Niels Lyhne Løkkegaard and Quatuor Bozzini – Colliding Bubbles: Surface Tension and Release (Important)
Niels Lyhne Løkkegaard is a composer based in Copenhagen. On his latest EP he joins forces with the premiere Canadian string quartet for new music, Quatuor Bozzini, to create a piece that deals with the perception of bubbles replicating the human experience. In addition to the harmonics played by the strings, the players are required to play harmonicas at the same time. At first blush, this might sound like a gimmick, but the conception of the piece as instability and friction emerging from continuous sound, like bubbles colliding in space and, concurrently, the often tense unpredictability of the human experience, makes these choices instead seem organic and well-considered. As the piece unfolds, the register of the pitch material makes a slow decline from the stratosphere to the ground floor with a simultaneous long decrescendo. The quartet are masterful musicians, unfazed by the challenge of playing long bowings and long-breathed harmonica chords simultaneously. The resulting sound world is shimmering, liquescent, and surprising in its occasional metaphoric bubbles popping.
Kronos Says Goodbye to Two Members After a Hello to Moondog and Sun Ra
Credit: Lenny Gonzalez
Many are celebrating the tenures of two members of Kronos Quartet – violinist John Sherba and violist Hank Dutt – who are, after more than forty-five years, retiring from the group at the end of June.
As a valediction, I have been listening to and enjoying recordings from throughout their catalog. I am impressed by how enduring the quartet’s creative vitality and imagination has persisted, even on their most recent outings.
Joined by the Ghost Train Orchestra and a number of guest vocalists, last Fall Kronos released Songs & Symphoniques: The Music of Moondog. Louis Hardin, AKA Moondog, AKA The Viking of Sixth Avenue, shares moments of whimsy and often playful titles. Artists could take that an imprimatur to always playfully play it, but not on Songs & Symphoniques. Indeed, I’ve long been impressed with Moondog’s self-taught craft. His madrigals and canons, written down in Braille and then “translated” for seeing musicians, are at times quirky, but are often substantial pieces. Kronos and colleagues emphasize this, as well as the emotive character of his songs’ lyrics.
Rufus Wainwright joins with a backing vocal chorus and a number of the instrumentalists in one such canon, “Be a Hobo.” While maintaining the canonic structure, it is arranged to allow close-miked Wainwright to act as its focal point, thus functioning as both song and contrapuntal excursion. Marisa Nadler performs “High on a Rocky Ledge” with her characteristic dark-hued lyricism, adding duplicate vocal tracks for the chorus. The quartet and an electric guitar play the tune’s descending riff and a series of Tin Pan Alley chords to flesh out the piece. “I’m This, I’m That” features a gravelly-voiced, affecting rendition by Jarvis Cocker. Contributing an alto lead vocal and joined by other singers for a round, Petra Haden also memorably channels Annie Ross in her high soprano line on “Down is Up,” giving it the flavor of a cappella jazz.
“Enough About Human Rights” is a humorous text that is delivered with a wink by Karen Mantler and the quartet, who double on the vocal chorus. The song asks about the rights of a long list of animals, even skunks and bats, pointing out an even-handed ecological mindset that is a throughline in Moondog’s writings. She also sings on “Coffee Beans.” After a jaunty 6/8 groove is introduced by drums, jazz-inflected sax chords, pizzicato strings, and, ultimately, a wayward tune, Mantler sings a round about how to make the best coffee. At the conclusion, a harmonica solo adds a lilting counter-melody. Joan as Police Woman uses overlapping voices and vocoder to create a round on “Why Spend a Dark Night with You?” Hand-claps underscore the syncopation while electric guitar, saxophone, and the quartet add additional wisps of tunes, and then a raucous interlude. Mantler resumes the round in its former context, but in a new key, to conclude. A favorite is the duet between Sam Amidon and Aoife O’Donovan on “Behold.” Celtic folk fiddling style both in a solo and in the quartet accompanies their singing. Amidon takes the first verse in hyperkinetic fashion, O’Donovan’s rendition of the second resembles some of the inflections in the strings. The third verse treats the melody as a round, and the quartet provides a bluesy chord as a button.
