Ysanne Spevack
Encyclopedia
Ysanne Spevack is a British violin
ist, composer
and string arranger best known for her work recordings for the Smashing Pumpkins, Dub Gabriel featuring Michael Stipe
, Tiesto
, and Asian Dub Foundation
. She was born a British citizen, but moved to the United States of America in 2004.
She lives in Los Angeles, where she has shaped a career arranging strings and playing acoustic and electric violin, and composing original music for soundtracks, notably for the BBC and Channel 4. Her performance and arranging work touches upon several genres, including orchestral, rock music
, pop music
, world music
, and film score
s.
Her most recent album is entitled Soundzero, and is a collaboration with Philip Clemo
.
After studying CuBase and Music Technology at Community Music school, with teachers Aniruddha Das and Steve Chandra Savale
, she traveled to Northern India, studying classical Indian music and sitar in the city of Varanasi
. In 1995, Spevack began to play electric violin with electronics for many producers and DJs in the underground Acid House
, Techno
and Drum and Bass
music scenes of London, notably with Sister Bliss
from Faithless
, Tiesto
, Talvin Singh
, T Power
and Tsuyoshi Suzuki
.
and released the album Sound - Inhale the Colours with him. Later that year on the 25th of June, Ysanne played electric violin with Laurie Anderson
at the Queen Elizabeth Hall
as part of the South Bank' Meltdown Festival, curated by Anderson.
In 1999 she recorded another album with Philip Clemo
, Soundzero, which was not released until 2008. The same year she participated to various neofolk
compilations, notably The Pact ...Of the Gods (Fremdheit), Torture Garden - Bizarre & Eccentric (Torture Garden Records), and the split single with Death in June
We Said Destroy as part of the band Fire + Ice. She also produced the music on the album Time Dragons, a spoken word album.
In 2001, she composed soundtracks for the Discovery Channel's Lonely Planet Guides. In 2003, Spevack was invited to perform electric violin for Peter Sellars
at the Venice Biennale
. This led her to being invited to arrange strings and record electric violin for a new work for the English National Opera
. She moved to America the year after.
In 2008, she played violin, viola and electric violin for visual artist Doug Aitken
's work 'sleepwalkers'. The film featured Tilda Swinton
, Donald Sutherland
and Cat Power
, and premiered at MoMA
in New York
.
In 2009, Spevack recorded the track Salahadeen with the Master Musicians of Joujouka, David J
and Dub Gabriel. The same year she was also the string contractor for Ray Bradbury
's 'Chrysalis' and toured with David J
.
In 2010 she directed the music and sang live at the Frankfurt Museum of Modern Art for visual performance artist Vanessa Beecroft
's work VB68. It was the 68th work where Beecroft arranged nude women as art, but the 1st work where any of the women have made a noise of any kind. The performance lasted for two hours, with Spevack singing and vocalizing Beecroft's manifesto. The same year she composed the soundtracks to two full-length feature films: To Be Friends for brothers Jim and Aaron Eckhart
, and The Owls for Cheryl Dunye
and her strings were commissioned for HBO's Big Love
. She also played strings on the Smashing Pumpkins Teargarden by Kaleidyscope EP series.
In September 2011, Ysanne joined David J
and Ego Plum to play music for the Los Angeles stage production of The Chanteuse and the Devil's Muse, and in November 2011, she will join David for the Los Angeles stage production of Silver for Gold and the Redcat Theater. David J
is playing bass guitar on Ysanne's new album, Coldwater, which is in progress.
Violin
The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
ist, composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
and string arranger best known for her work recordings for the Smashing Pumpkins, Dub Gabriel featuring Michael Stipe
Michael Stipe
John Michael Stipe is an American singer and lyricist. He was the lead vocalist of the alternative rock band R.E.M.Stipe is noted and occasionally parodied for the "mumbling" style of his early career as well as his social and political activism. He was in charge of R.E.M.'s visual image; often...
, Tiesto
Tiësto
Tijs Michiel Verwest, , known as Tiësto , is a Dutch musician, DJ and record producer of electronic dance music. Although he has used many aliases in the past, he is best known for his work as DJ Tiësto...
, and Asian Dub Foundation
Asian Dub Foundation
Asian Dub Foundation are a British electronica band that plays a mix of rapcore, dub, dancehall and ragga, also using rock instruments, acknowledging a punk influence...
. She was born a British citizen, but moved to the United States of America in 2004.
