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Metamorphosis

from Upon the Earth by MANtrio

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about

One of the things that we have done from the very beginning is experimenting with non-standard musical prompts, limits and structures. In some of our first rehearsals we played poems by Walt Whitman, stories about our favorite pets, pictures of landscapes, several of Pauline Oliveros’s Sonic Meditations, and graphic scores. As a percussionist, graphic scores are familiar territory for me and I have always been fascinated by the wealth of possibility that is held within the images and the ways in which improvisors, both solo and in groups, interpret and realize these scores. I created Metamorphosis long before this album was set in motion as an experiment in trying to capture on paper transformation through time. Beginning with the thick lines surrounding the central bar of blank space, I adapted a process from multidisciplinary artist Jennifer Urso, adding one line at a time, drawing freehand and attempting to follow as closely as possible the line before. The result is a visual record of the physical changes in my pen stroke, muscle control and concentration over time. “Imperfections” such as a shaky hand or a wandering mind become seemingly three-dimensional rolling waves and shapes of varying density that are then ready to be transformed into sound, where they will exist for but a moment. The top one-third of the score references and adapts some of Anthony Braxton’s language music, graphic symbols that in my opinion are intuitive for many improvisors, but which leave ample room for varying interpretations. I owe a huge thanks to Jennifer Urso whose series “Lines Are Never the Same” (2018-2019) was a spark for this score and whose body of work is continually inspiring. You can see Metamorphosis at www.melaniesehman.com/projects/mantrio.
- Melanie Sehman

credits

from Upon the Earth, released July 14, 2023
Sage Romey, piano
Sarah Yates, bass
Melanie Sehman, drums and percussion

Graphic score by Melanie Sehman

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MANtrio Bellingham, Washington

MANtrio is an improvising trio with Sage Romey (pf), Sarah Yates (bs) and Melanie Sehman (drums/perc) that brings together their experiences in jazz, contemporary classical, experimental, West African, and medieval musics. Using radical listening as a guiding principle, they use the standard trio format as a laboratory for exploration, performing improvised music and original creative work. ... more

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