John Psathas - Orbital | Repercussion | WDR Funkhausorchester

"Orbital" by John Psathas, performed as a world premiere by the WDR Funkhausorchester and the percussion quartet Repercussion under the baton of Gordon Hamilton. Performed live at the concert "Klassik mal anders: Klima & Wandel" from the WDR youth concert series "WDR@Philharmonie".
"Orbital" was composed by John Psathas especially for this concert and the collaboration of WDR Funkhausorchester and Repercussion. Also joining the performance was visual artist Daniel Henrici, enhancing the live experience. Recorded live on Sep 23, 2021 at the Cologne Philharmonic Hall.
Repercussion, Percussion
WDR Funkhausoechester
Gordon Hamilton, Conductor
Daniel Henrici, Visual Artist
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John Psathas is one of New Zealand's most performed and sought-after composers and has had a major impact on the percussion scene. This is because his hard-to-define compositional style, which moves between jazz, rock, electronic music and improvisation, opens up new avenues to the percussion scene and demands a lot from them. After studying piano and composition, the New Zealander worked with many international stars. He has been inspired by the different musical traditions of composers and musicians in his work.
A large part of his work deals with social and historical problems, such as the Armenian genocide in 1915 or climate change in his new piece Orbital., which he composed especially for the percussion ensemble Repercussion and the WDR Funkhausorchester. He combines light music and serious music, orchestral sound and spherical sound recordings, electronic music and the concise sound of the percussionists.
A distinctive feature of his works is the use of granular synthesizers that generate so-called audio extensions, i.e. sound extensions. The basis of this synthetic sound generation are sustained sounds that are broken down into smaller individual sounds. And then reassembled again - similar to a loop machine. In the case of Orbital, sounds from the WDR Funkhaus Orchestra were recorded and Psathas reassembled them afterwards. But that's not all: Psathas makes some orchestral sounds sound
Psathas loops some orchestral sounds sound backwards, while the orchestra plays the same passage forwards. In this way, he explores the whole range of different genres, classical compositional techniques and digital possibilities of our time.

[@gordonhamilton7160]

I love this piece. Congratulations to all!

[@WDRKlassik]

And we loved having you at the baton!

[@ralfkraft5415]

Wird demnächst (19.1.) in der Tonhalle in Düsseldorf live gespielt

[@laylahvance453]

Thank you for making quality contents like this available. That means a lot. Bravo to the team, you hold the future at hand. We LOVE you WDR Klassik!

[@WDRKlassik]

Thank you! ❤

[@ThomasTamvakos]

superb!

[@mysteriousdonkey1]

Amazing piece, well played!

[@galinakrivulin6767]

Very impressive! Thank you.

[@WDRKlassik]

You are welcome! 😉

[@alanburden2104]

So good. Truly evocative.

[@berndkachele7742]

Brillant!
I like it!!

[@WDRKlassik]

Thank you!