Kimura/Guy/Hemingway Trio

Kimura/Guy/Hemingway Trio -

Izumi Kimura - piano

Barry Guy - double bass

Gerry Hemingway - percussion

Featuring the world premiere of Gnomon by Barry Guy - commissioned by The Arts Council of

Ireland and new works by Izumi Kiura and Gerry Hemingway.

Izumi Kimura writes: I practise a holistic approach of music making. I explore between abstract

and concrete, improvising and composing, things unknown, invisible and inaudible, and the myriad

forms of the Nature. The spaces between our roles, cultures, languages, attitudes, and beliefs,

these are the vibrations I want to listen to, through the act of improvising at the piano. I was born in

Yokohama, Japan, and have been playing the piano since I was four, and the whole time I spent in

Japan, till I was 22. As soon as I graduated from Toho University of Music in Tokyo I moved to

Ireland. It took a long time and some turbulence of life before my music and life started to grow

together. Very slowly, life and music started becoming intertwined with each other, and they are

becoming one.

I have been lucky to work with many great musicians and wonderful people from both classical and

jazz/improvised music fields. Musicians and ensembles I worked with include RTECO, Crash

Ensemble, Ergodos, Music 21, Michael d’Arcy, Bill Dowdall, Kenneth Edge, Ben Dwyer, Cora

Venus Lunny and many more from the world of classical music, and Ronan Guilfoyle, Barry Guy,

Gerry Hemingway, Tommy Halferty, Michael Buckley, Dominique Pifarély, Benoît Delbecq,

Stéphane Payen, Marco Colonna, Sarah Buechi and many more from the world of jazz/improvised

music. The festivals I enjoyed performing in Ireland and abroad include RTE Living Music Festival,

Boyle Arts Festival, Dublin Dance Festival, Dublin Fringe Festival, Bray Jazz Festival, Kilkenny

Arts Festival, Ghent Street Festival of New Music in Belgium, Music 21’s ‘Brazil Now’, ‘Artes Da

Irlanda’ in Sao Paolo, Brazil, and Creative Connexions in Sitges, Spain, and many more.

Gnomon - Barry Guy’s note

Hero of Alexandria defined a gnomon as that which, when added or subtracted to an entity, makes

a new entity similar to the starting entity. 1 The term is used for a variety of purposes in many fields.

Think of a Nautilus shell, an elephant’s tusk, a sundial - on the surface, images that might seem

unrelated. However, the incremental growth of the shell and tusk are gnomons to the entire existing

structure. 2 In the case of the sundial, it is the rod or pin that casts a shadow indicating the time of

day, the rod being the gnomon.

Transformations and shadows seemed useful metaphors to structure this trio music. So, for

instance, slow opening material contrasts with machine-like articulations always undergoing

change. Even the bass articulations in the early part of the piece cast their own shadow in the bi-

tones travelling in the opposite direction to the prime glissando pitches which are in turn picked up

by the piano as a secondary shadow. Piano figures utilising the extreme ends of the keyboard

feature, and suggested to me a kind of shadow play, where gestures are reciprocal ; cause and

effect where one move leaves its imprint on the other. These are simple defined sonorities that

transit the landscape, and of course the art of improvising is always present and essential, casting

its own shadows over the developing scenario. I composed Gnomon for the trio together with

pianist Izumi Kimura and Gerry Hemingway, percussion.

My thanks go to the Arts Council of Ireland for funding this commission - Barry Guy, Oberstammheim,

December 2020

1 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gnomon

2 D’Arcy Wentworth Thompson (1860-1948) On Growth and Form.pub.1917

Gerry Hemingway has been making a living as a composer and performer of solo and ensemble

music since 1974. He has led a number of quartets and quintets since the mid-80s including his

current quintet with Ellery Eskelin, Oscar Noreiga, Terance McManus and Kermit Driscoll as well as

collaborative groups with Mark Helias and Ray Anderson (BassDrumBone) celebrating its 34th

anniversary in 2011, w/Reggier Workman and Miya Masaoka on koto (Brew), Georg Graewe and

Ernst Reijseger, recently celebrating its 20th anniversary (GRH trio), WHO trio with Swiss pianist

Michel Wintsch and bassist Baenz Oester, as well as numerous duo projects with Thomas Lehn,

John Butcher, Ellery Eskelin, Marilyn Crispell, Terance McManus and Jin Hi Kim. Mr. Hemingway is

a Guggenheim fellow and has received numerous commissions for chamber and orchestral work

including “Terrains”, a concerto for percussion and orchestra commissioned by the Kansas City

Symphony. He has also been involved in songwriting documented in the CD “Songs” produced by

Between the Lines as well as his collaboration with John Cale. He is well known for his eleven

years in the Anthony Braxton Quartet and more recently his duo with Anthony “Old Dogs (2007)”

released on Mode/Avant. His many collaborations with some of the world’s most outstanding

improvisers and composers include Evan Parker, Cecil Taylor, Mark Dresser, Anthony David,

George Lewis, Derek Bailey, Leo Smith, Oliver Lake, Kenny Wheeler, Frank Gratkowski, Michael

Moore and many others. His rich musical history, collaborations, performances and recordings are

all amply documented on his extensive website: http://www.gerryhemingway.com. He currently

lives in Switzerland having joined the faculty of the Hochschule Luzern in 2009.