She lives in Los Angeles, where she has shaped a career arranging strings and playing acoustic and electric violin, and composing original music for soundtracks, notably for the BBC and Channel 4. Her performance and arranging work touches upon several genres, including orchestral, rock music
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
, pop music
Pop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...
, world music
World music
World music is a term with widely varying definitions, often encompassing music which is primarily identified as another genre. This is evidenced by world music definitions such as "all of the music in the world" or "somebody else's local music"...
, and film score
Film score
A film score is original music written specifically to accompany a film, forming part of the film's soundtrack, which also usually includes dialogue and sound effects...
s.
Her most recent album is entitled Soundzero, and is a collaboration with Philip Clemo
Philip Clemo
Philip Clemo is a British musician, composer, record producer, sound artist and film-maker.-Background:Philip James Clemo was born on 3 August 1964 in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. He moved to London in 1982, where he has lived ever since apart from a year in Sydney, Australia in the mid-1990s...
.
Early life
Ysanne Spevack was raised in London, where she studied piano, violin and guitar. Her great uncle, Edward Summers, was a professional violinist who played for silent movies, and her cousin is classical violinist Geoffrey Trabichoff, formerly leader of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. She began touring Europe aged 13, playing classical repertoire including Mozart, Vivaldi and Haydn.After studying CuBase and Music Technology at Community Music school, with teachers Aniruddha Das and Steve Chandra Savale
Steve Chandra Savale
Steve Chandra Savale originally from London, United Kingdom, also known by his stage names Chandrasonic and Chandra Blunt, is a British musician of Asian descent, best known as the lead guitarist of the British electronica band Asian Dub Foundation...
, she traveled to Northern India, studying classical Indian music and sitar in the city of Varanasi
Varanasi
-Etymology:The name Varanasi has its origin possibly from the names of the two rivers Varuna and Assi, for the old city lies in the north shores of the Ganga bounded by its two tributaries, the Varuna and the Asi, with the Ganges being to its south...
. In 1995, Spevack began to play electric violin with electronics for many producers and DJs in the underground Acid House
Acid house
Acid house is a sub-genre of house music that emphasizes a repetitive, hypnotic and trance-like style, often with samples or spoken lines rather than sung lyrics. Acid house's core electronic squelch sounds were developed around the mid-1980s, particularly by DJs from Chicago who experimented with...
, Techno
Techno
Techno is a form of electronic dance music that emerged in Detroit, Michigan in the United States during the mid to late 1980s. The first recorded use of the word techno, in reference to a genre of music, was in 1988...
and Drum and Bass
Drum and bass
Drum and bass is a type of electronic music which emerged in the late 1980s. The genre is characterized by fast breakbeats , with heavy bass and sub-bass lines...
music scenes of London, notably with Sister Bliss
Sister Bliss
Sister Bliss is a British keyboardist, record producer, DJ, composer and songwriter. In the studio she is best known for her work with Rollo Armstrong, particularly as part of the now disbanded dance group Faithless.She started music at the age of five, when she learned how to play the piano...
from Faithless
Faithless
Faithless were a British electronica band consisting of Maxi Jazz, Sister Bliss and Rollo. The group is best known for their dance songs . Faithless recorded six albums. During their career they sold over 15 million records worldwide...
, Tiesto
Tiësto
Tijs Michiel Verwest, , known as Tiësto , is a Dutch musician, DJ and record producer of electronic dance music. Although he has used many aliases in the past, he is best known for his work as DJ Tiësto...
, Talvin Singh
Talvin Singh
Talvin Singh Matharoo , is a producer and composer and tabla player, known for creating an innovative fusion of Indian classical music and drum and bass...
, T Power
T Power
T Power is an English drum and bass record producer, from Bow, London. Originally starting his production career in the UK hardcore scene, he moved into jungle. Wanting to avoid the increasing politics within the scene, he began to produce experimental drum and bass, culminating in the album, The...
and Tsuyoshi Suzuki
Tsuyoshi Suzuki
Tsuyoshi Suzuki is one of the most famous DJs in the Japanese trance music scene and the co-founder of the label Matsuri Productions. In 1993, he moved to London, where he became a prominent DJ at Return to the Source...
.
