TL039. Unfold — GLASS HEART

On Glass Heart Unfold filter melodic fragments and improvisational moments, looking to weave these materials into music that coalesces around singular points of focus. The duo explore space, both temporally and acoustically, and restraint, finding ways to work with a limited set of materials and manage their sound making with great care over time. Throughout Glass Heart the listener is presented with the deep resonance of the bass drum, which provides a bed for sparse moments of melody to flourish, flowing from the prepared piano and open stringed scordatura electric guitar. Moments of sustain and near silence are punctuated with bold strikes of the bass drum that can be felt in the chest and highlight the scale in the work, the small fragile sounds of glass, marbles, seeds and bells rendered as such in relation to the drum. True to their name, Unfold work through attention and care to unravel, unpack and unfold the vast aural phenomenon emergent from simple gestures and present a sonic landscape for the listeners' patient investigation.

From Alice Humphries and Thea Rossen:
Having previously worked together in a performer / composer relationship, Unfold came about through a shared desire to work together in a more collaborative and spontaneous context, where we both operate as performers/improvisers/composers and blur the lines between these roles. 

In the time leading up to making Unfold, we were both stripped back by personal experiences of parenthood, early postpartum, loss and grief. Carving out this creative space with each other was a way for us to reconnect to our creative selves and the pure joy of making and playing with sounds that we find beautiful.

We began these pieces as improvisations based on a single idea that each of us brought, either a melody, an object, or a textural idea. Unfold is about clarity and simplicity. Stripping an idea back and letting something grow slowly.

Alice Humphries — prepared piano, guitar, percussion
Thea Rossen — percussion

Recorded & mixed by Kieran Kenderessy at Loop
Mastered by Dan O'Connor @ENCODERSound
Artwork by Olivia Davies