TOP SECRET Album-draft website page for:
Shrimp BIT Babyface
Album draft 2023
My 4th album of work or some of my most recent (2022-2023) pieces. They have been programed at: MearzeMusik, Berlin Festival, Bang On a Can Long Play Festival (tbc), Klangspruren Festival, Label La Suise Festival,
By ensmebles: Klangforum Wien (AT), Riot Ensemble (UK), Nouvel Ensemble Contemporain (NEC). (CH), Dreammusics Ensemble (UK)
By ensmebles: Klangforum Wien (AT), Riot Ensemble (UK), Nouvel Ensemble Contemporain (NEC). (CH), Dreammusics Ensemble (UK)
“an opportunity to revisit that early life carnival of sensation, to suspend the imperatives of orderly and goal-orientated progress and luxuriate in immediacy...wild imaginings...Paxton forges structures that miraculously hold together, while threatening constantly to burst apart from the sheer exuberance of his tempestuous orchestration...the orchestra seem to skip, hop or spin as the mood of the instant demands....melodic fragments flitter like incidental patterns forming across the brilliantly tinted surface of a swarming continuum....conceptually sophisticated as well as irrepressible in spirit.” the Wire (Happy Music for Orchestra Review)
tracks 1-6. Spit Crystal Yeast-Rack Dripping (à l’orange) 21.31” 6 players & electronics.
tracks 7-9. Shrimp BIT Babyface 19.33” 10 players & electronics
tracks10-17. Blue Chew Cheerio Earpiece 32.31” 11 players, jazz/improvising soloist & electronics
TOTAL: 73.33
“In a dark, time this music will make you smile...This is the most joyous sound I’ve heard in ages!”
New York Times
New York Times
“Paxton is a Magician of Sound.
classical-jazz sonic blasts ...violently overwhelming...I was seduced, and am not the only one
...digesting Louis Armstrong’s Hot Five band recordings, John Zorn’s Downtown experimentalism, Harrison Birtwistle’s brash blocks of sound, music of the Celtic oral tradition, Hildegard von Bingen’s medieval chants — and it all comes out, sometimes at once...carefully constructed ...forbiddingly dense it is balanced by its playfulness... hyperkinetic rainbow-hued...its joy and freedom.”
Financial Times (Happy Music for Orchestra Feature)
classical-jazz sonic blasts ...violently overwhelming...I was seduced, and am not the only one
...digesting Louis Armstrong’s Hot Five band recordings, John Zorn’s Downtown experimentalism, Harrison Birtwistle’s brash blocks of sound, music of the Celtic oral tradition, Hildegard von Bingen’s medieval chants — and it all comes out, sometimes at once...carefully constructed ...forbiddingly dense it is balanced by its playfulness... hyperkinetic rainbow-hued...its joy and freedom.”
Financial Times (Happy Music for Orchestra Feature)
1-6. Spit Crystal Yeast-Rack Dripping (à l’orange) published by Ricordi
6 players & electronics 21.31”Studio Recording: Exlpore Ensemble
flute, clarinet, keyborads, violin, viola, cello.
