Today’s track premiere comes to us via the composer-performer ensemble Invisible Anatomy: Daniel Schlosberg, piano; Fay Wang, voice; Ian Gottlieb, cello; Paul Kerekes, piano; Brendon Randall-Myers, guitar; Benjamin Wallace, percussion.
Their debut album, Dissections, is collection of works that premiered at National Sawdust in 2016, all written and performed by the group’s members. The album is out March 30th on New Amsterdam Records–you can preorder it here or catch the album release show at (le) possion rouge on April 15th.
Vocalist Fay Wang‘s piece Facial Polygraph XVIA is a poetic study of facial expressions, dissecting tics, “tells,” and subtle changes of emotions. Here’s what she had to say about the piece:
I’ve always been intrigued by psychological investigation and mood induction, and I have a very sensitive intuition for reading people’s true intentions, even through tiny physical details. While writing for Dissections, the idea of dissecting/analyzing facial expressions came to mind immediately. I set the piece as two parts that go in extreme directions: the first half is sentimental, subtle and smooth with occasional aggressions peeking through, and the second half is mechanical, angular, rough, and dry, with directly-expressed aggression.
I thought of the two halves of a piece as depicting a mechanical/computerized face that “crashes” or glitches, a metaphor for a double-sided personality–a warm-hearted, gentle human-being on the surface, and deep down a sociopathic, ruthless person. The two parts are linked by a transition of multi-tracked, densely-layered vocals, with the repeated text “adding stains, erasing stainless stains, achieve after penetrating,” indicating the sophistication of our emotional walls, full of hidden secrets.
About Fay Wang
Hailed as “rebellious” and “creative” by China Daily, Fay Wang’s music is performed throughout Asia, Europe and the United States, including Berliner Philharmonie, Musikverein, Oper Graz, Arnold Schoenberg Center, National Centre for the Performing Arts Beijing, Yun Isang Memorial Hall, Shanghai Concert Hall, Merkin Hall, and Lincoln Center. She has been commissioned by Bang On A Can’s PCF and Roger Shapiro Fund for New Music, Hopkins Center for Arts, Classic Euro Young Festival, Shanghai Spring International Music Festival, Shenzhen Symphony Orchestra, Beijing Modern Music Festivals, and has worked with ensembles including China Philharmonic Orchestra, Bang On A Can All-Stars, Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra, the RIAS Youth Orchestra, Dinosaur Annex, Shanghai Quartet, Sinfonia Iuventus, China Youth Symphony Orchestra; and by individuals such as Danish percussionist Gert Mortensen and All-Stars’ cellist Ashley Bathgate. Wang’s work draws on and spans a variety of genres, including avant-garde concert music, theater, film, electronic music, Chinese folk music and experimental pop. She holds degrees from the Central Conservatory of Music (BA ’08) and the Yale School of Music (MM ’10/ AD ’12).
About Invisible Anatomy
Invisible Anatomy is a composer-performer ensemble that explores the human body as the most fundamental aspect of music creation and performance. Incorporating elements from classical, jazz, experimental rock, performance art and theater, Invisible Anatomy (IA) creates performances that combine an omnivorous stylistic palate, virtuosic physicality, and dramatic visual presentation. IA’s inaugural show BODY PARTS dismembered, manipulated, and reanimated bodies in performance–creating a chattering chorus of woodblock teeth and screaming eyes on TV screens. After the group’s 2015 debut concerts in New York City, they were invited to China for three shows, including a featured solo concert at the Beijing Modern Music Festival.
IA’s second season opened with an intimate house concert of BODY PARTS hosted by David Lang, followed by the world premiere of Dissections at Brooklyn’s National Sawdust, which was the subject of a full-length feature in the Village Voice. IA performed DISSECTIONS at Pomona College and The Blue Whale in Los Angeles in February 2016, and appeared on Heartbeat Opera’s Collaboret Series; at Roulette Intermedium in Brooklyn; at the Yale School of Music in New Haven; and at Ars Nova’s ANT Fest in Manhattan. The group was the runner-up in the 2016 SAVVY Chamber Competition at the University of South Carolina School of Music, and recorded their debut studio album in June.