listen to “Skies So Clear”
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Midwinter Music
Midwinter Music
Misha Feigin / piano
(c) 2018 DPR Records 018 (c) 2018 BMI / 221 N. Clifton Avenue. #31 Louisville, KY 40206. Photography and graphic design by Steven Skaggs. All tracks improvised by Misha Feigin, piano. Recorded and mixed by Steve Good at Clifton Universalist Unitarian Church in Louisville, KY.
Tracklist: 1. The icy, pale sun (7:36) 2. Just for a minute (2:55) 3. Frozen trees glitter (4:45) 4. A fear of the blank (7:31) 5. He is back again (5:46) 6. A place un the puzzle (4:07) 7. There is no room left (5:34) 8. Not an easy task (9:06) 9. On a window sill (5:49) 10. Searching for silence (1:18)
Misha Feigin’s 2018 release, his piano CD is superbly beautiful. I enjoyed every stroke, the fluidity, and beautiful technique danced through the extremities of improvisational foray. From contemporary composerly musings, to modal melodies reminiscent of Gurdjieff, the contemplative character and free swaths of color played as a rainbow of passion on my heart.– LaDonna Smith / the improvisor 2018, rare artifact review
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PLEASE NOTE: inclusive shipment cost rest of the world.
sahara gypsies
Sahara Gypsies: Hussam Al Aydi – oud, voice, keyboards, percussion, programming | Misha Feigin – classical and acoustic guitar, voice | Mark Hamilton – electric guitar | Danny Kiely – contrabass.
Recorded by Danny Kiely in Louisville, Kentucky, USA. Produced by Misha Feigin.
Tracklist: 1. Dark Eyes (Traditional) [6:12] 2. Wahran (Traditional) [8:14]
the crossing
Misha Feigin – classical guitar | Susan Alcorn – pedal steel guitar
Recorded in April 2015 at Modern Cult Records by Steve Good. Photos by Misha Feigin1,3 music by Misha Feigin. 2,4,5 music by Misha Feigin & Susan Alcorn. 5 – originally recorded in December of 2006, electronically processed by Steve Good in 2015.
Tracklist: 1. Relativity [3:05] 2. The Crossing [10:37] 3. Adjustment [2:07] 4. And Still part 1 and part 2 [9:40] 5. String Space [15:45] Total Time: 41:25
“What I’ve done with the piece is to use the sequence of numbers corresponding to the elevation of the terrain in a straight line going from the east coast to the west coast of the United States at the latitude of Louisville, Kentucky as an impulse response which I convolved audio editing with the piece. Convolution is the process of multiplying the values of one linear sequence of numbers by every other member of a 2nd linear sequence of numbers. Convolution Reverb is used widely to apply a “space” to a recorded sound.” — Steve Good
tribal diaries
Acknowledgments: I would like to thank Cindy Rayner, Michael Kessler for their generous help that allowed me to complete this book. I also thank Harold Maier and Tony Woolard for sharing with me their knowledge of American history. The collage and back cover photo by Misha Feigin
Foreword
One cold and dreary February afternoon in Moscow, I kissed my mother good-bye. waved to my friends and lovers, and embarked on the journey of my life to the Brave New World across the ocean. Soon I was on my way to the forbidden and luring place, another side of everything I had experienced so far in my ever suffering and intensely profound homeland. It was the time when tectonic plates of history moved, breaking countries into pieces, sending waves of people to new shores. The way of life in Russia was rapidly changing. The old order deteriorated in no time. In the social and political vacuum, the gangsters, party bureaucrats, and secret services became major powerbrokers. Local social and ethnic communities were quickly transformed into markets producing a few haves and plenty of have-nots. The end of the century was near, climate change was on the horizon, and the global warning broadcasted gloom and doom. I arrived in America equipped with a back-pack, a suitcase, a guitar, three hundred dollars in my pocket, and a determination to mix in into the celebrated creative exuberance of the Big Apple. In one day, I became a rootless cosmopolitan * and was soon roaming free in the streets on Manhattan.
Now, many years later, I still can recollect practically moment by moment my first day in New York as well as many other first experiences I have had in my new life. Putting together this book, I relied not only on such poignant memories but also on the notes I began to take upon my arrival to New York. I continued taking snapshots of experiences and observations during my frequent expeditions in 48 states of the U.S., in Germany and a few other European countries for the next seventeen years. Once uprooted, you become an outsider everywhere you go, and being an outsider relieves you from the compulsion to take sides or subscribe to any particular ideology. It is an auspicious point in time to begin Tribal Diaries.
*The Jews were called “rootless cosmopolitans” during the Stalin’s anti-Semitic campaign after the World War II.
skippers in training
About Things That Flow and Age
When the mind opens – mud and
Dead wood drift through freely –
What can hurt the water when
The drinker has no mouth left?
Gravity shapes the flow,
The dark force pushing it
Beyond the beyond where
Anything lasting shrinks
And the runaway flux of
Creation speeds up more
Aiming at the motherly point
Where it all ends or begins.
