Dystonia by JG Thirlwell & Mivos Quartet

"You’re about to listen to a powerful collection of string quartets written by JG Thirlwell, dynamically performed by the brilliant Mivos Quartet. Released collectively under the title Dystonia, they represent Thirlwell’s dark and jagged vision of past, present and future. Although Dystonia refers to a medical condition that causes involuntary contractions of the muscles, I can’t help making associations — Dys-Ton(e)-ia, Dissonance, Dysrhythmia, Destiny. All five works here project different shades of a bodily, psychological, and societal Dysfunction through a bold, insistent music that grabs you and takes you where it wants to go." — Michael Gordon

Deeply challenging, even confrontational, to the classical string quartet format, composer JG Thirlwell's Dystonia is a leap forward not only for listeners, but for musicians as well. Mivos Quartet's fiery interpretation of these five pieces — each in its own way difficult, harrowing, engaging and uplifting — is also a tribute to their dedication, skill and sense of adventure as artists.

"This is bold, insistent music that grabs you and takes you where it wants to go," writes Bang on a Can co-founder Michael Gordon in his liner notes for the album. That sentiment lands with a fury in the recording's central piece "Ozymandias," a not-for-the-faint-of-heart excursion that channels the tension and dread of, for example, Bernard Herrmann's famed Psycho score, but expands on it with the subtle, stately majesty of Bartók and Cage.

“We recorded six compositions for Dystonia,” Thirlwell explains. “Three were already composed, and the other three I wrote in 2020-2021 before entering the studio: ‘Apeirophobia,’ a long-form composition for conventional score, and two instructional pieces that were later combined into one during mixing. With these, the intention was to experiment with extended technique, as well as different tonal qualities and dynamics that didn’t exist in the other pieces."

Thirlwell works under many pseudonyms, including Manorexia, Foetus, Xordox, Steroid Maximus, Baby Zizanie, Hydroze Plus, Clint Ruin and Wiseblood. Over the course of more than thirty albums. If there's a common thread to his varied musical styles, it's a dramatic intensity and an evocative, cinematic quality. The same holds true for his approach to this astonishing project, which was conceived and developed over a period of years, beginning in 2014. As he succinctly puts it: “Hopefully Dystonia will challenge and inspire people to think differently about what a string quartet can be.”

JG Thirlwell is a Brooklyn based composer who is known for his musical projects Foetus, Manorexia, Xordox, Steroid Maximus and more. He creates the musical scores the animated shows Archer and Venture Bros. He has collaborated with Melvins, Zola Jesus, Lydia Lunch, Simon Steensland, Tredici Bacci and many more. He has composed for Kronos Quartet, Bang On A Can, Dither, Alarm Will Sound and more

foetus.org
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