Anton Lukoszevieze
Audio By Carbonatix
Ever get lost in the sound of birdsong or the gentle whistle of the wind as it moves through leaves? Do you enjoy the tranquil escape of meditation? What about the transportive effects of the finest abstract art?
If so, there’s a local music label you should check out.
Operated out of Denton by composer, performer and University of North Texas teaching fellow Kory Reeder, Sawyer Editions is filled with sounds that seem to suspend time. Marked by hushed, laconic structures and unhurried experimentalism, the label specializes in contemporary and improvised music, mostly from relatively unknown composers. While the releases are primarily debuts characterized by sparse, delicate music, Sawyer Editions’ catalog spans an array of styles, performers and voices from all over the globe: from achingly quiet to dissonant, from newcomers to celebrated veterans such as Pulitzer Prize finalist James Romig.
A look at the album names on some of the 15 discs released so far hints at the type of music you can expect: empty spaces, sounds which grow rich as they decay, Designs and Meditations. It’s no coincidence the word “space” appears in one fifth of the label’s titles. If there’s one identifiable thread through all the label’s output, it’s spaciousness: the idea that silence is music’s most important organizing principle. The effect is profound and moving, a music that’s sometimes barely there.
Drawing inspiration from the fragility of nature, the vast expanses of astronomy and visionary composers like John Cage, Morton Feldman and La Monte Young, the label’s entries live in the liminal stretches between the avant garde, ambient music and field recordings. Showcasing everything from academic vibraphone studies to improvisations recorded outdoors, Sawyer Editions embraces incidental sounds and emphasizes dreamy pacing. The average track on the label runs nearly 10 mins.
Even compared with other independent labels, Sawyer Editions is decidedly a one-man operation. Reeder does everything – public relations, editing, bookkeeping, final mastering, you name it. He also hand makes and packages every CD in his apartment, mailing them himself at a post office just minutes away.
“It’s all completely me,” he says with a laugh over the phone.
Reeder grew up on DIY punk and toured heavily with a hardcore band as a young musician in Nebraska. He’s since become one of the most captivating composers in modern classical music, releasing hypnotic long-form works on some of the genre’s most respected labels, such as Edition Wandelweiser Records and Another Timbre. Like many of the pieces he’s released on Sawyer Editions, his music is defined by deep, resonant tones and an exacting focus on timbre and texture, threaded together by slow, minute progressions and drifting atmospheres.
Like Sawyer Editions releases, Reeder’s compositions function to strip the ego and pretense from contemporary classical music, transforming a traditionally cloistered and imposing art form into something approachable and nakedly beautiful. The joy found in patiently giving yourself up to these intimate soundscapes is like that of watching sun rays play through stained glass. The process is languid and gradual, but the payoff is immense, a bit dissociating but oddly rejuvenating.
Including his duties for Sawyer Editions, Reeder is immensely productive, balancing a demanding schedule that includes writing new compositions, performing, and completing an ever-expanding list of commissioned works, not to mention the recent defense of his dissertation. From Europe to Asia to Australia and the Americas, his music is now frequently performed throughout the world.
At least a small part of Reeder’s growing exposure comes from his economically radical decision not to charge for his scores, something that typically accounts for a significant part of a composer’s income.
“When I put on my website that I don’t charge for my scores, the amount of people from all over the world playing my music went up significantly,” he says.
A few weeks after he put his compositions out for the world to take, his music appeared on the BBC.
This reimagining of the economics of creating and releasing music in 2023 is also foundational to Sawyer Editions.
“If you can find ways that you don’t have to be that concerned about the money, then you can do bigger, newer things; that’s where everything started,” Reeder says. “All we have is each other, mutual aid. That can come in the form of something as simple as sharing a link, tweeting out someone else’s project, attending or playing in their concert. That’s what this whole thing is about. That’s what I want to inspire. And the best thing I feel I can do is this label. It might not ever be anything huge, but at least it affirms that belief and helps continue the growth of our mutual aid.”
In parallel with Reeder’s personal success, Sawyer Editions has also enjoyed international acclaim, thanks largely in part to Bandcamp’s in-house publication, whose bimonthly “Best Contemporary Classical” column has highlighted a release from every batch so far.
The idea to launch a label for emerging sounds and composers first came to Reeder in 2019, but it wasn’t until January 2022 that the first pack of releases landed on Bandcamp streaming and on CD. This five-record drop included a collection of piano preludes from Reeder and a compilation of works from one of his previous professors at the University of Nebraska at Kearney, Anthony Donofrio, with Designs and Meditations.
“What’s so exciting is that Kory has created a place where younger, unknown composers can pitch new ideas,” Donofrio says. “There’s no hierarchy or favoritism. He really cares that each composer is heard, and the focus is on the music and the people that make it, giving artists in underrepresented spaces a great opportunity.”
Since that first group of records, two more batches of five discs have come down the pipeline; one was issued last summer and another last January. Each and every Sawyer Edition release is more than worth your time, and the highlights are numerous.
Donofrio’s Designs and Meditations offers a heady spectrum of percussive pieces, including the mesmerizing “Camus” with its rippling marimba, and “Meditation on the Eve of John Cage’s 100th Birthday,” which bridges muted gongs with chasms of silence like jewels strung together with invisible string. Romig’s offering for solo vibraphone, Spaces, is luminous and beguiling, masterfully manipulating pitch, harmony and rhythm until time seems to fold in on itself.
Artist and TikTok-famous mushroom forager Gabrielle Cerberville has arguably the most unnerving work on the label with her prickly [reckless invention], performed entirely by Denton musicians. The otherworldly Vessels, from UNT grad Christopher Poovey, comes in a close second, though. This collection of songs from his virtual reality micro opera weaves together acoustic and synthetic elements for a disorienting experience like nothing you’ve heard before.
“Piece for three tuned cowbells” from Sylvia Lim’s contribution is crystalline and clattery, an empty canvas on which the tinkling and mewling of cowbells are painted, an instrument in conversation with itself.
Discussing the future of Sawyer Editions, Reeder is uncertain but enthusiastic.
“I just want to be part of huge, crazy, radical ideas and projects,” he says.
With five more releases coming in July – including from the remarkable Nomi Epstein – and the launch of a field recordings sub-imprint set for April, Sawyer Editions is poised to have a lasting impact on the trajectory of contemporary classical music. Thanks to Reeder’s hunger for new sounds and skill for community-building, our local music scene gets a seat at the table.
