Avenue Azure LP/CD

Pete Harden — electric guitar, electronics

Saskia Lankhoorn — piano, voice, electronics

Ensemble Klang Records is proud to announce the release of Avenue Azure, the eponymous debut album from Avenue Azure, a duo formed by Netherlands-based musicians Pete Harden (electric guitar, electronics) and Saskia Lankhoorn (piano, voice, electronics). An intimate, enveloping listen, this is the imaginary folk music of haunted cities – unfolding according to its own clock, at once invitational and “other”. Written, performed, edited, and assembled entirely by the Harden / Lankhoorn duo between 2019 and 2022, these “almost-songs” feature the crystalline timbres of electric guitar and piano, scattered with spectral vocals and emulsive electronics. The music traces landscapes, skies, and seas, creating atmospheres that occupy a liminal space, music of transition, that shrouds the listener in a dark comfort.

I – Avenue Pasteur (06:58)

II – Early Black (06:20)

III – Cyane’s Message (07:46)

IV – River Chorale (09:10)

V – Saguaro Blossom (08:09)

VI – Dark Tenderness (05:06)

Pete Harden (guitar, electronics) and Saskia Lankhoorn (piano, voice, electronics) have a shared history of playing and touring, espying the beauty of the estranging world of travel – these experiences inspire their duo Avenue Azure. Aside from individual work as composer and concert soloist respectively, they have been performing together in the contemporary music sextet Ensemble Klang since 2003, collaborating with some of the most highly acclaimed composers working today, with concerts across Europe and in the US. Avenue Azure arose from a desire to seek out new ways of working, blurring the process of creating and performing to bring the listener closer to the intimate element of sound itself.

Saskia Lankhoorn (NL) is a highly acclaimed solo pianist and contemporary chamber musician. Dances & Canons, her first solo album on ECM Records, was nominated for the Edison Award in 2015. With Ensemble Klang she has performed in festivals worldwide such as HCMF, the Cultural Olympiad (UK), and Sonic Festival (New York). Her transatlantic piano duo X88 with Vicky Chow has commissioned and premiered numerous works. A winner of national awards from a young age, Saskia also performs with the ASKO | Schönberg, Crash Ensemble, and ELECTRA. Solo concerts have featured in venues and festivals such as: Muziekgebouw, Amsterdam; Rewire, The Hague; Punkt, Norway; Sacrum Profanum, Poland; Apples & Olives, Switzerland; and Look and Listen, New York.  

“... a virtuoso of contemporary music...” – The New York Times

Composer and guitarist Pete Harden (UK/NL) is one of the founders of The Hague-based Ensemble Klang, a group of versatile and virtuosic musicians on brass, guitar, percussion, and keys. As the group’s artistic director, Harden has been at the heart of their dynamic approach to contemporary music for almost two decades. A keen collaborator,often working within interdisciplinary projects, as a composer he has had works commissioned by the Ballet de Lorraine, Rewire Festival, Bang on a Can All-stars, ASKO | Schönberg, and the Dutch National Opera. He has performed in Ivo van Hove’s Network at the National Theatre in London, and frequently works with French choreographer Maud le Pladec, writing music for productions 27 Perspectives and Static Shot. His works have been released on BIS Records, Lumière Noire and Ensemble Klang Records. 

“[his music] forms a phantasmagorical folio” – Libération

“[conjuring] a subtle three-dimensional landscape”  – De Volkskrant

“rapturously gorgeous, suffused with warm radiance and strewn with sporadic staccato piano notes, saxophone smears, and guitar stings that somehow gelled into a warm, shimmering ambient soup articulating the purest inner ecstasy.” – 5against4