Rock, Pop and Soundtrack Composing Career
Ysanne began her recording career in 1996 by recording and releasing her first studio album, under the moniker Mee. In 1997 she began collaborating with Philip ClemoPhilip Clemo
Philip Clemo is a British musician, composer, record producer, sound artist and film-maker.-Background:Philip James Clemo was born on 3 August 1964 in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. He moved to London in 1982, where he has lived ever since apart from a year in Sydney, Australia in the mid-1990s...
and released the album Sound - Inhale the Colours with him. Later that year on the 25th of June, Ysanne played electric violin with Laurie Anderson
Laurie Anderson
Laura Phillips "Laurie" Anderson is an American experimental performance artist, composer and musician who plays violin and keyboards and sings in a variety of experimental music and art rock styles. Initially trained as a sculptor, Anderson did her first performance-art piece in the late 1960s...
at the Queen Elizabeth Hall
Queen Elizabeth Hall
The Queen Elizabeth Hall is a music venue on the South Bank in London, United Kingdom that hosts daily classical, jazz, and avant-garde music and dance performances. The QEH forms part of Southbank Centre arts complex and stands alongside the Royal Festival Hall, which was built for the Festival...
as part of the South Bank' Meltdown Festival, curated by Anderson.
In 1999 she recorded another album with Philip Clemo
Philip Clemo
Philip Clemo is a British musician, composer, record producer, sound artist and film-maker.-Background:Philip James Clemo was born on 3 August 1964 in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. He moved to London in 1982, where he has lived ever since apart from a year in Sydney, Australia in the mid-1990s...
, Soundzero, which was not released until 2008. The same year she participated to various neofolk
Neofolk
Neofolk is a form of folk music-inspired experimental music that emerged from post-industrial music circles. Neofolk can either be solely acoustic folk music or a blend of acoustic folk instrumentation aided by varieties of accompanying sounds such as pianos, strings and elements of industrial...
compilations, notably The Pact ...Of the Gods (Fremdheit), Torture Garden - Bizarre & Eccentric (Torture Garden Records), and the split single with Death in June
Death in June
Death in June are a neofolk group led by English folk musician Douglas Pearce, better known as Douglas P. The band was originally formed in Britain in 1981 as a trio, but after the other members left in 1984 and 1985 to work on other projects, the group became the work of Douglas P. and various...
We Said Destroy as part of the band Fire + Ice. She also produced the music on the album Time Dragons, a spoken word album.
In 2001, she composed soundtracks for the Discovery Channel's Lonely Planet Guides. In 2003, Spevack was invited to perform electric violin for Peter Sellars
Peter Sellars
Peter Sellars is an American theatre director, noted for his unique contemporary stagings of classical and contemporary operas and plays...
at the Venice Biennale
Venice Biennale
The Venice Biennale is a major contemporary art exhibition that takes place once every two years in Venice, Italy. The Venice Film Festival is part of it. So too is the Venice Biennale of Architecture, which is held in even years...
. This led her to being invited to arrange strings and record electric violin for a new work for the English National Opera
English National Opera
English National Opera is an opera company based in London, resident at the London Coliseum in St. Martin's Lane. It is one of the two principal opera companies in London, along with the Royal Opera, Covent Garden...
. She moved to America the year after.
In 2008, she played violin, viola and electric violin for visual artist Doug Aitken
Doug Aitken
-Early life and career:Doug Aitken was born in Redondo Beach, California in 1968. In 1987, he initially studied magazine illustration with Philip Hays at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena before graduating in Fine Arts in 1991. He moved to New York in 1994 where he had his first solo...
's work 'sleepwalkers'. The film featured Tilda Swinton
Tilda Swinton
Katherine Mathilda "Tilda" Swinton is a British actress known for both arthouse and mainstream films. She has appeared in a number of films including The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Burn After Reading, The Beach, We Need to Talk About Kevin and was nominated for a Golden Globe for her...
, Donald Sutherland
Donald Sutherland
Donald McNichol Sutherland, OC is a Canadian actor with a film career spanning nearly 50 years. Some of Sutherland's more notable movie roles included offbeat warriors in such war movies as The Dirty Dozen, , MASH , and Kelly's Heroes , as well as in such popular films as Klute, Invasion of the...
and Cat Power
Cat Power
Charlyn Marie Marshall , also known as Chan Marshall or by her stage name Cat Power, is an American singer/songwriter and occasional actress and model. Cat Power was originally the name of Marshall's first band, but has come to refer to her musical projects with various backing bands...
, and premiered at MoMA
Moma
Moma may refer to:* Moma , an owlet moth genus* Moma Airport, a Russian public airport* Moma District, Nampula, Mozambique* Moma River, a right tributary of the Indigirka River* Google Moma, the Google corporate intranet...
in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
.
