:: Being Dufay

 

John Potter, tenor
Ambrose Field, composer and live electronics

 

Ambrose Field created Being Dufay in 2007, using extracts from Guillaume Dufay’s songs and motets sung by John Potter. From the outset, it was conceived both as a studio album and an hour-long concert event. In this live realisation of a studio sound world, Dufay’s music is presented intact, not something weird and alien, but rather an 'investigation' into the potential already in the original material. John sings the Dufay lines, while Ambrose digitally multiplies and modifies the newly composed material from more than 100 original tracks. The result is a rich, contemporary sound world which retains the essence of 15th-century Franco-Flemish polyphony. Ambrose is already working on the next programme, which we hope will be ready by next summer. The CD was launched with the first live version of the piece at the Resonanzen festival in Vienna and in the UK at Opera North’s new venue The Howard Assembly Room. Press reports for the recording have so far been very encouraging:

 

Die Zeit (Germany)

http://blog.zeit.de/tontraeger/2009/03/20/angriff-der-klonkantorei_2145

 

Clubfeeling (Germany)

http://www.clubfeeling.de/feeds/tag/elektro/

 

DN Artes (Portugal)

http://dn.sapo.pt/inicio/artes/interior.aspx?content_id=1184913&seccao=M%FAsica

 

New Zealand Herald

http://blogs.nzherald.co.nz/blog/music-reviews/2009/2/24/timeless-melodies-modern-electronica/?c_id=1501119&objectid=10558386

 

MusicalCriticism.com (UK)

http://musicalcriticism.com/recordings/cd-being-dufay-0309.shtml

 

and the blogosphere has been excited too:

http://www.vancooten.com/blog/pivot/entry.php?id=189#body

 

Amazon.de had the CD long before Amazon.uk and there is an extraordinary review on the site headed Psychedelisches aus der University of York!

Hear a sample from an early mix on the audio player below.

 

 

There is a sample video on Mick Lynch’s site http://www.artlynch.com/ or on YouTube at http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=KM0UCO8XDH0&fmt=18

 

The Diary page has details of upcoming performances. For more info visit the Being Dufay website at http://beingdufay.com