“(Spit Crystal yeast-Rack) Music that makes me grin and groove...super nova of a new work . Alex paxton is not shy of a brazen sensorial mash up...riot and a rainbow...brimmingly heartfelt multi sensorial, genuinely energising fizzer of a new work. Super charged joy...forces us all to sit up and loosen up and buck up.” New Music Show BBC 3. kate Molleson
“delighted to see the name Alex Paxton on the programme... sounds like Paxton...is riotous, multicoloured and utterly endearing... the most sonically sensuous, magic sound-stuff-thing...Imagine a chaotic, happy living room where one person is watching a vintage cartoon, another playing a videogame on a tinny device and someone else is listening to Ligeti at his wittiest” I Care if you listen (Spit Crystal premier at Wigmore Hall)
Commissioned by Explore Ensemble, Wigmore Hall & Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival Performances:
Wigmore Hall Explore Ensemble 21.06.2023 (UK)
Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival Explore Ensemble 14.08.2023 (DE)
Aldeburgh festival Explore Ensemble 10.07.2024 (UK)
draft mixesSchleswig-Holstein Music Festival Explore Ensemble 14.08.2023 (DE)
Aldeburgh festival Explore Ensemble 10.07.2024 (UK)
1. Yeasty Pets & best Drums (Spit Crystal Yeast-rack dripping (à l’orange))
2. Mouldy Moany Snog Drip (Spit Crystal Yeast-rack dripping (à l’orange))
3. Three Horned Tooth Garden Beast Piercing (Spit Crystal Yeast-rack dripping (à l’orange))
4. Along the Long Orange Light (Spit Crystal Yeast-rack dripping (à l’orange))
5. Flowery Preserve String Mulch Dress Dump (Spit Crystal Yeast-rack dripping (à l’orange))
6. Is that all you’ve got to say to Grandma then is it? (Spit Crystal Yeast-rack dripping (à l’orange))
It’s a bit of a snog. Music that dripping; well worth getting another slice of that bread to mop up gravy or some kind of lumpy animal fat that. Sorry Animal. It’ll do us no good in the end.
I love that a bit of music can be “à l’orange” just like any kind of that roast food. Or not roast food. Just jumping “à l’orange”. Laptop “à l’orange”. That smilingly “à l’orange”. So this piece is à l’orange like a chicken. Sorry Chicken. It’ll do us no good in the end.
That hair-grip speckled growth grasping fixi-plaster
flowery preserve string mulch dress dump
three horned tooth garden beast piercing.
Kissy kissy kissy kissy kissy
That Spit Crystal yeast-rack, dripping.
à l’orange. xx
7-9. Shrimp BIT Babyface published by Ricordi
10 players & electronics 19.33”
Studio recording:Nouvel Ensemble Contemporain (NEC)
& Dreammucis Ensemble1.1.1.0 0.1.1.0 perc. Keys Strings:1.0.1.1.1
“Unbridled joy…sophisticated, passionate music full of pulsating energy and stylistic diversity.“
Ernst von Siemens Composition Prize 2023
Commissioned by Nouvel Contemporain Ensemble & Riot Ensemble Ernst von Siemens Composition Prize 2023
Performances: Klangforum Wien, Viena Konzerthaus, Viena 20.01.2024 (AT)
Klangforum Wien, Pierre Boulez Saal, Berlin 14.03.2023 (DE)
Nouvel Ensemble Contemporain. Dampfzentrale, Bern 4.10.2022 (CH)
Nouvel Ensemble Contemporain. Label La Suise Festival, Lucerne, 16.09.2022 (CH)
Nouvel Ensemble Contemporain (NEC. Temple Allemend, 12.09.2022 (CH)
Riot Ensemble, Klangspruren Festival, Innsbruck 09.09.2022 (AT
draft mixes
15. Shrimp BIT Babyface 1
15. Shrimp BIT Babyface 1
16. Shrimp BIT Babyface 2
17. Shrimp BIT Babyface 3
17. Shrimp BIT Babyface 3
“Alex’s vision of new music could help to transform classical music into a true world music.”
George Lewis (written for Laudette Speech Hindemith Prize Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival 2023)
George Lewis (written for Laudette Speech Hindemith Prize Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival 2023)
10-17. Blue Chew Cheerio Earpiece published by Ricordi
11 players, jazz/improvising soloist & electronics 32.31”Studio recording: Riot Ensemble, Dreamusics Ensemble & Alex Paxton (soloist)
Flutes, Sax, Oboe, Clarinet, Trumpet, Trombone, 2 Perc, 2Keys, Double Bass
“a Brit who defies every conceivable genre boundary…an extremely modern and future-oriented style.”