In 2009, Spevack recorded the track Salahadeen with the Master Musicians of Joujouka, David J
David J
David John Haskins , better known as David J, is a British alternative rock musician. He was the bassist for the gothic rock band Bauhaus and Love and Rockets....
and Dub Gabriel. The same year she was also the string contractor for Ray Bradbury
Ray Bradbury
Ray Douglas Bradbury is an American fantasy, horror, science fiction, and mystery writer. Best known for his dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451 and for the science fiction stories gathered together as The Martian Chronicles and The Illustrated Man , Bradbury is one of the most celebrated among 20th...
's 'Chrysalis' and toured with David J
David J
David John Haskins , better known as David J, is a British alternative rock musician. He was the bassist for the gothic rock band Bauhaus and Love and Rockets....
.
In 2010 she directed the music and sang live at the Frankfurt Museum of Modern Art for visual performance artist Vanessa Beecroft
Vanessa Beecroft
Vanessa Beecroft is an Italian contemporary artist living in Los Angeles.-Artistic practice:Beecroft's work is a fusion of conceptual issues and aesthetic concerns, focusing on large-scale performance art, usually involving live female models...
's work VB68. It was the 68th work where Beecroft arranged nude women as art, but the 1st work where any of the women have made a noise of any kind. The performance lasted for two hours, with Spevack singing and vocalizing Beecroft's manifesto. The same year she composed the soundtracks to two full-length feature films: To Be Friends for brothers Jim and Aaron Eckhart
Aaron Eckhart
Aaron Edward Eckhart is an American film and stage actor. Born in California, he moved to England at the age of 13, when his father relocated the family. Several years later, he began his acting career by performing in school plays, before moving to Sydney, Australia, for his high school senior year...
, and The Owls for Cheryl Dunye
Cheryl Dunye
Cheryl Dunye is a film director, producer, screenwriter, editor and actress. Dunye is a lesbian and her work often concerns themes of race, sexuality and gender, particularly issues relating to black lesbians.Dunye was born in Liberia...
and her strings were commissioned for HBO's Big Love
Big Love
Big Love is an American television drama that aired on HBO between March 2006 and March 2011. The show is about a fictional fundamentalist Mormon family in Utah that practices polygamy...
. She also played strings on the Smashing Pumpkins Teargarden by Kaleidyscope EP series.
In September 2011, Ysanne joined David J
David J
David John Haskins , better known as David J, is a British alternative rock musician. He was the bassist for the gothic rock band Bauhaus and Love and Rockets....
and Ego Plum to play music for the Los Angeles stage production of The Chanteuse and the Devil's Muse, and in November 2011, she will join David for the Los Angeles stage production of Silver for Gold and the Redcat Theater. David J
David J
David John Haskins , better known as David J, is a British alternative rock musician. He was the bassist for the gothic rock band Bauhaus and Love and Rockets....
is playing bass guitar on Ysanne's new album, Coldwater, which is in progress.
Discography
Ysanne Spevack has produced music using her name and under the aliases Mee and Soror U.- Mee, 1997, which can be found mistitled as For All God's Children ... And The Devil's Spawn, credited to Mee (Mee Music)
- Sound - Inhale the colours, 1997, credited to Mee and Philip ClemoPhilip ClemoPhilip Clemo is a British musician, composer, record producer, sound artist and film-maker.-Background:Philip James Clemo was born on 3 August 1964 in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. He moved to London in 1982, where he has lived ever since apart from a year in Sydney, Australia in the mid-1990s...
(Mee Music) - Time Dragons: Poems, Pathworkings and Pataphysical Patter, 1999, from the box set The Chaos Magick Audio CDs Volume 5 - The Galafron Rite & Timedragons, An Astral Working of Illumination, credited to Dave Lee, Soror U and Dr. Natan Satan and edited by Peter J. Carroll (Falcon Press)
- The Sound of Fashion, 2004, credited to Ysanne Spevack and Carl Ryden (Standard Music)
- Soundzero, 2008, credited to Ysanne Spevack and Philip ClemoPhilip ClemoPhilip Clemo is a British musician, composer, record producer, sound artist and film-maker.-Background:Philip James Clemo was born on 3 August 1964 in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. He moved to London in 1982, where he has lived ever since apart from a year in Sydney, Australia in the mid-1990s...
(Koch / Cadiz)