In addition to the vocal turns, several well-conceived instrumentals are performed by Kronos and Ghost Train. “The Viking of 6th Avenue” is a calling card piece of Moondog’s; this was his nickname and mentions his stomping grounds. The arrangement incorporates pitched percussion instruments – xylophone, metallophones – that he performed when busking, but it also has a full jazz arrangement and the quartet playing in contemporary classical fashion – an extraordinary mash-up of styles that befits the polyglot musical approach to composition of Moondog. “Bumbo” features the lower brass alongside, again, high pitched percussion, with a Latin-tinged groove that supports saxophone and guitar solos. There’s a bit of Rain Dogs-era Tom Waits here, and one imagines that the Moondog albums might well have been on his mind when creating the Tom trilogy in the 1980s.
The recording concludes with another vocal track; Joan as Policewoman sings on “All is Loneliness,” which is one of the most poignant of Moondog’s creations. It is in canon, with saxophones and strings delivering the first few entrances gently, and Joan as Policewoman entering soon after with serene, sustained singing of the motive. It is a moving closer to a recording that reveals Moondog’s multitudes.
Out this month is another recording: Outer Spaceways Incorporated – Kronos Quartet and Friends Meet Sun Ra. This double LP is the fifth in Red Hot’s Sun Ra series, and by far the most substantial. Once again, prominent collaborators join the quartet to create new renditions of Sun Ra’s music as well as new compositions that both channel the visionary artist and extend his legacy.
The title track begins with spoken spacey glissandos in the strings, and a muted trumpet call. Then the vocalist Georgia Anne Muldrow sings the tune, doubled by Harrington, with supple tone and elegant phrasing. The arrangement by Jacob Garchik recasts the piece with emphatic music for strings but retains its linear gestural vocabulary. Electronic musician Jlin, known for her work with post-classical materials and creation of footwork singles, provides vociferous string chords and hand drums in her composition “Maji.” Laraaji adds synths and the flavor of New Age electronica on “Daddy’s Gonna’ Tell You No Lie.”
“Blood Running High” incorporates two hip hop artists – RP Boo and the duo Armand Hammer – rapping over a sax section and the quartet. Sun Ra’s spoken word recitations have undeniably been an influence on hip hop and here there is a tip-of-the-hat here in return. Moor Mother, DJ Haram, and 700 Bliss add reverberant production, samples, and rapping to “Secrets of the Sun.”
The centenarian bandleader of the Sun Ra Arkestra, saxophonist Marshall Allen, also appears on the recording. He joins Sex Mob and Laurie Anderson for “Images Suite,” one of two extended tracks on the CD. Post-bop horns and otherworldly electronics combine in a savory concoction that embodies the juxtapositions inherent in the music-making of Allen’s ensemble. Anderson adds treated vocals, and chimes accompany trumpeter/arranger Steven Bernstein. Allen gets multiple solo turns, displaying a rich tone undiminished by age. Anderson joins Allen and Kronos on “Phenomenon” and “The Wuz.” The resulting amalgam pays tribute to the eclecticism intrinsic to Sun Ra’s music while maintaining the tension between the various contributors’ own approaches. “Love in Outer Space,” featuring keyboards by Trey Spruance, imparts the tune with piano, organ, and synth playing that revels in Sun Ra signatures.
A second extended cut ends the recording with, appropriately enough, “Kiss Yo’ Ass Goodbye.” It is a lyric from Sun Ra’s famous and much-covered song “Nuclear War,” and here as well the notion of apocalypse is explored through the lens of Afrofuturism, in which the escape to space may be the only thing saving us from annihilation. The quartet is joined by Terry Riley, playing keyboards and singing, and vocalist Sara Miyamoto. It opens with portentous straight tone slides, almost like an air raid siren, which are joined by quick singing of the title in saucy fashion. The strings and percussion provide intense accompaniment and the glissandos change direction alongside an Ivesian amalgam of melodic fragments and a coda of overlapping voices (shades of Moondog’s canons).
From its outset and for a half century, Kronos has made many “cover albums.” Outer Spaceways Incorporated is among its most successful in terms of concept and execution. The quartet will continue performing and recording with two new members, violinist Gabriela Díaz and violist Ayane Kozasa.
Composer, vocalist, and instrumentalist Caroline Shaw rejoins Sō Percussion for Rectangles and Circumstance,a new full length recording out today on Nonesuch. To celebrate the release, a video for the lead-off single, “Sing On,” has been released on YouTube today.
