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In C Remixed

Grand Valley State University New Music Ensemble

Innova CD

Innova  Records released Grand Valley State University New Music Ensemble’s In C Remixed project this week. On paper the concept seems simple enough. GVSU’s performers present their own rendition of Terry Riley’s watershed minimalist work In C. The listener is then treated to a host of recreations by both contemporary composers and electronica artists.

Of course, this ’simple’ concept would have quickly gone awry if either GVSU faltered or its collection of remixers weren’t a creative bunch of talented genre-busters. Happily, the ensemble has their finger on the ‘pulse’ of Riley’s music. Happier still, they’ve enlisted some A-list collaborators.

Some, like DJ Spooky(In Sea of C), create beat-centric versions that seem ready-made for the IDM club. Others such as Nico Muhly (In C with Canons and Bass) and Phil Kline (In Cognito) take things in an experimental direction. Muhly even has the chutzpah to interpolate pitches from ‘outside’ the diatonic in order to spice things up — notably drone F#s. Kline further distresses the source material, adding layers of reverberation, chimes, and soundscaping. In his Simple Mix, David Lang similarly seeks to rework Riley’s piece towards a more atmospheric aesthetic; this time the proceedings heighten the affects of glissandos and de-emphasize metricity.  The results in both the Kline and Lang remixes are eerily lovely.

As is more so the case in recent years, some remixers sit astride the pop and classical traditions. Yale-trained composer Dennis DeSantis leads something of a double musical life  in concert music and electronica. His remix is a melange of beat overlays, synthetic additions, and restructuring that provides much to please both ear and intellect.

A remix project is always a hodgepodge of disparate approaches. But to this listener, it seems as if Innova has gotten it right, engaging artists who both enjoy Riley’s music and relish the chance to make  In C in some way their own.

Justin Rubin

Nostalgia

Innova CD 738

Justin Rubin chairs the Composition program at the University of Minnesota-Duluth. He’s been fortunate to find advocates for his music among his faculty colleagues at UMD. In particular, bassoonist Jefferson Campbell has commissioned and championed a number of his recent works. They comprise most of the program on Nostalgia, Rubin’s Innova disc.

In this postmodern era, many composers, even the Neoromantic ones, eschew overt nostalgia or sentimentality. They prefer to compose quasi-tonally, but in a passionate or heroic vein. One can understand why ‘heart-on-sleeve’ signatures might be approached with care. But Rubin’s music manages a tenuous balance: channeling the nostalgic without ever cloying. This is certainly abetted by Campbell’s sensitive, seamlessly accurate playing. He strikes just the right tone on the title work, allowing its gentle melodies to be poignant but never overwrought. He performs with considerably incisive flair on the wide-ranging and intriguing solo piece Recitative Styrienne and with percussionist Gene Koshinski on a series of elegantly neoclassical Bagatelles for Bassoon and Marimba.

Un Temps Calme, on the other hand, is in a more contemplative vein, channeling the language of Messiaen and supplying Campbell with long, supple melodies of considerable loveliness. Also noteworthy is the Hindemith-tinged Variations on ‘Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland,’ a piece based on an old Lutheran chorale. Clarinetist Patrick O’Keefe and pianist Shannon Wettstein are a nimble pair. Alongside Koshinksi, they also provide a sterling rendering of the shimmering, all-too-brief trio Il Momento Iussureggiante per tre musicisti.

Rubin is a composer whose oeuvre already suggests that, musically speaking, one can put new wine in old bottles without detriment.

Danny Holt

Fast Jump

Innova CD 734