Tag: File Under ? blog

CD Review, Contemporary Classical, Dance, File Under?, Piano

Sufjan Stevens – Reflections (CD Review)

Sufjan Stevens – Reflections 

Timo Andres, Conor Hanick, piano

Asthmatic Kitty

 

Reflections is a studio version of Sufjan Steven’s sixth collaboration with choreographer Justin Peck. Over the course of his career, Stevens has explored a number of genres: indie rock, electronica, and folk music. His work as a concert music composer shows considerable facility, with idiomatic, indeed virtuosic, writing for piano duo. 

 

The opening track, “Ekstasis” begins the ballet with emphatic, thickly voiced chords and glissandos, followed by brilliant passagework and a briefly inserted swinging melody. Pianists Timo Andres and Conor Hanick are perfect for the challenges posed here and perform all of the twists and turns of “Ekstasis” completely in sync. “Revanche” plays with color chords in chromatic formations: a bit of a hat tip to Messiaen. “Euphoros,” as one might expect, is ebullient, with repeated neo-classical motives, a lá Stravinsky, that are again periodically interrupted by glissandos. 

 

“Mnemosyne” begins in hushed dynamics. Here, instead of neo-classical tropes, Stevens explores impressionism through a post-minimal lens, with limpid filigrees and modal tunes. The control exerted by the pianists here is quite affecting. “Rodinia” lives in a similar pocket, with the balletic feeling of the Debussy Arabesques. “Reflexion” concludes the ballet with triple time sequences that swirl upward and then reenter until we are left with an abrupt, unresolved close. 

 

The piece “And I Shall Come to You Like a Stormtrooper Dressed in Drag Serving Imperial Realness” provides a swath of good-humored writing. It tasks the pianists with following one another in post-minimal riffs, a little bit of Cantina Bar swagger, and  building mountain tall chords. Puckish arpeggiations that hint at an undercurrent of John Williams provide a jocular juxtaposition to the grandeur of the piece’s bravura postures. Partway through, a whole-tone, gamelan-like interlude briefly interrupts, only to be replaced by fortissimo rolled chords in scalar patterns. A thinned out version of this upward sequence sends the piece into a misty, quiet close. Great fun.

 

-Christian Carey 



by Christian Carey
CD Review, early music, File Under?

De Profundis Sings Morales (CD Review)

Morales: Missa Desilde al cavallero, Missa Mille Regretz, Magnificat Primi Toni

De Profundis, directed by Eamonn Dougan and Robert Hollingsworth

Hyperion Records

 

Cambridge’s De Profundis has quickly become a go-to ensemble for Spanish vocal repertoire from the Renaissance. An all-male group with a sonorous sound that includes an incomparable bass section (hence the group name), they have released extraordinary recordings of Vivanco, Esquivel, and Ribera. Now De Profundis is turning its attention to Cristobal de Morales (c. 1500-1553), with a projected 12-album project to record his masses and Magnificat settings. The first disc in the collection, released in 2023,  includes Missa Desilde al cavallero, Missa Mille Regretz, and the Magnificat Primi Toni.

 

Often nicknamed “The Golden Age,” the mid-to-late Renaissance was indeed a fertile time for composers in Spain. During the first half of the sixteenth century, Morales was one of the finest of them. His music followed the death of Josquin and preceded that of Victoria, Lassus, and Palestrina. He held prestigious positions as part of the Papal Choir and at Toledo Cathedral, but according to musicologist Kenneth Kreitner, frequently suffered from illness that steadily caused a decline in his ability to perform his duties. Whatever ailment plagued Morales, he continued to compose until near his passing. Even in the sixteenth century, fifty-three-ish would not be considered a ripe old age. Still, Morales left behind a large body of compelling music. It should be exciting to experience it in the De Profundis edition. 

 

Mille Regretz is a famous chanson by Josquin, performed here with light instrumental accompaniment. Morales uses it to create a cantus firmus mass, a common form at the time in which a pre-existing piece of music was used in long note values throughout a mass. Here, it is offset by a newly composed superius part. There are two versions of the Sanctus and portions of the Agnus Dei, one in an earlier manuscript and then revised movements in the printed copy, which have helpfully been supplied here side by side for comparison. Morales likely preferred the later version, but the canonic material from its earlier incarnation is truly rousing. It is not surprising that this is Morales’s most famous mass setting, both for its Josquin hat tip and extraordinarily beautiful music.