Rectangles and Circumstance combines imaginative percussion writing with abundant electronics and Shaw’s pop-adjacent singing. Shaw takes on an assured and distinctive role. Her voice is sometimes treated to make it nearly unrecognizable. Elsewhere, her singing is presented in its natural, fetchingly lyrical guise. Sō has developed a sound world that befits Shaw’s heterogeneous compositions, using a plethora of pitched percussion, drums, and electronics. Whether the music leans towards pop, classicism, or totalism, it is uniformly engaging. Recommended
Cold Blue Music has released Waves and Particles, a new CD by John Luther Adams featuring the JACK Quartet. This new album by the Pulitzer Prize-winning Adams explores the deeper levels of elemental nature through extraordinary musical expression. The composer writes: “Waves and Particles was inspired by quantum physics, fractal geometry, and noise – which function as elemental metaphors in my music.” This is realized by the renowned JACK Quartet who artfully extract new and exceptional sounds from the standard string quartet. This new album follows three previous CDs by Adams, released by the Cold Blue label and recorded by the JACK Quartet.
Particle dust, track 1, opens with a rapidly repeating tutti phrase that carries a strong sense of power and motion. The dense texture and churning sound is reminiscent of Steve Reich’s classic Different Trains. The music is dominated by this texture and surges forward without melody or counterpoint like a swirling cloud of particles. Pauses occur, filled with softly ethereal sustaining tones that break up the hard driving tutti sections. The texture alternately thins and swells depending on various combinations of string parts. At 4:20 a few seconds of silence is heard followed by a series of delicate sustained tones, as if the piece is gathering its breath. The fast growling in the cello returns as the other parts enter, building the intensity. The playing by JACK is rapid but always under control. Particle dust is engaging without convention and compelling in its purpose.
Spectral waves follows and, by contrast to the first track, begins with a lush sustained chord that slowly increases in volume. The smooth tones gradually change in color and evoke a warm, welcoming feeling. Introspective and nostalgic, never fast or flashy, spectral waves shares the same gentle sensibility as heard in The Wind in High Places and other John Luther Adams string pieces. The parts blend well together and the result is a soothing bath of beautiful sounds. Velocity waves, track 3, returns to the rapid and rugged textures of particle dust. The fast chugging sounds in the cello are offset by slowing notes in the higher registers. The tempo gradually slows as the dynamics decrease. The phrasing surges and swells, only to fall back again in a repeating pattern. These cycles seem to vary in pitch, velocity, acceleration and deceleration. At 4:20 the sounds turn languid and soft for a short stretch, but soon recover their previous energy. At times, the tempo in the lower strings is slowing while that in the violins is increasing – and then they reverse. The final dash to the finish in the lower strings perfectly captures the concept of a velocity wave. The unexpected charm of velocity waves is the direct result of the precise and disciplined playing by the JACK Quartet.
Tridac waves, track 4, is next and opens with low sounds, increasing in volume and pitch, then reversing. The effect is like that of a sluggish siren but with an urgent and immediate unease. These siren-like sounds proceed in layers and in different registers. This pattern continuously repeats, but splits between the parts; some times the higher registers dominate while at other times the lower strings lead. Tridac waves is full of unusual and alarming sounds, skillfully conjured from conventional string instruments.
Murmurs in a chromatic field, track 5, features a series of scary sustained tremolos that immediately produce a dark, spooky feeling. The tones and timbre are unusual for strings and might well have been electronically synthesized. As the piece proceeds, the sounds and pitches become more alien and spacey. Some conventional chords are heard from time to time, giving the rest of the piece some harmonic context. Brief silences appear between the longer stretches of sound, and this adds to the sense of mystery. More pauses follow, in a similar pattern and the silences get longer towards the fading finish. Murmurs in a chromatic field is an apt title for this piece – it is quietly intimate and beautifully performed.
Particles rising is the final track on the album and opens with short bursts of four delicate violin notes. This is followed by a pause, then repeated several times. The second violin joins in with same rhythm, and in harmony. The viola and cello enter, in turn, until all four parts are engaged in sustained tones and a lovely warm harmonic wash. Fast skittering notes in the upper voices are heard, culminating in a strong and continuous fiddling in all four parts. The lower strings soon dominate with a strong dynamic and a full, growling texture. Short stretches of quiet sustained tones in harmony punctuate the harsher sounds, offering the listener a fine contrast. All of this is played with skillful ensemble despite the absence of a leading melody or strong pulse. Particles rising is a muscular piece appropriate to a strong physical phenomenon, but never overwhelming or alien in character.
