Granita

granita

Our fourth release is now available on Leo Records: http://www.leorecords.com/?m=select&id=CD_LR_636
Continuing the Italian dessert theme of our last CD, Granita is widely known as
a semi-frozen Italian dish made from sugar, water, and something tasty.  A
cheap and sweet mouthful to keep in mind then, as an antidote to our music
perhaps: Irrespective of the success of the music herein, it took an enormous
amount of labour over more than a year to create this CD, perhaps due in part
at least to the goals we had for it and the approach we took.
Granita is a single piece of music lasting one hour. It was made to be listened
to in one sitting.  The individual tracks are offered only as convenient “jump
in” points, should the listener want or need them. It is composed from several
long improvisations which, contrary to our prior recording practice, were never
intended to be complete pieces by themselves.  It was our conscious intention
whilst recording that we lay down material to be combined with or abutted
against the other improvisations.  The compositional form was made in
post-production then, even though all elements were improvised live and made
together as a trio.
The title is significant on two further fronts.  The cover art–designed around
a photo taken by lapslap’s pianist Karin–is an image of a granite rock face
in Cornwall, England.  There’s something in the form and scope of the music
that we (hopefully not arrogantly) associate with this massive rock type.
Granita was also the name of the restaurant where Tony Blair and Gordon Brown
made their power-sharing pact whilst still in the shadows of government in May
1994. Ironically, the restaurant was taken over in 2003–the year of the deeply
divisive and offensive Iraq war–by a Tex-Mex called ‘Desperados’.  As we were
finishing the mix and master, the last American troops were withdrawing from
their illegal occupation of Iraq.
Granita was recorded by Michael and Martin in the Reid Concert Hall, Edinburgh,
in September 2010.  Mixing and mastering was also by Michael and Martin.  Cover
design by Karin Schistek.

Lapslap’s fourth CD granita was released in February 2012 is now available on Leo Records.

Continuing the Italian dessert theme of our last CD, Granita is widely known as a semi-frozen Italian dish made from sugar, water, and something tasty.  A cheap and sweet mouthful to keep in mind then, as an antidote to our music perhaps: Irrespective of the success of the music herein, it took an enormous amount of labour over more than a year to create this CD, perhaps due in part at least to the goals we had for it and the approach we took.

Granita is a single piece of music lasting one hour. It was made to be listened to in one sitting.  The individual tracks are offered only as convenient “jump in” points, should the listener want or need them. It is composed from several long improvisations which, contrary to our prior recording practice, were never intended to be complete pieces by themselves.  It was our conscious intention whilst recording that we lay down material to be combined with or abutted against the other improvisations.  The compositional form was made in post-production then, even though all elements were improvised live and made together as a trio.

The title is significant on two further fronts.  The cover art–designed around a photo taken by lapslap’s pianist Karin–is an image of a granite rock face in Cornwall, England.  There’s something in the form and scope of the music that we (hopefully not arrogantly) associate with this massive rock type.

Granita was also the name of the restaurant where Tony Blair and Gordon Brown made their power-sharing pact whilst still in the shadows of government in May 1994. Ironically, the restaurant was taken over in 2003–the year of the deeply divisive and offensive Iraq war–by a Tex-Mex called ‘Desperados’.  As we were finishing the mix and master, the last American troops were withdrawing from their illegal occupation of Iraq.

Granita was recorded by Michael and Martin in the Reid Concert Hall, Edinburgh, in September 2010.  Mixing and mastering was also by Michael and Martin.  Cover design by Karin Schistek.





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