when she had no mirror​.​.​. she watched her shadow

PINKCOURTESYPHONE

September 6, 2019

Experimental / Ambient / Drone

LINE_SEG06 Sonic smudger Pinkcourtesyphone and harpist extraordinaire Gwyneth Wentink first met at an elegant garden party chez William Basinski, where they became instant accomplices. 2016's 'Elision' EP (901editions, Italy) soon followed, full of rich chords, lush hues, and enticing flickerings. Now the pair invites you to get carried away in a cascade of murmurs with ‘when she had no mirror…she watched her shadow.’ ... a powerful conception that plumbs the very depths of human emotion. Here is a picture of a woman's passion painted with strokes of shocking brilliance... vital music written and performed with bold imagination... daringly executed for the who can sustain the most stimulating of listening sensations. + Pinkcourtesyphone is a continuing project by Los Angeles-based sound artist / composer Richard Chartier. Pinkcourtesyphone is a more emotional, dare one say musical side of his work. Pinkcourtesyphone is dark but not arch, with a slight hint of humor. Pinkcourtesyphone is amorphous, changing, and slipping in and out of consciousness. Pinkcourtesyphone operates like a syrup-y dream and strives to be both elegant and detached. Richard Chartier (b.1971) is considered one of the key figures in minimalist sound art. Chartier’s works explore the inter-relationships between the spatial nature of sound, silence, focus, perception, and the act of listening itself. Chartier’s critically acclaimed works have been published since 1998 on a variety of labels internationally including Room40 (Australia), Editions Mego (Austria), Important Records (US), Ash International (UK), Raster-Noton (Germany), Spekk (Japan), Trente Oiseaux (Germany), NVO (Austria), Farmacia901 (Italy), 12k (US), and his own imprint LINE (US). He has collaborated with composer William Basinski, sound artists ELEH, CoH, France Jobin, Robert Curgenven, Taylor Deupree, AGF, and Yann Novak, and German electronic music pioneer Asmus Tietchens. In installation form, he has created works with multimedia artists Evelina Domnitch and Dmitry Gelfand, visual artist Linn Meyers, and projected light artist Anthony McCall. Under the guise Pinkcourtesyphone he has collaborated with Cosey Fanni Tutti, Kid Congo Powers, harpist Gwyneth Wentink, AGF, and thereminist Evelina Domnitch. Chartier’s sound works/installations have been presented in museums and galleries internationally including the Whitney Biennial and the influential sound art exhibit Sounding Spaces at NTT/ICC in Tokyo. His performances have occurred live across Europe, Japan, Australia, and North America. Since 2000, Chartier has curated his influential recording label LINE, publishing over 100 editions documenting the compositional and installation work of international sound and video artists who explore the aesthetics of contemporary and digital minimalism. + Gwyneth Wentink is an internationally acclaimed harpist, cultural entrepreneur and arts advocate working across many genres and roles. She is director and founder of State of the United Arts, an arts think tank and performance platform which produced Canto Ostinato Audio Visual and the currently touring audiovisual performance In Code. Canto Ostinato Audio Visual has toured extensively in The Netherlands and in many cities as Tokyo, Sydney, New York and Moscow, and was chosen for the ‘Kingsconcert’ of King Willem Alexander and Queen Maxima of the Netherlands as well as for a performance during their recent state visit to Canada in 2015. As a harpist both classical and experimental, Gwyneth Wentink has performed at world’s most prestigious stages as Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center in New York, the Royal Albert Hall and Royal Opera Hall in London, and the Konzerthaus in Berlin, among others. Many of today’s leading composers have written works for Gwyneth including Theo Loevendie, Marius Flothuis and Terry Riley. Wentink holds a position as solo harpist of the Orchestra Revolutionaire et Romantique and the English Baroque Soloists under Sir John Eliot Gardiner. Praised for her versatility, Wentink introduced the harp into classical Indian music, and plays regularly with greats like Pt Hariprasad Chaurasia. Wentink has won numerous prizes, including the Dutch Music Award, the highest distinction awarded to musicians in The Netherlands in 2007, the Israel Harp Competition and the Young Concert Artists Auditions in New York.