“Other Presences” began as a piece for solo trumpet and live electronics written by Jonathan Harvey for Markus Stockhausen, commissioned by Martin Brabbins and the Cheltenham Festival. It was then performed at the Camden Roundhouse’s Electric Proms in 2006. The piece is inspired by ritual Tibetan ceremonies where Stockhausen’s written and improvised trumpet parts are looped and harmonised in real time.
After recording the piece, the idea arose to ask seven other composers, many of them also Sargasso artists, to contribute a personal ‘remix’ of the original trumpet recording.
The composers, chosen by Harvey, are all related in one way or another to him and his work. Most notably, his own daughter Anna Harvey was asked to participate. Kaffe Matthews, Lawrence Casserley, Daniel Biro, Evelyn Ficarra and John Palmer all enthusiastically accepted the challenge.
Thus the ‘ground-rules’ were established that each composer would receive only the non-treated acoustic trumpet recordings (without hearing the complete version of “Other Presences”) and was allowed total freedom to interpret the sonic material as they wished in order to create a new composition.
As the works started to emerge it became clear that each composer was proposing a very different approach to the material, some deciding to stick fairly closely to the original sounds while others manipulating them beyond recognition. The results go far beyond the original remix concept, offering a collection of personal re-interpretations of Harvey’s original.
Markus Stockhausen’s masterful and inspired playing provided a fertile ground for these explorations.
