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    With this double album I introduce myself as a performer of contemporary classical music, which, I believe, might come as a surprise for listeners who are familiar only with my work in the fields of improvised music and avant-garde jazz. However, various genres of music as diverse as classical and jazz, free improvisation and contemporary classical were always there along the way, playing a significant role in shaping my approach to musical performance as an improviser and a musician in general – an approach that blurs distinctions not only between different genres but also between improvised and composed music, improvisation and interpretation.

    In addition to leading my own bands and working on my own projects, I consider myself very lucky to have had many fortunate opportunities to appear as a soloist and a section member with major symphony and chamber orchestras, both locally and further afield, as well as to collaborate with fantastic chamber ensembles and creative improv and jazz bands, which have notably included the Gaida Ensemble and the Lithuanian Ensemble Network, the Chordos and Čiurlionis string quartets, the Copenhagen Art Ensemble, the Barry Guy Ensemble, the Andrew Hill Jazzpar Octet, the Marc Ducret Ensemble for Lady M, the New Jungle Orchestra, the Konvoj Art Ensemble featuring Evan Parker and Sten Sandell, Vladimir Tarasov and the Lithuanian Art Orchestra, and the Improdimensija Orchestra. Some of these wonderful orchestras and musicians continue to keep me company in live concerts and on these two discs.

    Over the years I’ve also had a chance to work with many talented composers who have written fascinating music specifically for me or who would ingeniously adapt to my abilities and inclinations as an improviser by giving me the freedom of self-expression in their otherwise strictly written compositions. Out of several dozen such works I have selected ten compositions by eight (mostly Lithuanian) composers and wrapped it all up under a title adopted from one of my all-time favourite Lithuanian concert pieces for solo saxophone, Polylogue by Osvaldas Balakauskas. All of the pieces were recorded – some live, some in the studio – over a period of fifteen years, from 2005 to 2020, which retraces a substantial chapter in my professional career as an improvising multi-reed player and composer.

    CD 1 opens with the title track and features contemporary Lithuanian music for solo saxophone and orchestra. CD 2 sets off with the track Social, which marks the beginning of my ‘socializing’ with the Chordos Quartet. All works for solo saxophone and string quartet committed to this disc have been recorded with the same constellation of musicians (except for the closing piece where percussionist Arkady Gotesman and accordionist Raimondas Sviackevičius joined us), which may be called a band as we’ve been playing music by different composers and experimenting with my own music involving a lot of improvisation based on graphic scores and other alternative forms of notation for almost two decades now. I have also seized the opportunity to pay homage to my first clarinet teacher, the brilliant musician Algirdas Doveika, by including my take on a solo clarinet piece by Vykintas Baltakas, which Algirdas used to play beautifully himself.

    Wishing you lots of exciting musical discoveries!

    Liudas Mockūnas
    January 13, 2021, Kernavė, Lithuania

    Includes unlimited streaming of Liudas Mockūnas "Polylogues" (2xCD) via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.     ... more
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  • Full Digital Discography

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about

OSVALDAS BALAKAUSKAS (*1937)
POLYLOGUE for alto saxophone and string orchestra (1991)

Written for saxophonist John-Edward Kelly (1958 – 2015) and the Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra, this work is characterized by “clearly defined stylistic boundaries and maximum dynamism”, as the composer himself once described his creative aspirations. So, it displays a certain edgy roughness or ‘nervousness’ characteristic of expressionism, while the constant alternation between strictly determined and aleatoric rhythmic patterns creates the sense of an active pulse within the orchestral fabric.

The work possesses the clearly perceptible features of a concerto, even though the saxophone is never given the role of a single leading soloist. Instead, these features become conspicuous as the work unfolds from flashes of concentrated energy and controlled ecstatic eruptions that gradually build and then recede into the background, opening the way for a powerful new take off into the final cadenza, incandescent and euphoric…

Linas Paulauskis

This is the only piece on the album where I’m not improvising a single note. To my ear, this composition is constructed in a way that implies no need or possibility to add anything else. The written material always directs the soloist to the main axis of the piece.

Broadly speaking, I don’t see any difference between composed and improvised music. I find beauty in the complexity of music when the listener can’t tell the difference either. But perhaps more important than this is how a piece of art speaks to you on a personal level.

Liudas Mockūnas

credits

from Liudas Mock​ū​nas "Polylogues" (2xCD), released March 21, 2021
1. OSVALDAS BALAKAUSKAS (*1937)
POLYLOGUE for alto saxophone and string orchestra (1991) 17:30

Liudas Mockūnas (alto saxophone), Modus Chamber Orchestra,
conductor Robertas Bliškevičius
Recorded live in 2020 at the Vilnius Town Hall by Arūnas Zujus.

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Liudas Mockūnas Vilnius, Lithuania

Lithuanian saxophonist and clarnetist (born 1976)focused on improvised, avantgarde jazz, experimental and conteporary classical music. Among his stage partenrs were and are Andrew Hill, Copenhagen Art Ensemble, Mikko Innanen, Stefan Pasborg, Barry Guy, Agusti Fernandez, Marc Ducret, Mats Gustafsson, Evan Parker, Peter Evans, Nate Wooley, Ottomo Yoshihide, Kazutoky Umezu, Vladimir Tarasov ... more

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