INTERBEING
eric wubbels & TAK ensemble
“Interbeing represents what many of us hope to achieve with collaboration... a reimagining of the concert experience that harnesses the performers’ full virtuosic and expressive musicianship… palpable from the dynamic music that covers an astounding range of affective states at the same time that the rigor and depth of Wubbels’ artistic practice radiates from the taut structures of each section… these are things you can’t hold in your experience until you’re there with them in the space that only they can create.”
• Named one of the top performances of 2023 by WIRE Magazine •
“One of the city’s most fearless contemporary ensembles, known for rigorous experimentation and technical precision.”
— The New York Times
“One of the most unique contemporary music experiences in recent years.”
—Ashkan Behzadi
Every performance of Interbeing draws from a constantly-evolving folio of music, text, video, movement and recipes, to create an event in conversation with a specific site and community. This often involves transforming the performance space to soften the boundary between performers and audience members.
Trailer from TAK’s live performance of interbeing (II) — [x.7.23]
at DiMenna Center for Classical Music
As performances of interbeing focus on creating an enriching community space, food and drink following the music play a pivotal role. In using each facet of the performance to establish and deepen community interaction, local chefs, foragers, and farmers are consulted and communicated with to curate and share a bespoke reception spread for listeners and performers to interact and bond.
Past performances have also included ingredients foraged from Wubbels’ home in Western Massacusettes and prepared by Wubbels and TAK.
BREAD: Quintet as Trio
“From selecting to staging, there’s a consistent excellence in execution. Their recent performance of Interbeing II—composed by, or to some degree with, Eric Wubbels, one of the most exciting composers working in New York—showed that dedication. I was engaged in the hour-long, multimedia piece, performed on three small stage sets within a single room, from beginning to end. It was intelligent and complex but (unusually for contemporary music) approachable and even friendly. There’s only a handful of ensembles that I want to experience whatever they do, regardless of the names on the program. In this case, the composer was one of my favorites, but I look forward still to whatever they do next.”
In interbeing, the five musicians of TAK enact a slow-moving, ritualized progression through a series of 'formations' which visually, acoustically, and theatrically manifest concrete images of connectedness and mutual interdependence.
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Puzzling the lines between concert music and music-theater, interbeing creates vivid images and experiences of interconnectedness—performers and audience temporarily set aside the lines that separate them as individuals and come together into a unified social and sonic unit.
In this sense it is both a piece of music-theater and an “instance of utopian community,” a concrete action in itself as well as a metaphor whose implications have the potential to reverberate beyond the piece.
10.21.2023 - Indexical Concerts at Wind River, Santa Cruz
Iterations of interbeing work with venue/presenter to create a bespoke transformation of concert space into a more intimate, domestic-sytle space (in the past via rugs, lamps, plants, couches, tables..). In this setting, the boundary between audience and performer, concert and daily life can be further broken down. A given performance of interbeing is site-specific, and a unique version of the piece is constructed for each occasion.
Iterations can last between 40 and 80 minutes, with each version drawing from several categories of material, including: fully notated pieces of chamber music, “mobile” or “sculptural” pieces with the musicians in motion in the space, pieces or moments that directly engage the audience as active participants, and video pieces that document various aspects of the work's process and/or introduce contributions from a wider circle of musical collaborators.
The performance experience is seamless and immersive.
SCORE EXCERPTS
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INSTRUMENTS: Quintet as Quartet
INSTRUMENTS juxtaposes multiple overlapping hyperinstruments created through an ever-shifting rhythmic and timbral composites between members of TAK, to paint a high-energy mosaic of interlocking musical fragments and phrases of seemingly incongruous interwoven gestures.
BREAD: Quintet as Trio
BREAD centers around the lush, baroquely ornamented violin line, with each other performer augmenting the phrase through expansive gestures within a just-intonation system. Situated at a dining table with various dining accoutrements, the movement employed finely tuned wine glasses, glass bottles, mixing bowls, and an auto-harp to expand and disorient that ensemble’s sonic pallet.
ROOT AND VEIN: Quintet as Solo
ROOT AND VEIN creates an orchestration of of complex and unyielding, yet folk music inspired percussion parts. The ensemble functions as one. Options are presented in the score that highlight interlocking and ever-shifting ecstatic composites.
