliberate collaboration. Now, over the last nine months, we’ve spent time writing together in focused bursts; twice in Finland, once here in Portland.

I’ve written about Pekka before. For all of his technical wizardry and multivalence—he conducts, improvises, and makes electronic music, in addition to playing the bejeezus out of concertos by Sibelius, Beethoven, Ligeti, Daniel Bjarnason, and Nico Muhly, to name a few—what matters most is that I am deeply moved by the sounds that emit from his instrument. It’s not only that he has unearthed a universe of timbre and color, but that those effects are deployed with emotional and psychological specificity. It’s as if the combination of his bow arm and left hand unlock access to a secret and rarified color wheel: here is the palest blue, there is a brilliant, blinding yellow. Unlike many violinists whose sound worlds exist in a narrow band from loud to louder, with uniform vibrato throughout, Pekka may be most at home in the softest dynamic ranges, tones billowing up leisurely as if through fog. And yet there is nothing laissez-faire about his playing; every note is uttered with intension and intensity, even at a whisper.

There was always a sense, from our first duo set at the National Theatre in Helsinki, that we had a particular chemistry. I’m too close to the experience to describe it with objectivity, but it’s a feeling I’ve seldom had in my life as a musician. Now, in advance of our first tours (the U.S. in May; Australia in August), we’re introducing our first song, which we recorded earlier this year on a decommissioned fortress island just outside of Helsinki. We’ve named our band Council, and the tune is called “Bright Forms.” Hope you enjoy it.

For the streamers among you, feel free to use this link to find your preferred service, but bear in mind what Damon has written. I’ve also made this comprehensive playlist if you’re feeling monomania.

A bit of other housekeeping:

Next week, I’ll join Johnny Gandelsman at Dartmouth College and in Putney, Vermont, for the premiere of Body Language: Three Folk Dances for Solo Violin, which I wrote for his ‘This Is America’ commissioning project.

On April 6th, it’s a string bonanza in three cities: Brooklyn Rider will give the NYC premiere of American Studies; Attacca Quartet will give the Paris premiere of my String Quartet No. 1 “Klee,” and cellist Alisa Weilerstein premieres excerpts from Marginalia, a companion piece to Bach’s Cello Suite in Eb Major, at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C.

For the Midwesterners among you, I’ll be doing a solo show on April 26th at the Gilmore Festival in Kalamazoo before heading back to Portland to rehearse with Pekka for our U.S. tour, which begins in San Francisco on May 3rd.

photo credit: Sam Gehrke

Thank you as always for reading and listening; if you’re a regular, please consider upgrading! Til soon…