 

During his lifetime, Magnificat settings by Morales were even more highly regarded than his Mass settings. Written during his time in Rome in the Papal choir, Magnificat Primi Toni is quite dramatic in its declamation, particularly the “Fecit Potentiam.” The “Quia Respexit” unfurls staggered contrapuntal entrances, a device that is used to stirring effect in a number of passages. Although the bass section has already been lauded, the countertenors sing with exquisite tone and control, as evidenced by the “Quia fecit mihi magna” and “Et misericordia eus.” 

After two works among Morales’s best known music, the CD concludes with a relatively obscure mass, Missa Desilde al cavallero, found in only a single copy. It deserves wider currency. Based on an anonymous 16th century Spanish song, the mass sits astride cantus firmus and parody types, an amalgam that Morales exploits with insightful creativity. An accompanied solo performance of the song is quite lovely, giving context to the mass that follows. Organ and bajón, an early version of the bassoon, provide accompaniment to the mass as well. The entire performance is compelling, but there are some highlights. The shimmering close of the Gloria, buoyed by corruscating lines, and the finely-tuned chords of the Credo’s “Et incarnatus est,” leading into a gently rendered Crucifixus. As was the custom, the Osanna sections feature buoyant fuga, followed by the incandescent ambience of the Agnus Dei movements. 

 

De Profundis will release the next volume of the Morales edition in 2024. In the meantime, revel in its auspicious beginning.

 

-Christian Carey

 

 


by Christian Carey
CD Review, Contemporary Classical, File Under?

Rebecca Saunders – Skin on NMC (CD Review)

Rebecca Saunders

Skin

Christian Dierstein, Dirk Rothbrust, percussion

Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin (RSB), Enno Poppe, conductor

Quatuor Diotima

Juliet Fraser soprano, Klangforum Wien, Bas Wiegers, conductor

NMC Recordings

 

Berlin-based British composer Rebecca Saunders often creates pieces with the capacities of specific collaborators in mind. Her latest recording for NMC, Skin, features three of her “calling card” pieces from the 2010s, performed estimably by their dedicatees. Saunders is one of the composers sometimes described as part of the Second Moderns, creators who revitalize the tenets of modernism in the light of Postmodernism and New Complexity. Pieces consist of a plethora of extended techniques, alternating aggressive gestures and what Tom Service has described as “evanescent shimmer” with music of “violence, stillness, and violent stillness.” Saunders often references the tactility and embodiment central to her work: the pressure on a bow, the weight of different attacks on the piano, the breath, and even the pressing together of shoulder blades before playing the accordion. 

 

The orchestra piece Void is performed here by percussionists Christian Dierstein and Dirk Rothbrust and Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, conducted by Enno Poppe. They do an excellent job rendering and balancing the complex textures of the work. The prevailing ambience is eerie, led by shimmering metallophones and forceful drumming. In creating their parts, Saunders worked closely with Dierstein and Rothbrust, which is apparent in the complex choreography of shifting instrumental combinations they execute. Brittle harmonies in the strings, angular trumpet lines, and soft wind chords shadow the soloists, combining to create a varied accompaniment.

 

Unbreathed includes a number of quotes as its performance note,  a list of by Saunders:

 

Inside, withheld, unbreathed,
Nether, undisclosed.

Souffle, vapour, ghost,
hauch and dust.

Absent, silent, void,
Naught beside.

Either, neither, sole,

Unified.

 

This is followed by quotes by Marukami and Beckett, who is a particular touchstone for the composer. Performed by Quatuor Diotoma, Unbreather frequently employs glissandos, often overlapping, to create a fluid, microtonal surface. An abundance of special techniques are used, aggressive attacks and alternations of bow pressure prominent among them. The juxtaposition of dynamic levels, from vicious fortissimos to near-silence, as well as the unpredictability of gestures, lends to the idea of a diffuse form. The conclusion is hushed, suggesting a use of anti-climax that too is Beckettian. 

