Schatten, and Other Gems, with François Houle, clarinet

Canadian clarinetist, composer and improviser François Houle, described by Mark Swed as “a spectacularly versatile clarinetist who appears to have no limitations stylistically or sonically,” presents an innovative program of short compositions by contemporary master composers James Tenney, György Kurtág, Giacinto Scelsi, Anthony Braxton, Elliott Carter, Ab Baars and François Houle.

Each piece on the program is preceded or followed by improvisations so that the performance unfolds as in a single breath. Mixing elements of serialism, modernism, post-modernist and maximalist esthetic, Houle weaves a seductive sonic web bringing to the forth his original improvisational voice.