press
interviews
The Guardian, 3rd September 2009
For the choir parts, Watson commissioned composer Marcus Davidson. First, Davidson spent time listening intensely to Watson's bee recordings - and got a shock: "The bees are full of music. They 'sing' diatonic notes. It's astonishing. In the daytime they are all at A below middle C. Then, in the evening, the general pitch slips down to G sharp." But around those central pitches, says Davidson, the bees are also tuneful: "For each mood they have a different set of what I call tune clusters - different songs and little chords."
Bees have also been shown to indicate awareness of toxins and other hazards by subtle changes in pitch. Mike Harding, co-founder of Touch (who release Watson's CDs), was commissioned to make the hive recordings for the piece. While Harding was manfully dealing with repeated stings in the service of art, Davidson noticed something. "About 10 seconds before Mike got stung, they'd all be singing different notes, but then it's as if they've taken a decision: 'Right, we've been invaded enough.' And then they go back to a unison A. You hear a distinct change."
For the human singing parts, Davidson has avoided any "buzzing" cliches, finding mouth shapes that create a natural sound. They branch out, eventually, into more "human" musical territory, but all the shapes, he says, have come from the bees.
Pascal Wyse
[Three excerpts from the performance can be seen in a video of the highlights on YouTube. (NB: the audio quality is poor.) Another sound excerpt is on this site's listen page.]
Awakenings
Listen to Marcus talking about Awakenings, a dance theatre production based on the mystical experience of Donald Pass.
Radio 3's Mixing It
Marcus was one of the Spire participants interviewed on Radio 3's Mixing It, 19th May 2006.
reviews
Wire, January 2010 issue
Chris Watson’s Cross-Pollination at Queen Elizabeth Hall, 06/09/09
Bee Symphony at the Queen Elizabeth Hall was one of the highlights of 2009.
Edwin Pouncey
Beecraft, December 2009 issue
Chris Watson’s Cross-Pollination at Queen Elizabeth Hall, 06/09/09
The piece started with bird song and a picture of Olivia's house and gradually faded into bees buzzing. We were in the middle of a beehive with bees all round us. Then the singers began but with no words, playing their voices as if they were musical instruments. They harmonised with the bees, counteracting the aggression when the bees were angry, and following the varying moods on other parts of the recording. It was the most amazing experience. Though not something either of us would normally have thought of attending, we are pleased not to have missed it. None of the audience stirred, and we were just surrounded by the most beautiful sounds.
Mary Hill
Chris Watson’s Cross-Pollination at Queen Elizabeth Hall, 06/09/09
Watson placed his faith in composer Marcus Davidson to open the evening, with a choral creation that pitted five vocalists (attired in black, neatly accessorised with yellow) against the sound of hundreds of recorded bees. The piece was in three sections, reflecting Davidson's discovery that bees buzzed a different note depending on their mood - flattening a semitone from around a centre of A to around a centre of G sharp in the evening - then back up to a big A when you go poking a stick into their hives and begin questioning the entire basis of their societal order. Buzzing energetically around that central pitch, It became impossible to tell where the human voices ended and the bees began, blurring into one big drone, most obviously reminiscent of Ligeti. Bird song drifted around the mix, making the whole sound hazy and idyllic. In fact if it weren't for the images of bee-stung hands which accompanied it, this superb composition was almost enough to make me care for the little buzzers.
[Three excerpts from the performance can be seen in a video of the highlights on YouTube. (NB: the audio quality is poor.) Another sound excerpt is on this site's listen page.]
Londonlist
Atmospheres 2: Day One Review, 12th May 2008
Having never heard Marcus Davidson before, we were quite looking forward to his opening set.
Anticipation can often lead to disappointment, but in this case even our already high hopes were exceeded. Playing an entire set on an effects-treated Roland synthesizer generated a sound thicker than most laptop performances we've heard.
Davidson's colliding organ notes layered with bright, atonal sweeps perfectly complemented the high church ceilings, so as soon as he was finished we couldn't wait for his collaboration with Philip Jeck to begin.
Dave Knapik
Organ Works Past Present & Future
... These misgivings aside, the music is all great. I particularly like the two pieces played by Charles Matthews, a genuine church organist. Two 'straight' pieces of beautiful music (Organ Psalm 5 by Marcus Davidson) were captured by B J Nilsen and appear on disc one; these are probably the most conventional pieces on Spire. To me they sound amazing. That's my tastes for you...