The poetry of Misha Feigin bristles with improvisational energy, gentle resignation, a joie de vivre that is, by turns, wily and philosophical. A murder of crows in a naked tree become “the silent notes / In the chord of grief,” yet the heart of a solitary sparrow remains “big enough / To shelter one more spring.” These are poems that celebrate language, light, and the lucky accident that finds us alive in a place where “any choice is a cosmic choice.” Choose this book as I have done, and you will discover, time and again. “In every new breath… / The same nourishment.” Dig in! — Brett Eugene Ralph, the author of Black Sabbatical
Misha Feigin was born and raised in Moscow and known as one of Russia’s premier guitarists. He released two albums on the state label, Melodiya. Since moving to the U.S. in 1990, Misha has been featured on National Public Radio and BBC. He has toured throughout North America and Europe releasing fourteen CDs in America and Germany and two in Great Britain on Leo Records. Misha Feigin performed on many prestigious stages such as Moscow’s Concert Hall Russia, Washington’s Kennedy Center, Vancouver Jazz Festival, and Winnipeg Folk Festival. He lives in Louisville, Kentucky. Misha Feigin won the Thomas Merton Prize for Poetry and was awarded the Al Smith Fellowship for Creative Nonfiction. His books include a novel Searching for Irina and a book of poetry, The Last Word in Astronomy, both by Fleur Publishing, Misha’s latest book is a collection of poetry, Abraham’s Bagel by Avid Readers Publishing Group.
Buy Misha Feigin – Skippers In Training here…
moscow by heart
Moscow by Heart
In memory of Misha Fainerman
Misha Feigin: guitar, voice | Helmut Bieler-Wendt – violin, objects | Johannes Frisch – double bass
Poem by Misha Feigin. Produced by Misha Feigin. Cover photo by Valentin Michkevitch.
All tracks recorded live at Badischer Kunstverein in full length with no overdubs or post production. Track 1 & 2 recorded in October 2004 at the first meeting of this trio. Track 4 to 6 recorded in May 2012. DPR Records, 221 N. Clifton Ave. # 31, Louisville KY 40206, USA.
All music by Moscow by Heart
Tracklist: 1. Seven Days, Feathered [10:41] 2. Against the Grain [18:57] 3. We Remember [14:36] 4. No Shores [10:27] 5. Taveling Light [6:06] Total Time: [61:27]
listen to Feigin, Helmut Bieler-Wendt, Frisch | Seven Days, Feathered (excerpt)
Buy moscow by heart (CD or MP3) here…
Photo by Hubl Greiner
Helmut Bieler-Wendt studied violin, piano, music theory, improvisation and composition at the University of Music Karlsruhe with Hans Börner, Günter Reinhold, Eugen Werner Velte and Wolfgang Rihm. Furthermore he completed courses with Johannes Fritsch (contemporary music and improvisation), Michael Ranta (improvisation and asiatic music) and Peter Ausländer (experimental musical theater, dance). 1988 he took his artistic final examination with Wolfgang Rihm. Helmut Bieler-Wendt received scholarships of Karlsruhe and Darmstadt, of the ministry for science Baden-Wuerttemberg and the promoting community of German art. Since 1976 he works as a musician and composer in different formations.
Helmut Bieler-Wendt – projects and concerts with Lol Coxhill, Chico Freeman, Phil Minton, Ferdinand Richard, Hakim Ludin, Fred Frith, Mia Zabelka, Joachim Krebs, Sabine Schäfer, Hubl Greiner, Johannes Frisch, Peter Hollinger, Takumi Fukushima, Peter Kowald, Sainkho Namtchylak, Michael Bach, Dietmar Diesner, Johannes Bauer, Rudolf Theilmann, Irene Schweizer, Vladimir Vaclavec and many others. He was a member of THE BLECH from 1989 – 1996.
Since 2004 Helmut Bieler-Wendt is the director of “Institut für Neue Musik und Musikerziehung” (Institute for Contemporary Music and Music Education).
Johannes Frisch works since the late 1970s as a performer, composer and improviser of contemporary music between experimental rock, free jazz and other openminded styles. On his main instrument, the double bass, he works for more than three decades consequently on an individual expressive language. He played with lot of musicians of the international scene of free improvisation and all experimental fields – among others Lol Coxhill, Maggie Nicols, Johannes Bauer, Le Quan Ninh, Paul Hubweber, Michael Vorfeld, Misha Feigin. Compositions for theatre, film and dance theater actual projects: Kammerflimmer Kollektief; Home of the Beast, with Peter Hollinger und Helmut Bieler-Wendt; Ensemble Sondarc, Music for six double basses; rat’n’x; trio with Paul Wirkus & Mikolaj Trzaska;. concerts & festivals all over europe.
Please Note: A Download version of Moscow by Heart is available by clicking here…
it’s coming
In the scorching heat, the thick
Air is frozen, the birds fly low,
Silent, the sweaty citizens move
About the bleak streets, slow
As oversize flies.
On his shabby porch at the edge of
Town, Vigilante focuses his telescope
At the blurry border of the visible
Landscape humming something
Guttural and unsettling.
He pours whiskey generously
Into an opaque glass, shakes
The ice cubes, takes a good swig,
Quacks with content scratching
His unshaven, prominent chin
And begins to wait.
together
It is the same vehicle that
Drove Gandhi and Hitler –
It can absorb any color or
Smell – strength always has
Weakness attached – good
Old Yin and Yan swirling in
The vortex of the will
Drilling the opening into
The impenetrable darkness
Where the eye of the heart
Opens starting everything afresh.
p.s. work on yours!!
postscript
“Naked Lunch –a frozen moment when everyone sees what is on the end of every fork.”
William S. Burroughs
Pulsating reflection of the
Ceiling fan on the idle fork
Resting in a yellow paddle of
Olive oil on the empty plate –
A little silver stream going
Nowhere – a place to stop
As good as any other.