TRUEMAN: Five (and-a-half) Gardens. So Percussion; Trollstilt; Rinde Eckert, Jennifer Trueman. Shhh 001 [CD and DVD-ROM]. 55 minutes.
Five (and-a-half) Gardens is a multi-media performance piece for percussion, folk-tradition string instruments, speaking voice, and animated paintings (by Judy Trueman, available on the DVD-ROM). It is a very relaxed, pleasant piece, drawing on a tremendous variety of sounds and musical traditions.
My favorite section is one called “Murphy’s Garden”, which is built on an infectious calliope-style groove that reminds me of Jon Brion’s score for Punch-Drunk Love.
The performers are all quite good””the piece gives off a strong sense of community, of shared endeavor. The recorded sound is very good, which is not always the case in percussion music.
NOTE: I couldn’t find an image of the CD cover online, but images from the disc and samples of the music may be found here.
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