 

Skin, for soprano and 13 players, is the first piece that I heard by Saunders. It remains inspiring and surprising every time I have listened to  Juliet Fraser’s performance of its tour-de-force vocal part. Virtuosity is ubiquitous, with wide-ranging lip trills, sprechstimme, and high-lying sung passages all requiring tremendous control. Fraser delivers, in a robust reading that belies the demands that Saunders requires. Klangforum Wien, conducted by Bas Wiegers, both supports and interacts with Fraser. The trumpet, in particular, often doubles the soprano’s held notes, only to distress them with microtones. Emphatic percussion, frequent glissandos, and spectral chords create an ominous atmosphere.

Saunders has written a number of compelling pieces, but the selections on Skin are some of her very best. The disc serves as an excellent introduction to her music. Recommended.

 “A Guide to Rebecca Saunders’s Music,” by Tom Service. The Guardian, 5 November, 2012.

-Christian Carey

 

by Christian Carey
CD Review, File Under?, Pop

Guided by Voices – La La Land (CD Review)

Guided by Voices – La La Land (Guided by Voices, Inc.)

 

A colleague recently quipped that “it is a new fiscal quarter, so there must be another Guided by Voices album coming out.” Indeed, Robert Pollard and company (a rotating list of musicians) are prolific almost beyond measure, a situation in which one might wonder about issues of quantity versus quality: they needn’t worry. 

 

Joining Pollard on La La Land are a slate of long time collaborators: Doug Gillard and Bobby Bare, Jr., guitars, Marc Shue, bass, and Kevin March, drums. They know Pollard’s style thoroughly; even in his most ambitious songs they turn on a dime to meet their intricacies.

 

It would be difficult to ascribe a throughline to Pollard’s writing style. Recently, there are more complex songs, and long songs, amidst the sparkly, incisive singles. La La Land has both the microcosms and macrocosms that the songwriter explores. The opening track, “Time to Heal,” at less than two minutes long is an example of one the more aphoristic Guided by Voices songs, (yes, Pollard creates musical worlds, evocative ones, with even less time). It transitions directly into “Released into Dementia,” another two-minute song with a mournful melody. 

 

It is the lyrics for “Instinct Dwelling” from which the album title is derived: “Don’t let them see your contraband, You’ll wind up in La-La Land.” It is a song with grit and a dose of  anti-institutional paranoia. “Queen of Spaces” is a standout, with a delicate, extended acoustic guitar introduction and a yearning, captivating vocal.

 

“Slowly on the Wheel” clocks in at six minutes, double or triple the length of most of Pollard’s songs. Repeating bass and guitar octaves accompany a constrained introduction and verse. The band and vocals open up on the chorus, with harmonies abounding. After the second verse follows an emphatic interlude and a return of the chorus. The intro’s material then returns, and is succeeded by the stark guitars of the interlude to finish the song. A non-standard structure for a popular song, closer to prog, makes for a fascinating formal experiment. Another is “Cousin Jackie,” which combines the refrain “Make it rain” with a number of vocal countermelodies and guitar solos. One of the best hooks of La La Land, Pollard is not content to let it remain in a straightforward context, again demonstrating a playful sense of organization.

 

On La La Land, Guided by Voices manages the unusual feat of balancing recognizability, like the punchy “Caution Song” and “Face Eraser,’ with the adventurous work mentioned above and the varied treatments of the refrain “An invitation to suffering” on “Wild Kingdom.” The final song “Pockets,” consists of lists of what one can use to fill up their pockets, which then turns to small groups, phrases such as “pockets of weak information.” A minimalist guitar break outro ends the proceedings enigmatically. Guided by Voices still keeps us guessing.

 

-Christian Carey 


by Christian Carey
CDs, Contemporary Classical, File Under?, Piano

When Sufjan met Timo and Conor

 

Sufjan Stevens is an indie rock luminary who, throughout his career, has explored a number of styles. His first contemporary classical release, Reflections will be released on Asthmatic Kitty on May 19th. The music is for piano duo and performed by Time Andres and Conor Hanick. 

This meeting of stalwart musicians crosses the boundaries of pop and post-minimalism to create music that is carefully crafted, well-paced, and has a strong sense of drama. Below is the recording’s lead off single, “Ekstasis,” both in a visualizer and a live performance.