Ed Pinsett
Nordlys Newspaper
The Lady Is A Tramp - Rica Hall, Tromso, Norway - July 2007 [right]
... Much of the success was also due to the fact that she had four excellent musicians with her on stage. They kept up with her effortlessly - this was first class playing.
Bjørn H Larssen
The Talk Magazine
Spire - York Minster - 20th February 2007
... There were plenty of surprises too - Marcus Davidson's arrangement of the Buddhist mantra Om Mani for the main organ and tenor Robert Millner (odd on paper, but it really worked), and tenor John Beaumont's solo delivery of a 12th century plainchant both emphasised that the Minster's cavernous vault was made for spiritual and devotional sound.
Davidson's own works, being performed for the first time, were also highly impressive. The Grey Book saw the two tenors and soprano Amy Moore weaving around an engaging framework of organ music, while The Passing enhanced the main organ's deep tones with some minimal but effective tape loops.
Tim Procter
Cut Up Magazine, Issue #30, 19 08 2006
Spire: Sound is Religion [24/06, Oude Kerk, Amsterdam]
... when it's the turn of Davidson, who comes down from the great organ to play the great piano, I feel the atmosphere is changing. It becomes lighter, clearer, more quasi-melancholic and less 'heavy meditative'. He plays a soft, emotional piece called Elergy. My first association is about something angel-like. I feel I'm being comforted or maybe my thoughts (that go in all directions) are being quietened by the music. Like Davidson wants to say: it's alright, don't worry, you will appreciate the organ too later on.
And yes, he's right. After a short break, the organ and vocals follow. I admit: by putting in such contrast, the organ achieves 'fullness', intensity and added extra value.
Maria Cristina Fazecas [Translated from the Dutch]
Signaltonoise (USA)
Spire: Live in Geneva Cathedral Saint Pierre
Two organists are featured on the recording; Charles Matthews and Marcus Davidson are both talented performers, sympathetic to new music. Davidson's two compositions, Opposites Attract and Psalm for Organ 3, begin the first CD with an impressive display of the Saint Pierre organ's capabilities. Huge clusters and complexly stacked chords show off the instrument's ability to create thunderous forte, while delicate melodic excusions demonstrate its capacity to render soft solo passages in a graceful whisper.
Christian Carey
Dusted (USA)
Spire: Live in Geneva Cathedral Saint Pierre
This two-disc set is a document of the night's music, and while I'm rather certain it doesn't compare to being in the cathedral that night, Spire: Live in Geneva Cathedral Saint Pierre remains an engrossing treatise on the relevance of an instrument too often forgotten by modern secular music.
The album's structural phase features modern organ compositions performed by Charles Matthews and Marcus Davidson. Interestingly, Matthews chose to play two pieces by Davidson, as well as works by André Jolivet and Liana Alexandra. Davidson's contribution is Henryk Gorécki's 16-minute Kantata fr Organ Op 26. The selections performed in this phase exhibited the organ's austere beauty, as well as its potential in the realms of more modern composition.
Adam Strohm
Almost Cool (USA)
Spire: Live in Geneva Cathedral Saint Pierre
... Spire: Live In Geneva Cathedral Saint Pierre is the sequel to that release, and in a move that is ultimately very pleasing to me, it goes largely in a different direction than the first compilation in the series.
For starters, a good portion of the work on this release is actual, straightforward organ music by composers such as Marcus Davidson and Henryk Gorécki. Along these same lines, all of the recordings on this newest Spire compilation (both straightforward organ pieces and electronicly-enhanced ones) were recorded live in the Geneva Cathedral and although it's certainly no substitute for being there in person, the recordings breathe with a life that only enhances their quality.
The first forty minutes of the first disc is taken up with five different pieces for organ, and the variety of them gives one a good idea of the range of expression the instrument truly has. The opening Opposites Attract by Marcus Davidson moves as the title somewhat suggests, playing back and forth between loud, majestic moments and quieter, more playful ones (as if the two sides of the piece are courting one another).
Several other reviews of Spire live in Geneva are collected at Touch Music.