This album is full of remarkable sounds that the composer extracts from the conventional string quartet. Quantum physics, fractal geometry, and noise are part of the natural world, yet we know of them only abstractly by scientific observation and measurement using complicated machines. Can these phenomena be treated in the same way as mountains, forests, rivers and oceans? The music in this album, although often powerful, is never distant or intimidating. Rather it shares the same welcoming warmth of other string quartets by Adams, inspired by the conventional natural world. Waves and Particles makes a strong case that we need to embrace the totality of nature, even down to its elemental particles.
The JACK Quartet is:
Christopher Otto, violin Austin Wulliman, violin John Richards, viola Jay Campbell, cello
Waves and particles is available directly from Cold Blue Music and from US retailers by Naxos and other music outlets.
Composer and conductor Richard Baker (b. 1972) has been an important fixture on the British new music scene for over a decade. While The Tyranny of Fun refers to a work on the recording, it also could be seen as an analog for Baker’s mixture of fierceness and whimsy in many of his pieces. He had the right teacher – Louis Andriessen at the Hague – to develop this sort of emotional dichotomy in his work. He has also championed composers like Gerald Barry and Philip Venables, who both walk an eclectic tightrope in their respective oeuvres.
The recording opens with Baker playing Crank, a brief piece for a diatonic music box that emphasizes playful delicacy. Made out of material from Andriessen, it in no way sounds like a student work. Crank is immediately followed by the far more forceful Motet II, an instrumental work (note the paradox), played by the contemporary ensemble CHROMA, conducted by the composer. Cast in six movements, Motet II is Baker’s Covid piece: like so many others, he was confined to his home during the worst of the pandemic, responding with a work that stretched his language to a viscerality that is both challenging and moving.
The title piece was commissioned by the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, conducted on the recording by Finnegan Downie Dear and adorned with live electronics by Nye Parry. The concept of fun as tyranny resonates with the endless birthday parties and children’s activities that a friend of Baker’s, who coined the phrase, meant. One can also look at it as the exhausting approach to consumption and the relentless pursuit of faux connectivity through electronic devices that has plagued our era.
The first movement’s refrain is a pulsating bass drum, reminiscent of a car driving past with a thunderous subwoofer engaged. Horn solos and low harp are juxtaposed with Stravinskyian terse melodies from flutes and piccolo. It is night music for an oversaturated urban landscape. In the second movement, low winds provide a minor third ostinato while strings deploy descending glissandos and pizzicatos, and brass undertake short blasts. The electronics are more prominent with cascades of chords and blurting melodies. The bass drum effect appears at particular points, this time accompanied by a syncopated, jazz-inspired arrangement. The low winds morph from interval to a swinging riff that is regularly interrupted by synthesizer in a modernist vein. The percussion is filled out to make a bespoke kit to accompany the arrangement. Partway through, fragments of the aforementioned are juxtaposed, often alternating rapidly. Learning to Fly finishes with a slow drag groove, followed by an accelerando, ending with the thrumming bass drum and two cymbal strikes.
Angelus is a finely textured piece for the percussionist group Three Angels. Chimes reminiscent of the Angelus bells – a Sunday night tradition in Ireland – and pitched percussion are built over a staggered eighth note rhythm. In its latter half, shifts of instrumentation and accentuation provide surprising moments in this otherwise quite subdued work. It closes with chiming, leaving us to the contemplation of the Angelus experience.
Learning to Fly is a three-movement piece for BCMG, once again conducted by Dear. It is Baker’s music appearing as totalist in style, with the first movement featuring basset clarinet, played by Oliver Janes and horn solos (the latter playing a blues scale), a Downtown groove from the percussion, repeated notes in the winds, and Hammond organ stabs. Marked “Boisterously,” it behaves as advertised. A raucous set of horn calls and high flutes in an ever-quickening accelerando closes the first movement, which leads attacca into the next, marked “Somnolent.” Janes plays a mysterious solo that is accompanied by pitched percussion and high flutes (mimicking their previous lines). Lurching winds and sustained harmony end the second movement pianissimo. A slap attack announces the last movement, subtitled “Suddenly Awake,” succeeded by a repeated-note filled solo from Janes accompanied by puckish percussion. Tutti chords and then horn solos are both added to the solo plus percussion cohort. Bass drum, cymbals and tutti brass overtake the proceedings in stentorian fashion. In the midst, the basset clarinet emerges, supported by the other members of the wind cohort. A slow horn solo and chimes announce a change in section in which the basset clarinet plays throat tones and then a high melody of oscillating seconds accompanied by whistle rods. This enigmatic conclusion is suddenly terminated with a forte triangle attack. Learning to Fly is a substantial work that demonstrates Baker’s formidable capabilities as an imaginative orchestrator with a keen sense of pacing.