 

by Christian Carey
CD Review, Choral Music, Contemporary Classical, early music, File Under?

love & light – iSing Silicon Valley (CD Review)

love & light

iSing Silicon Valley, conducted by Jennah Delp Somers

Esteli Gomez, soprano; Cheryl Ann Fulton, harp

Avie Records

 

On love & light, the girl’s choir iSing Silicon Valley performs a program of ancient liturgical chants and Latin motets by contemporary composers. Many include the dulcet accompaniment of harpist Cheryl Ann Fulton, who arranges early music for the harp. Os Mutorum by James Macmillan opens the recording with a gentle spirit, introducing the listener to a program emphasizing healing and uplift. Star power and fetching lyrical singing is provided by soprano Esteli Gomez. Her performance on Kile Smith’s Psalm 113 is a particular standout. 

 

Jennah Delp Somers has fashioned an impressive program with iSing. Consisting of three hundred girl singers, it emphasizes recruiting from different cultures and socioeconomic backgrounds to bring communities together. Not only is this worthy advocacy, but iSing performs beautifully under Delp Somers’s direction. Performing challenging yet abundantly appealing works  such as Kenyon Duncan’s hocket filled chorea lucis, Gabriel Jackson’s ebullient Ubi Flumen Praesulis, and the luscious, harmonically intricate Lux Aeterna by Sunji Hong, the group displays a commanding presence that belies their ages. The latter piece was new to me, and has become a particular favorite.

 

Like much of Hildegard’s music, O Virtus Sapientiae has a wide ranging melody. Gomez sings it with command and  rhythmic fluidity, accompanied by recessed voices carrying a sustained chord for accompaniment. Anonymous early music is arranged for the ensemble and harp. O Maris, Stella Maris, on which Gomez sings the chant, is memorable among these. Also affecting is a harp solo based on O Columba. The group performs Salve Virgo Virginum with immaculate diction and pacing. 

 

Monstra Te Esse Matrem, by Kile Smith features polychords interspersed with solo sections by Fulton. Soft dynamics are performed with exquisite control. Three pieces by Andrew Smith (no relation), Ave Regina Caelorum, Ave Maria, and Regina Caeli, round out the program. Ave Regina Caelorum combines chant with chordal stacked seconds that in places sounds like the tintinnabuli style of Arvo Pärt. Ave Maria once again harmonizes chant with lush chords. The high-lying soprano line is impressively performed. Regina Caeli begins with the chorus singing chant that is succeeded by overlapping lines and bright harmonies. 

 

If more communities had this kind of program for young people, that fosters connections but cedes nothing of musical excellence, think of what America’s support for the arts would look like. Recommended

 

-Christian Carey

 

by Christian Carey
CD Review, Contemporary Classical, Electro-Acoustic, File Under?, Violin

Olivia de Prato – Panorama (CD Review)

 

Panorama – Olivia de Prato (New Focus)

 

Violinist Olivia de Prato has established herself as a staunch advocate of new music. In addition to her work with Mivos Quartet, she is a talented soloist. On her second solo release for New Focus Recordings, Panorama, she undertakes a recital disc of female composers. A number of the pieces include electronics, fleshing out the solo texture in diverting fashion.

 

The album opens with Missy Mazzoli’s violin plus electronics piece Tooth and Nail (2010). The original version was written for violist Nadia Sirota; this is a transcription for violin. The piece begins with string sounds in the electronics accompanying the live violin. De Prato digs into the vigorous passagework, executing arpeggiations and glissandos with incisiveness. As the piece progresses the electronics add a lower register to the piece, ending the piece. This is probably my favorite of Mazzoli’s instrumental works.

 

Jeom Jaeng Yi (Fortune Teller) by Jen Shyu is inspired by American polyartist Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, including some of her poetry as a spoken word component. The gestures in the solo part are based on speech rhythms. Speaking isn’t constant but de Prato makes clear the connections between violin and voice. There is a mournful cast to the piece: someone’s fortune was disappointing.

