mewl infans by Rishin Singh with Martin Sturm

"Through an open-ended compositional method that allows for ample interpretation from the organist, Singh and Sturm have co-created a work...that makes full use of the unique properties of this instrument, coaxing forth scintillating, fluid drones and stacking colourful cluster chords that fill the room with dense sonic shapes. Sometimes these forceful blasts come to an abrupt end, revealing not silence but the perfumed hiss of wind still whipping through the massive metal pipes - ghosts in a very grand machine."
– Emily Pothast, The Wire Magazine

In the 1850s the influential composer Franz Liszt, who was living in Weimar, Germany at the time, carried out, with the famous cantor Alexander Wilhelm Gottschalg, a series of “ländlichen Orgelexperimente” (rural organ experiments) in Thuringia – investigating various instruments and their capabilities for contemporary music. They eventually settled on the organ in Denstedt because of its high quality. Many years later, award-winning organist Martin Sturm would invite the Berlin-based composer Rishin Singh to repeat these “ländlichen Orgelexperimente” with him and they again chose the organ at Denstedt, now named in honour of Liszt, as the best instrument – the most flexible and expressive – to perform and record Singh's music for organ.

mewl infans is a contemporary classical piece that invites modern listeners to ponder the enduring pull of an instrument that was first conceived more than 2,000 years ago and has, in recent years, been rediscovered by a new generation of composers and listeners. Throughout the larger architecture of the four movements, melodic motifs return over and over, fractured by noise, fragmented by carefully calibrated alternate tunings, dissolving into thin air, and generating drones which then transform into new melodic variations. Over the 44 minutes of the piece the organist at times attempts to exert complete control over the instrument, and at other times relinquishes all control entirely.

Conceptually rigorous and emotionally charged, mewl infans rewards deep listening and patience. At times conjuring a sense of doom, at other times suspense, pastoral drift, or aquatic submersion, the album is a universe of tiny details comprised of noise and air, of the journey each tone takes from birth to expiration.

"An endless and captivating exploration of one organ's timbres and tones. Both whispered and shouted, large and small, close and far, Singh's work is both unsettling and a balm, and has invited me to reconsider pitch, consonance, dissonance, tension and release." – Clarice Jensen, artistic director of the American Contemporary Music Ensemble (ACME)

"At the invitation of composer Martin Sturm, Singh composed four pieces for the Liszt organ at Denstedt, which, inspired by the composer's 'rural organ experiments' with cantor and organist Alexander Wilhelm Gottschalg, explore the sound spectrum of this unique instrument. The approach is far less strict than that recently adopted by Éliane Radigue or members of the loose association of Stockholm composers and organ nerds such as Kali Malone or the Berlin-based Ellen Arkbro. Singh's composition and Sturm's playing respectively concede the instrument its own peculiarities and thus a ghostly life of its own. 'mewl infans' offers yet another of the numerous contemporary and forward-looking perspectives; one of the most innovative ones at that."
– Field Notes Berlin (Releases of the Month)

Bios:

Martin Sturm, born 1992 in South Germany, in an International award-winning organist (ION, Schwäbisch Gmünd, Festival St Albans, Haarlem, Bavarian Culture Prize, and Keck-Köppe Foundation). He performs regularly as an interpreter and organ improviser at festivals, churches, and concert halls around the world. In 2019 he was appointed Professor for Organ and Organ Improvisation at the University of Music “Franz Liszt” in Weimar (Germany), after teaching at the Universities of Music in Würzburg and Leipzig.

Rishin Singh (b. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia) is a composer and trombonist living in Berlin. He has been commissioned to compose for the JACK Quartet (US), Piano+ (US), Claire Edwardes (AUS), DNK Ensemble (NL), Prof. Martin Sturm (DE), the Amsterdam Wandelweiser Festival (NL), Quiet Music Ensemble (IE), and others. Upcoming premieres include “every day” a concerto for organ, timpani, and string orchestra (Martin Sturm, Thuringia, 2022), and “melancholy objects” a string quartet (the JACK Quartet, New York, Spring 2023). He is currently working on his first chamber opera and is the composer and lyricist for the art song ensemble Leider.

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