The late Sir Stephen Cleobury conducts the Choir of King’s College in one of Baker’s relatively few choral works, To Keep a True Lent. This setting is of a fascinating poem by Robert Herrick, which discusses that a fast based on spiritual contemplation is more important than abstaining from meat during Lent; a forward-thinking theological text. Repeating dyads and trichords create a canvas for the melody, which ricochets from part to part rapidly, with textual utterances equally quicksilver in their presentation. Its brusque post-minimalism suits the demands of the texts and is performed by King’s with impressive diction and intonation.
Homagesquisse and Hwyl fawr ffrindiau close the recording with two short works, again for BCMG conducted by Dearie. The first was written for a 2008 visit by Pierre Boulez to receive an honorary doctorate from the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire. It is a trope of Boulez’s Messagesquisse, containing brief excerpts from the piece and a similar hexachordal construction. Beyond that, Baker remains steadfast to his own compositional predilections, with pervasive shifts of dynamics and musical material that accumulate into a prismatic whole. The second, its title in Welsh befitting Baker’s own background and where he currently lives, is a translation of the children’s song “Goodbye Friends” (which is “Goodnight Ladies” outside of Wales). Baker himself trained as an oboist and this valedictory piece features the instrument. The farewell was to Jackie and Stephen Newbould, who served as Executive Producer and Artistic Director of BCMG, and were stepping down from their roles. Descending lines, including glissandos, in the oboe are then ghosted by other winds. The piano plays a prominent role, both in supporting the others with ground bass and chordal harmonies, and in a brief interlude that recalls the childrens’ song. The ensemble halts, leaving only a pianissimo descending minor third in the marimba to finish this artfully touching work.
The Tyranny of Fun is a generous sampling of Baker’s music, which is some of the most compelling written by his generation of British composers. BCMG performs with consummate skill and musicality. This is one of my favorite CDs thus far in 2024.
Composer and multi-instrumentalist David Crowell has minimalist bona fides: he played in the Philip Glass Ensemble for nearly a decade. But Crowell draws from a number of traditions in his work: prog rock, jazz, folk, and other contemporary classical idioms. His latest, Point/Cloud, features works for percussion, guitars, and a moving finale for voice, cello, and Crowell’s instrumentation.
Sandbox Percussion performs Verses for a Liminal Space. At nearly a quarter of an hour, it shows Crowell’s keen sense of pacing. He conceives of the piece as being cast in three verses. There is a totalist ambience to its opening, with forceful drums combined with pitched percussion to rousing effect. The middle of work is a beautiful slow section. The drums gradually recede to only articulating emphasized beats, and then fall into silence. Pitched percussion arpeggiations and a repeated semitone form a ground that gradually adds melodic content and bowed crotales. Shimmering glockenspiel transitions the work back to the fast tempo, with cascading riffs in the xylophone and the drums gradually returning, first just to accentuate and then to provide hemiola as metric undergirding. The pitched percussion likewise engages in metric transformations. Just when it seems that things are about to heat up, Verses suddenly ends, denying expectations. This is a common feature of Crowell’s music, and it reminds me of Schumann’s Papillions, where each movement feels like entering and exiting a room. The door closes and the sound world changes.
The title work for overdubbed guitars is played by Dan Lippel. Cast in three movements, it begins with a classical guitar solo that is soon joined by electric guitars in cascading repetitions and arpeggiated harmonies. The influence of Electric Counterpoint is clear. Crowell, however, also incorporates prog rock elements reminiscent of Steve Howe and Steve Hackett, particularly in the supple middle movement. However, in the final movement polyrhythmic ostinatos return the music to the orbit of Steve Reich. Lippel plays all the various components of this considerable challenging work with precision, employing a variety of timbres and dynamic shadings.
Lippel is joined by another guitar virtuoso, Mak Grgic, on the classical guitar duo Pacific Coast Highway. Once again, polyrhythms are omnipresent, and there is a sense of jazz and flamenco à la the Al Di Meola, John McLaughlin, and Pace de Lucia Friday Night in San Francisco album. The playing is authoritative, nuanced, and propulsive.