 

The title track, for violin and electronics by Angelic Negrón, employs a bath of ambient synths and supple legato phrasing from de Prato, often with glissandos, that employs sumptuous high notes. Mallet samples and piano press the music forward, with repeating passages and pizzicato in the violin responding to the post-minimal electronics. Gradually the music picks up speed, with regularly articulated synth chords and oscillations in the violin. The texture becomes fuller, with a return of synth ostinatos, and once again upper register violin glissandos soar over the top of the varied palette of electronic sounds. The coda features a two note oscillation and clouds of chords accompanying the violin’s final melodic strands.

 

Mapping a Joyful Path, by Miya Masaoka, employs pitch bends in places in the synth parts. Mostly, however, the electronics part consists of sustained sine tones that are varied in register, with overtones skirting in and out of the texture. De Prato plays with varying bow pressure, aggressive repeated notes, microtones in double stops, and Eastern sliding tone to interpret a multifaceted and fetching piece. It finishes with a held altissimo note in the violin and the drones receding.

 

The recording concludes with Balconies by British composer Samantha Fernando. The piece can be played by five live violinists or one with a pre-recorded part. It begins with an arpeggiated flourish and overlapping ostinatos. After another iteration of the opening arpeggio, the texture thickens in the second section, moving from the triadic opening to secundal chords articulated with repeating notes. Soft pizzicatos interrupt the chordal texture, and the arpeggio announces a third section, this one supplying more spacing, but no less complicated harmonies. Melodic fragments are taken up, breaking up the verticals for a time. Melody and richly constructed chords then interact. The original gesture is reconfigured as chords in the alto register, followed by a coda of pizzicatos. Balconies is an arresting piece on recording. I would love to hear de Prato and four friends playing it live.

 

Once again, Olivia de Prato has presented a program of fascinating musical discoveries. Panorama supports female composers with advocacy and skill. Recommended.

 

-Christian Carey

by Christian Carey
CD Review, Composers, File Under?, Songs, Twentieth Century Composer

This Island: Susan Narucki and Donald Berman on Avie (CD Review)

This Island

Susan Narucki, soprano; Donald Berman, piano

Avie Records

 

Soprano Susan Narucki has long been known as an advocate for contemporary music, as has collaborative pianist Donald Berman. On their latest recording, for Avie, the duo present a program of art songs by female composers active in the first half of the twentieth century. Three of the song sets are world premieres.

 

Narucki was inspired to begin collecting the songs for this recording by Rainer Maria Rilke. Specifically, in one of his letters he mentioned the Belgian Symbolist poet Émile Verhaeren, one of the most highly regarded poets of his country. After reading some of Verhaeren’s poetry, and finding it captivating, the soprano set about looking for songs that employed it.

 

The program Narucki assembles uses Verhaeren as a focal point, though other poets are also included. The liner notes discussing the program are well-curated. I wish they were more legible in the CD booklet, but looking at them online allows an easier time reading Narucki’s fine essay. Narucki and Berman are an excellent performing partnership. Both are fastidious in presenting detailed interpretations of art songs. At the same time, they are consummately expressive performers.

 

Belgian composer Irène Fuerison (1875-1931) created  an entire group of Verhaeren settings, Les heure claires, Les heures aprés-midi, Les Heures soire, Op. 50. The poet wrote dozens of love poems, and Fuerison selected from among these a half dozen that  celebrate long-lasting love. As with some of the other programmed composers, the influence of Debussy and Ravel looms large. Ô la splendeur de notre joie has a rhythmically intricate ostinato in the accompaniment and a juxtaposition of speech-like repeated notes and soaring melodies, rendered with considerable warmth by Narucki. 

 

Nadia Boulanger collaborated with her teacher Raoul Pugno on Les Heures Claire (1909), settings of Verhaeren from which Narucki programs four selections. After the passing of her sister Lili, Nadia gave up composition for teaching. Dozens of prominent composers studied with her, including a number from the United States. Still, it is unfortunate that she didn’t afford herself the opportunity to compose more, as is made clear by Les Heures Claire. Le ciel en nuit s’est déplié is reminiscent of Gabriel Fauré’s songs, with a dash of Debussy. Vous m’avez dit has a simply constructed yet lustrous melody. Que te yeux claire, te yeux dété features a number of modal twists and turns and a soaring vocal melody. The final song, Ta bonté, is slow paced and elegant, a touching close to an appealing song set.