10.20.2023 - The Lab, San Fransisco
10.07.2023 - DiMenna Center for Classical Music, New York City
PROGRAM EXAMPLE:
interbeing ii [10.07.2023]
BREAD
SONGS: Ode to Man
Cartouche Sequence I:
RELATION: Every Partial
INSTRUMENTS
Cartouche Sequence II:
Ellery and Madison are Making Tea
Empathy
Action at a Distance
Life
ROOT AND VEIN
SONGS (You, Music)
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RELATION: Food
ABOUT ERIC WUBBELS
Tony Luong for The New York Times
Eric Wubbels (b.1980) is a composer and performer. Since 2004 he has been pianist and Co-Director of the
Wet Ink Ensemble (NYC), and he performs regularly in projects with Mariel Roberts and Josh Modney,
Weston Olencki, and Charmaine Lee, among others.
His music has been presented by LA Phil Green Umbrella series, Huddersfield Festival, ISSUE Project Room,
Roulette, Bowerbird, Chicago Symphony MusicNOW, New York Philharmonic CONTACT, Contempuls (Prague),
reMusik (St. Petersburg, RU) and Zurich Tage für Neue Musik, among others.
Wubbels has been awarded grants and fellowships from the American Academy of Arts and Letters,
NYFA, NYSCA, Fromm Foundation, Chamber Music America, ISSUE Project Room, MATA Festival,
Barlow Endowment, Jerome Foundation, and Yvar Mikhashoff Trust, and residencies at the MacDowell
Colony ('11, '16, '20), Copland House, L'Abri (Geneva), Djerassi Resident Artists Program, and Civitella
Ranieri Center (Italy).
As a performer, he has given U.S. and world premieres of works by major figures such as Peter Ablinger,
Richard Barrett, Beat Furrer, George Lewis, and Mathias Spahlinger, as well as vital young artists such as
Rick Burkhardt, Erin Gee, Bryn Harrison, Clara Iannotta, Darius Jones, Cat Lamb, Ingrid Laubrock,
Charmaine Lee, Alex Mincek, Sam Pluta, Katharina Rosenberger, Kate Soper, and Anna Webber.
He has recorded for hatART, Carrier Records, Out of Your Head, Intakt, New Focus, Pi, and quiet design,
among others, and has held teaching positions at Amherst College and Oberlin Conservatory.
ABOUT TAK ENSEMBLE
image by Kaveh Kowsari
Regarded as “one of the most prominent ensembles in the United States practicing truly experimental music” (I Care If You Listen), TAK delivers energetic performances "that combine crystalline clarity with the disorienting turbulence of a sonic vortex.” (WIRE Magazine) and “impresses with the organicity of their sound, their dynamism and virtuosity” (New Sounds, WQXR). Dedicated to the commissioning of new works and direct collaboration with composers and other artists, TAK promotes ambitious programming at the highest level, fostering engagement within and outside of the music community.
The quintet has released six albums to critical acclaim, including Oor (2019), which launched their in-house media label TAK editions. This label creates broadly accessible platforms for audience engagement with a host of new music media and a focus on original content. The ensemble's Youtube videos and the TAK editions Podcast have received thousands of views and listens from across the globe. TAK's debut album, Ecstatic Music was released in 2016 and listed as a top-ten classical album of 2016 by The Boston Globe, which praised the "young, fearless players... fluid grace and confidence." Recent records have been described as "sublime art... a masterpiece," (AnEarful), and "one of the most distinct and eclectic releases of the year" (I Care If You Listen). Their recorded output fosters a "deep sense of connection and communication," (Bandcamp Daily) and features collaborations with Mario Diaz de Leon, Taylor Brook, Erin Gee, Brandon López, Ann Cleare, Tyshawn Sorey, Natacha Diels, Scott L. Miller David Bird, and Ashkan Behzadi.
TAK has conducted residencies at institutions such as Harvard University, Stanford University, Columbia University, University of Pennsylvania, Oberlin Conservatory, The Delian Academy of New Music, Wesleyan University, University of Pittsburgh, among many others, and has collaborated with young composers at the Juilliard Music Advancement Program and the New York Philharmonic's Very Young Composers program.
Upcoming projects include large-scale commissioned works from Michelle Lou, DM R and Joy Guidry, Eric Wubbels, Tyshawn Sorey, Seth Cluett, and Natacha Diels. TAK’s next release on TAK editions—Love, Crystal and Stone—will be released in April 2022 as a book in collaboration with composer Ashkan Behzadi, visual artist Mehrdad Jafari, scholar Saharnaz Samaeinejad, and design-house Sonnenzimmer.