Vocalist and cellist Iva Casian-Lakoš collaborates with Crowell on the final piece, 2 Hours in Zadar. The work contrasts with the rhythmic effervescence of the previous three, moving at a slow tempo and exploring gradually evolving textures. The text is by Casian-Lakoš’s mother, Nela Lakoš. The piece begins with a sample of Nela Lakoš speaking Croatian. Casian-Lakoš plays shards of tunes and glissandos, singing with an exquisite fragility. Crowell’s sustained electronics and frequent wide glissandos, some manipulated samples of the voice, ghost the singing and cello lines, creating a compound melodic framework that is both colorful and vulnerable in presentation. Crowell hews closer to Sigur Rós than the influences found in the previous pieces. It provides the program with a touching valediction. Point/Cloud is uniformly excellent, a recording that is among my favorites thus far in 2024.
Mayumi Hirasaki and Georg Kallweit, concertmasters
Harmonia Mundi
Carl Philip Emanuel Bach (1714-1788) was the middle of Johann Sebastian Bach’s three surviving sons. His music occupies the period between the baroque and classical, often called the galant or rococo style. It truly is a transitional era, with the development of the orchestra, symphony, and a move toward more homophonic textures. Several recordings of his works have recently been issued, and it is nice to see this talented composer having a moment.
Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin is a conductor-less ensemble led, as was the custom then as well, by its concertmasters Mayumi Hirasaki and Georg Kallweit. Their latest recording for Harmonia Mundi is a program of seven of C.P.E. Bach’s symphonies, Symphonies from Berlin to Hamburg, written for strings and continuo. Three date to early in his career (from 1738-1768), when he was in Berlin writing for the court, and the rest from the period of 1768 onwards, when he was Kapellmeister in Hamburg.
All of them are cast in three movements – fast-slow-fast – and, as one can gather from the number of them on a single disc, are significantly shorter than those of the classical era. Their first movements are kinds of proto-sonatas, in which thematic development is truncated and themes are presented quickly and succinctly.
That doesn’t mean that C.P.E.’s orchestral works are lacking in invention or surprises. There are also a number of harmonic shifts where a quick transition – in the C major H.649 symphony with just a single bass note – turns the music sideways. One trick that I particularly admire is the foreshadowing in the second movement of material that is reimagined for the last one.
Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin recorded the program over a significant time period, with younger players, such as concertmaster Mayumi Hirasaki, joining part way through the process. This has led to a well-considered and exquisitely well-prepared recording. Symphonies from Berlin to Hamburg is not only an excellent introduction to the symphonic approach of the galant style, it is a compelling document suggesting that C.P.E. is a worthy successor to his famous father and precursor to the classicism of Haydn and Mozart. Recommended.
Philip Glass Solo
Philip Glass, piano
Orange Mountain Music
This is the second piano album made by Philip Glass. Solo Piano (1989) contains some overlap of tracks with the latest recording, Philip Glass Solo (2024), but there are distinct differences between the renditions on each. At 87 years of age, and in demand from opera houses, symphony orchestras, chamber ensembles, and filmmakers for a steady spate of new works, a solo performance recording might seem like an unnecessary addition to Glass’s catalog. But it is in those aforementioned differences found in the music that he shares a different vantage point on his work.
Timings suggest tempo and, in the case of Glass’s music, tempo fluctuations. “Mad Rush,” a work that many pianists have interpreted, here appears like it is being created before the listeners’ ear, lasting a few minutes longer than the previous recording, with a sense of suppleness that belies the motoric fashion many adopt when playing it. “Opening” has a pulsation to the ostinato patterns that shimmers, different voices accentuated in the texture to create a gesture akin to windmills instead of, again, motors.
Four of the “Metamorphosis” movements are programmed. Here, there is a positively Romantic ambience that in “Metamorphosis 1” recalls the shifting appearances of Schumann’s “Papillon.” “Metamorphosis 2” has soaring high melodies like those of Chopin, while thunderous bass, modal mixture, and hemiola give a Brahmsian cast to “Metamorphosis 3.” “Metamorphosis 5” is girded with chromaticism of a Lisztian variety.
“Truman Sleeps” is one of the most memorable sections of Glass’s score for The Truman Show. Here, he builds from a delicate, rubato opening to virile verticals and a gripping, arcing melody. The piece’s coda moves the material down to the bass register, its chord progression both eminently memorable and vintage Glass.