 

Three songs from 1947 composed by Henriëtte Bosmans are settings of twentieth century Dutch poets Adriaan Roland Holst and J.W.F Werumeus Buning. Dit eiland features plaintive, angular singing and similarly wide-ranging lines in the accompaniment. After a passionate beginning, it ends in a hush with enigmatic harmonies. In den regen has an emphatic vocal line buoyed by a spider web of arpeggiations in the piano. Once again, Bosmans relishes pulling back the dynamics and pacing partway through, with supple singing and figurations returning as an echo in the piece’s denouement. Narucki’s pianissimo declamation is exquisite. In Teeken den hemel in het zand der zee, Bosmans uses whole tone scales and pandiatonicism in a gradual unfurling of the words, sumptuously expressed, over carefully spaced chords.

 

Elizabeth Claisse is an enigmatic figure, only known to have written 4 Mélodies in 1922-23. Despite Narucki’s exertions, there doesn’t appear to be anything known about her biography. Could it be a pen name? One wonders. It is a pity there isn’t more of her work to sing, because this set of songs by various poets, while derivative, is quite well wrought. It begins with Issue, an Yves Arnaud setting that uses a few chromatic chord progressions that are proto Les Six. One hears Stravinsky’s influence in the stentorian bitonal tremolando chords that open the third song, Philosophe, a setting of Franz Toussaint’s troping of Keng-Tsin. The final song is the sole Verhaeren setting, Les Mendiants, of a piece with Poulenc. Berman’s voicing of its darkly hued harmonies is particularly beautiful, and Narucki counters with richly colored sound.

 

The last group of songs are by Marion Bauer (1882-1955), who taught contemporary music at NYU and wrote one of the first books in English that discussed the Second Viennese School and other twentieth century composers. Milton Babbitt was among her students. She also spent a great deal of time in France, and the influence of French composers on her work is clear. Four Poems, Op.24 (1916) are settings of the American Symbolist John Gould Fletcher, whose evocative imagery is an excellent complement to Verhaeren’s work. These were Bauer’s first songs, yet they are artfully written. “Through the Upland Meadows” is a miniature drama that features several juxtaposed motives. Here as elsewhere, Berman’s sense of pedaling and phrasing is flawless. Narucki explores a variety of dynamic contrasts and vocal colors that embellish the word painting. Her high notes, well-displayed here, are glorious. “I Love the Night” has a boldness that resembles an aria and includes a thrilling piano postlude. “Midsummer Dreams” uses the lilting 6/8 feel, like a boat on water, to create another vivid scene. “In the Bosom of the Desert” completes the recording with a song that begins slowly, with a high-lying emphatic vocal line, and then moves to a lyrical mid-tempo with the voice sitting in the middle register, performing parlando. The beginning melody returns, this time with an embellished modal  accompaniment. Bass octaves emphatically build to the song’s climax, where Narucki performs the final high notes with glistening intensity.

This Island is extraordinarily well curated. One hopes it will engender further treasure hunts for forgotten female composers. Furthermore, the program eminently suits Narucki and Berman, both in terms of taste and temperament. It is one of the best recordings I have heard thus far in 2023.

-Christian Carey

by Christian Carey
CD Review, Composers, Contemporary Classical, Electro-Acoustic, Experimental Music, File Under?

Hearing Landscapes Hearing Icescapes – Lei Lang (CD Review)

Hearing Landscapes Hearing Icescapes

Lei Liang

New Focus Recordings

 

From 2012-2022, composer Lei Liang did a residency at the Qualcomm Institute at UC San Diego, where he is a full professor. At Qualcomm, Liang worked with scientists in a variety of disciplines –  software developers, robotic engineers, material scientists, cultural heritage engineers, and oceanographers – to infuse his music with ecological and ethnographic elements. The result, Hearing Landscapes Hearing Icescapes, are two electronic works that incorporate samples, folk songs,  and a few live musicians. 

