Tashi Wada debuts new label Saltern with a duets record featuring Charles Curtis and Judith Hamann

The Los Angeles-based composer Tashi Wada has announced he will launch a new label, Saltern, to be distributed by Important Records, home to historical reissues (Eliane Radigue, Pauline Oliveros, C.C. Hennix) as well as interesting contemporary artists (Eleh, Total Life, Steve Gunn, Master Musicians of Bukkake). Wada will inaugurate the label with a release of his own: Duets, an LP that features recent recordings of two cellists — Charles Curtis and Judith Hamann — performing four works composed by Wada between 2006 and 2008. Duets is Tashi Wada’s third release, following 2010’s Alignment and 2012’s Gradient.

Born in New York, Tashi Wada is perhaps best known for his collaborations with his father, Yoshi Wada, a pioneer of drone exploration in electroacoustic music. Not too far from his father’s work, Tashi Wada also tackles sustained tones, usually performed on stringed instruments, probing experimental modes of listening à la Fluxus. However, where Yoshi Wada would use the most unusual artifacts to craft drones (water pipes, air horns, abandoned buildings’ rooms, and even some bagpipe-like instruments of his own creation), his progeny has relied on fellow musicians to build complex structures through repetition, microtonal architecture, and clever interplay.

Saltern has also announced a string of (very interesting) upcoming releases: a recording of Morton Feldman’s “Clarinet and String Quartet” by clarinetist Anthony Burr and Charles Curtis, an album of sound pieces by dancer/artist Simone Forti, and a collaboration between Tashi Wada and Stephan Mathieu.

Duets is out on September 30 via Saltern.

Duets tracklisting:

01. September 2006
02. March 2007
03. April 2007
04. February 2008

• Saltern: http://importantrecords.com/saltern
• Important: http://importantrecords.com

More about: Charles Curtis, Judith Hamann, Tashi Wada, Yoshi Wada