Wet Ink Ensemble Releases Wet Ink Archive: 04 “Smoke, Airs”

Wet Ink Ensemble today releases the fourth edition of its new, monthly online journal of adventurous music and conversation, the Wet Ink Archive: 04 "Smoke, Airs."

The issue includes ECHOES OF ECHOES: Memory, Perception and Contemplations on hcmf//, by Alice Teyssier; LISTENING TOWARDS OPENNESS, by Eric Wubbels; and ARCHIVE CONCERT: Creative Premieres, Wet Ink's June 2018 season finale concert featuring music by Lea Bertucci, Darius Jones, Ingrid Laubrock, Charmaine Lee, and Peter Ablinger with commentary from the composers and an introduction by Wet Ink co-director Sam Pluta.

Archive 04 also celebrates Wet Ink's latest record release, Smoke, Airs - the end product of a multi-year collaboration between Wet Ink, Charmaine Lee, P.A. Tremblay, Bryn Harrison, Kristina Wolfe, and the University of Huddersfield - out Friday, September 25, 2020 on Huddersfield Contemporary Records.

Wet Ink co-director Eric Wubbels writes, "The amazing artists featured in Wet Ink Archive: 04 work primarily in and between traditions where the coexistence of improvisation and composition within a musical form is not radical, but assumed."

In Echoes of Echoes, multitalented flutist/vocalist/scholar Alice Teyssier offers a nuanced and personal look "under the hood" of an ambitious three-year project centered around the 2019 Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival (hcmf//). Teyssier, who joined Wet Ink as guest flutist for workshops, performances at hcmf//, and the studio recording of these four new works by Charmaine Lee, P.A. Tremblay, Bryn Harrison, and Kristina Wolfe, shares musical analysis gleaned from interviews with the composers, while offering ruminations on how changing circumstances - both expected and extraordinary - affect our perception of time, musically and otherwise.

In Listening Towards Openness, Eric Wubbels has compiled a wonderfully in-depth resource for curious listeners and shares his incisive take on the work of seven vital artists whose work occupies an "intermediary, hybrid space" along the continuum of notation and improvisation. Featuring music by influential figures such as Anthony Braxton and Eliane Radigue alongside innovative voices including Luke Stewart, Kaja Draksler, and more, Wubbels's list is a must-read and a must-listen for new music lovers.

Wet Ink's first edition of "Archive Concerts" features the ensemble's June 2018 season finale, including the premieres of works by Ingrid Laubrock, Darius Jones, Charmaine Lee, and Lea Bertucci as well as Wet Ink's first performance of Peter Ablinger's remarkable graphic score, Black Series. The large ensemble was composed of the composers alongside Peter Evans (trumpet), Weston Olencki (trombone), and the Wet Ink septet. Putting this concert together with these singular artists was a very special experience, as Wet Ink co-director Sam Pluta eloquently sums up in his introductory remarks: "The joys of dialog and collaboration bore joys of listening, created friendships, enacted future dialogs, and hopefully, in a small way, pushed the horizon of future realities."

The mission of Wet Ink Archive parallels that of the Ensemble: sharing the body of work generated within the group, celebrating the music of longtime collaborators, and providing a platform for emerging and underrepresented artists. Each issue includes three articles ranging from personal reflection to in-depth musical analysis, accompanied by newly released music and archival documentation.

Sign Up to Receive the Wet Ink Archive Here.