Polytempic Polymicrotonal Music in Four Pieces, by Peter Thoegersen, is a new digital release from the Fragments of Blue recording label. Since obtaining his Doctorate in Composition from the University of Illinois, Urbana, Thoegersen has devoted much of his composing career to the exploration of the musical possibilities at the intersection of rhythmic structures in multiple meters combined with scales built from microtonal pitches. This latest album builds on earlier works by simultaneously combining different meters and tempi with various microtonal temperaments. These pieces originally date from 2003 to the present, but all have been updated to incorporate expanded combinations of polyrhythms, microtonal scales and synthesized MIDI instrumentation.
The idea of combining such unconventional musical materials together would seem to be a formula for sonic chaos, but the results under Thoegersen’s artistic touch achieve a coherent and consistent elegance. This album was created by notating parts for strings, woodwinds, brass, piano and percussion as sheet music and then orchestrating with MIDI instruments. Although Thoegersen has written microtonal and polytempic pieces for performance, the music on this album is generally highly complex and often delivered at a torrid pace, so that realization is only possible through electronic means. The four pieces heard on this album represent a natural extension of Thoegersen’s technique that pushes to new limits what might seem otherwise impossible for the listener’s brain to perceive.
Two Worlds: quartertone quintets in conversation, track 1, opens the album and is representative of the wide technical scope and high ambition that drives Thoegersen’s music. According to the liner notes, this is a “…large ensemble piece with double mixed quintets and drumset that all splits into 11 separate tempi/meters during the climax and to also add full quartertone features…” This begins briskly with crisp drumming and a shower of microtonal notes in different timbres. A slightly less active section follows, with a slower melody and languid accompaniment in the lower registers. Woodwind and electronic sounds are also heard along with marimba in a busy texture.
As the piece proceeds, there is a broad variety of sound for the listener to absorb, often in a great wash of brilliant flashes and vivid colors. The microtonal pitches seem to work together nicely in a way that is always active but not overwhelming or excessively alien. The percussion sounds are especially effective and lend some order to the often agitated surface textures. A smoothly devolving finish brings the piece to a close. In Two Worlds, Thoegersen extends his expressive vision of polytempic and microtonal music to new levels of fullness.
A Day by the Strand, track 2, is the longest and perhaps the most restrained piece in the album. Four pianos in the same tuning are employed with tempi of 96, 87, 100, and 80 bpm and this facilitates greater transparency in the harmonic formulations. Soft piano chords open with short, independent rhythmic figures in accompaniment. This is relaxed and measured; almost conventional at times. Not fast or loud, but rather straightforward and laid back. Each of the piano lines are made up of simple, solemn notes expressed in multiple rhythms and microtonal tuning.
As the piece continues, the piano lines begin to syncopate against each other to build a sense of tension. Trills and ornaments add variety to the texture, often resulting in a questioning uncertainty. Towards the finish a more improvisational feeling dominates and leads to the smooth ending. A Day by the Strand provides the space and timing for the many microtonal and rhythmic processes to unfold with greater detail in the listener’s hearing.
Track 3, Fractured Consciousness, returns to the frenetic style of the opening track. The liner notes state that this piece consists of “Large meterless tuplets in different sizes…” to create “… polytempic landscapes with four tunings: 24, 26, 30, and 31 TET…” Fractured Consciousness begins with an anxious, siren-like opening that instantly evokes a frantic and complex feel. Keyboard timbre dominates in unconventional pitches so rapid and numerous that it often sounds like a swarm of buzzing insects.
The sounds arrive in quantity and with a speed that is beyond conventional human playing. This is perceived, however, as if it is a performed piece producing an interesting juxtaposition that stretches the brain of the listener. A bit like hearing a Conlon Nancarrow player piano, only faster and with complex rhythms and microtonal pitches. As the piece proceeds, a slower melody line emerges with single notes in the bass accompanied by roiling passages in the upper registers. Fractured Consciousness is an energetic, almost crushing assault on the listener’s sense of hearing – a Jackson Pollock painting is sound.
Hypercube Version III, the final track, concludes the album with more abstract and complex forms of expression in large scale. The scoring consists of 4 strings, 4 pianos and 4 drum sets in four different tempos and 4 distinct tunings. The opening of Hypercube Version III is powerful with the drum kit rhythms giving a sense of direction within the flow of the independent lines from the many instruments. A series of inventive piano melodies ride on top of the texture providing a somewhat conventional feel and an agreeable point of reference.
Around 4:00 the piece slows and turns dramatic, with long, sustained sounds. There is a relaxed, nostalgic feel to this section at times, always abstract but introspective and accessible. A gradual diminuendo in dynamic and a thinning of the texture makes for a satisfying finish. Hypercube Version III is a shorter piece, but might be the best place to begin listening as it nicely captures the essence of the many unusual musical elements in the album.
