FRANK CARLBERG – Charity and Love w/Electronic Music Composer Gabriel Bolaños

Brooklyn-based Red Piano Records has released Charity and Love from pianist/composer Frank Carlberg and electronic music composer Gabriel Bolaños. According to Frank and Gabriel, “the music on Charity and Love draws inspiration from Mary Lou Williams; her music, her voice, her commitment, her courage. The title track incorporates her voice slowly emerging with a message of love as the piano and the electronic processing weave ever-evolving textures. Many of the other tracks such as Mary Lou, Mary Blue, Zodiac Impressions and Mary’s Aries include fragments and cells from her Zodiac Suite as the electronics and the piano converse in real time. This project is not meant as a tribute to Mary Lou Williams, but rather a celebration of her groundbreaking career, her forward looking work, and her fearlessness.”

Gabriel José Bolaños (born in Bogotá, Colombia) is a Nicaraguan-American composer of solo, chamber, orchestral and electronic music. He frequently collaborates closely with performers and writes music that explores unusual structures and timbres. He is interested in computer-assisted-composition, auditory perception and linguistics. His recent music engages with theories of ecological listening: how our sense of hearing evolved primarily to interpret our environment. He enjoys listening to music by Harvey, Furrer, Ligeti, Grisey, Cerha, Romitelli, Messiaen, Os Mutantes, Simon Diaz, Sabicas and Bach.

The Finland-native, Brooklyn-based Frank Carlberg has an extensive catalogue of compositions including pieces for small jazz and improvisational groups, big band, orchestra, music for dance companies, and over 150 songs with settings of contemporary American poetry. He has over twenty recordings to his name as a leader and countless others as a sideman, and has worked with the likes of Kenny Wheeler, Steve Lacy and Bob Brookmeyer. He owns and operates Red Piano Records.