Paul Hindemith Prize winner 2023
Commissioned by MearzMusik, Berlin Festival, Riot Ensemble, Aaron Nayhum-Holloway Performances:
MearzMusik, Berlin Festival, Riot Ensemble 1.03.2023 (DE)
tbc: Bang On a Can Long Play Festival 2024 (USA)
tbc: Bang On a Can Long Play Festival 2024 (USA)
draft mixes
7. YOUR TONGUE (Blue Chew Cheerio Earpiece)8. Death Throw Frozen Still Nipple Legs (Blue Chew Cheerio Earpiece)9. Breath Smells Nice (Blue Chew Cheerio Earpiece)
10. Doggy Chew-toy Tune (Blue Chew Cheerio Earpiece)
11. YOUR MOM Still Laughin’ (Blue Chew Cheerio Earpiece)
12. Birthday Balloon Let-go (Blue Chew Cheerio Earpiece)
13. Commuters in a Lightbulb (Blue Chew Cheerio Earpiece)
14. Frank Bowling’s Christmas trip to and from Brighton (Blue Chew Cheerio Earpiece)
Strike and Blow, stoking electrical and other bits of sciencefact to keep YOUR FEET
improvising continuously intensive details. Improvements. Biological fiction. Still…you gotta keep moving aintcha? *(Lipsmacks)* Guts pulled at gibet, 1st swimming lesson. Drones hold their entrails runin’ all over the bloody place - batty. Tiny scales on the window sill boiled in death-throw-frozen-still nipple-legs PLEEEASE maybe a trade for something better still, here’s to hopin’, metamorphy and maybe some soul-transmigrationary sewn on broadsheetglossy-stuffed tights or…better still…jam today jam today jam today jam today…smells well bad but feels good held against YOUR TONGUE sizzles popping-candy chocolate spangles. Trying new things: midi-fresco tattoo meanly stained on mid an.alBUM didn’t know YOUR LOVER wanted until it flows, wept into the sheets. Bosch machine spinnin’on extrahot EP heartsichord in concert with…oh!…and that nice fuzzy YOUR-MOM-still-laughin’ feelin’ streamin’ Ye olde-sitcom song…just when you thought you’d get round to the washingup then damn n blast your goggly eyes, its pudding time again! Steamed.
PREVIOUS ALBUMs
Happy Music for Orchestra (2023) Delphian
LISTEN
PRESS:
Financial Times (feature)(UK), The Guardian (UK), the Wire (feature), BBC New Music Show (UK), the Quietus, Arts Desk, Tempo Magazine, All About Jazz, SWR record review show (DE), Van Magazine (feature), Jazz in Europe, Positonen Magazine (DE), BBC music magzine (Uk), Platinum Mind, Boogaloo Radio Album of the Year 2023, Classical Music Daily, A closer Listen, 5 against 4, the Trombonist (UK),Scottish Jazz Space, Flotation Device
ilolli-pop (2022) non-classical
STREAM Spotify. STREAM bandcamp
PRESS:
Ivor Novello Winner, BBC Music Magazine, the Wire (UK), the Morning Star (UK), The Quietus, Bandcamp Daily, Crescendo Magazine(FR), Van Magazine, Arts Desk, Late Junction BBC, New Music Show BBC, Planet Hugill, OndaRock, Jazz in Europe, Roots Music (IT), London Jazz News, Berner Kuluranga (CH), Scottish Jazz Space,Flotation Device
Music for Bosch People (2021) Brc/NMC
LISTEN
PRESS:
New York Times (USA), the Times (UK), Financial Times(UK), the Wire (best albums of 2021), Sequenza 21 (Best Albums of 2021), BBC New Music Show (UK), Jazzwise Magazine (UK), Tempo Magazine (UK), Positionen (DE), Neue Zeitschrift fur Musik (DE), Point of Depatrue (USA), Musik texte (DE), the Trombonist (UK), London Jazz News, Scottish Jazz Space, Planet Hugill, Flotation Device (USA), Prxludes, The sampler, Cooky Ma Loo (AU), European Modern Jazz, A closer Listen,