Polytempic Polymicrotonal Music in Four Pieces extends the excitement, power and nuance of Thoegersen’s inventive combinations of the unconventional.
Polytempic Polymicrotonal Music in Four Pieces is available for digital download directly from the Fragments of Blue label onBandcamp.
The Bright Shiny Things recording Kinds of ~Nois is the result of a six-year long collaboration between the saxophone quartet ~Nois (Julian Velasco, soprano; Hunter Bockes, alto; Jordan Lulloff, tenor; János Csontos, baritone) and the composer collective Kinds of Kings (Shelley Washington, Maria Kaoutzani, and Gemma Peacocke). The recorded works are generally in a complexly post-minimal style, but each composer has their own distinctive voice. ~Nois’s rich ensemble tone and dexterous rhythms serve the music quite well. One can readily hear that a lot of preparation was put into Kinds of ~Nois, as the performances are note-perfect and assuredly interpreted.
Peacocke’s Hazel begins the recording. A slow introduction of polychords is succeeded by mercurial ostinatos that ricochet between parts. The harmonies are equally quixotic, with shifting tonalities and glissandos distressing their framework. Chordal passages, culminating in quickly repeating verticals, descending glissandos, and a boisterous bass-line. This is ultimately offset by a new theme in the alto and soprano saxophones. A smoky slow section creates a mysterious interlude, only to have the fast-paced ostinatos from earlier return and morph into a syncopated groove.
Eternal Present, by Washington, is cast in two movements: I. Now; II. Always. The first movement has a mournful cast, with a plaintive melody and repeating sections of equally doleful verticals. The second movement is sprightly, with short phrases of minor key ostinatos and duets alternating between the upper and lower cohorts of the saxophone quartet. The ostinatos gradually build into a spiderweb of overlapping lines. This is cut into swaths of material interrupted by rests with soft oscillating thirds in the upper voices and a bellicose bass melody. A chorale of repeated chords, followed by the opening passagework, gradually builds into a mass of overlapping gestures played forte, with surprising harmonic shifts interrupted by several pregnant pauses.
Kaoutzani’s Count Me In is a vigorous workout for the quartet that begins with stentorian repetitions that are then replaced by a softer section of the same. Angular duets appear, only to be supplanted by a martial headlong passage of staccato rhythms. Octaves and overtones arrive in a slower tempo, placed in the foreground, but are soon rejected by a speedy agitato rejoinder. The slow music returns with a wispy melody winding its way through various registers, creating a supple denouement.
Watson is not only an accomplished composer, she is also a baritone saxophonist. Csontos is joined by Watson on her baritone saxophone duo piece BIG TALK, a work excoriating rape culture. It begins with a spoken word “Opening Poem,” followed by growling overtones, squalling high notes, and dissonant counterpoint in a fast groove. Octave oscillations, rough low notes, and brawny repetitions are added to the mix. There, there is an interlude with slowly dovetailing lines and a microtonal devolvement of a unison. Howling ascents create a visceral effect, as do altissimo shrieks. This is succeeded by a quick polyrhythmic duet in the low register, aggressive in demeanor. Repeated unisons are gradually replaced by complex overlaps of imitative lines. The duo adds noise to inexorable repetitions. Once again, there is a set of polyrhythms, this time a heterophonic unison melody. Two-voice counterpoint speeds towards repeated notes, unisons that are then distressed with dissonant seconds. A melody is overlaid in the top voice and a new ostinato, wide-ranging with sepulchral bass notes, articulates the phrase structure. An abrupt close slams the door on this violent piece that provides commentary that even eloquent texts about rape culture might not.
Shore to Shore by Kaoutzani is the most adventurous piece, with multiphonics and fluttering trills adorning the first section’s slow-moving, lyrical ambience. Stacked canons are then unfurled to create an animated, contrapuntal coda. Peacocke’s Dwalm ends the recording with a polytempo excursion in which slow drones and chords are juxtaposed against repeated notes and quickly moving ostinatos. As these elapse, the quartet drops into synced motoric passages. The coda brings in an attractive new melody that once again is deconstructed in overlapping fashion, followed by repeating octaves that pulse until a sudden final vertical. Dwalm’s digressive character is a fetching approach to retaining minimal elements while still featuring an element of surprise. An excellent closer to Kinds of ~Nois: a recording that is highly recommended.