On 22 and 23 September Konstantyn Napolov and Orkest de Ereprijs give the Polish debut of Tansy Davies’ Stone Codes. The 18-minute tour-de-force for solo percussion and an ensemble of 14 players appears at the Warsaw Autumn festival and the Centre for Intercultural Creative Initiatives “Crossroads” in Lublin respectively.
Davies' work for Napolov’s Percussion Marathon piles layer upon layer, playing with different constellations and rhythmic patterns, with energetic leaping and diving figures in the woodwinds over syncopated movement in piano and percussion. The soloist’s battery of instruments includes microtonally-tuned glockenspiel bars, four boobams, and Thai and opera gongs. The pervasive groove found in Davies’ music, recalling the influences of funk and electronica, comes in part from bass and electric guitars and two drum kits.
Stone Codes was commissioned by the Dutch Golden Collection Foundation, Orkest De Ereprijs, and Warsaw Autumn festival, and premiered at the 2022 November Music Festival; it received a repeat performance at Musis Arnhem in November 2023. It was written for Napolov as a part of the Dutch Golden Collection. Watch an excerpt from the work here.
In Autumn 2023 Napolov gave several performances of Davies’ Dark Ground for solo percussion. The 8-minute piece opened Hold Your Ground – Summer Snow at the Boilerhouse Foundation in The Hague – a spectacle that unfolded over three successive evenings. In Dark Ground everything grows up from a root - the pedal Bass Drum - a dead sound, cycling in a simple yet deceptive 7/8. Composed for Joby Burgess in 2005, it draws on influences as diverse as Xenakis and Prince. Watch Napolov perform the work here. The three-phase performance, directed by Saskia Mees and Laura Vink, brought together writer Taco Sorgdrager, actor Louis van Rijt and the dancers of the Boilerhouse Foundation and explored inhuman and human desires for balance.