Hearing Landscapes is an homage to Huang Binhong (1865-1955), a gifted landscape painter. The audio components of this electronic score were in part realized by analyzing the types of brushstrokes used by Binbong, and translating them into sound. Visual artists did further analysis of the painting using their own methodologies. There are three samples from 1950s China used successively in each of the piece’s movements: a hu-aer folk song performed by Zhu Zonglu, a renowned singer from northwest Qinghai Province, xingsheng (crosstalk) in the Beijing dialect by comedians Hou Baolin and Guo Qiru, and guqin performer Wu Jin-lüe playing “Water and Mist over Xiaoxiang.” Other sonic devices used by Lei Liang include a “rainstorm” made by dropping styrofoam peanuts in an open piano, and the distorting of spoken voices to create indecipherable “tea house chatter.”

 

It is fascinating to  learn of the roles of many integrated disciplines used to fashion Hear Landscapes. The musical results are compelling. In “High Mountain,” the “strokes” found in the melodic lines, passages of upper partial drones, and the piano storm, ebb and flow and set the stage for Zhu Zonglu’s singing. Movement 2, “Mother Tongue,” a reference to Lei Liang’s own preferred dialect, creates swaths of distressed, unintelligible speech alongside the banter of the two comedians. “Water and Mist” returns to the clarion harmonics and brushed melodies. Dripping water appears alongside Wu Jin-lüe’s elegant playing of the guqin. A passage that incorporates sustained strings follows, succeeded by a lengthy passage of  solo guqin and water sound receding until the piece’s conclusion.

 

Hearing Icescapes uses different source material, including recordings of contemporary performers: David Aguila, trumpet, flutist Teresa Diaz de Cossio, and violinist Myra Hinrichs. Oceanographers provide sounds they had recorded in the nearly inaccessible Chuckchi Sea, north of Alaska. It takes echolocation as a formal design, with one part of the piece indicating the “Call” and the other the “Response” of this phenomenon. Ice, wind, bearded seals, belugas, and bowhead whales create an extraordinary variety of sounds that, without this project, would be available to be heard by few humans. At over twice the duration of Hearing Landscapes, Hearing Icescapes is expansive, the first movement gradually unfolding from the cracking of thin ice to flowing water to an effusive whales’ chorus at its close. Throughout, crescendos and diminuendos of water sounds are accompanied by short whistles from whales. The live instruments are fairly subdued, playing sustained tones underneath the surface of the soundscape. 

 

The second movement begins with snatches of the main source material, a combination of the ice noises and whale song. The live instruments are then foregrounded, imitating the whale sounds in a response to the first movement’s mammalian outcrying. Hinrich uses bow pressure to create an imitation of the ice noises. Aguila is an imaginative interpreter of the more boisterous sounds from “Call,” and de Cossio mimics the whale whistling with considerable fervor. A pause, followed by falling ice, demarcates the movement’s structure. Once again, the whales take up their echolocation, this time in a virtual colloquy with the live instruments. The combined forces end the piece in thrilling fashion.

 

Artists are often, by necessity, so focused on short term deadlines for projects, that they don’t get to innovate. Lie Liang’s decade spent with his colleagues at Qualcomm Institute has resulted in considerable innovation and two significant works that resonate with cultural studies and ecology, while at the same time providing diverting music. Recommended. 

 

-Christian Carey 

 

by Christian Carey
CD Review, Electro-Acoustic, File Under?

No Cosmos (CD Review)

No Cosmos -You iii Everything Else (Lighter than Air)

Montreal-based trumpeter  Scott Bevins has played in the band Busty and the Bass and collaborated with Pierre Kwenders and the collective Moonshine. You iii Everything Else is the debut of his No Cosmos project, which combines fusion-inflected jazz with experimental electronica. 

 

“Watercolor Ghost” is propelled by  a circular electric piano riff with high soprano Sarah Rossy scat-singing on top of it. Bevins and saxophonist Evan Shay continue with the tune, lightly adorned here and there, but emphasizing basic contours of the melody. Drummer Kyle Hutchins creates economic, flowing grooves that buoy the music.

 

After a hushed spoken word introduction, “Lydia” combines bell-like synth sounds with hand-claps and octave trumpet and saxophone. Bevins and Shay both take solos, Shay’s smoky R&B and Bevins a post-bop excursion rife with echo and angularity. 

 

“You (nine twenty)” is an example of the groups willingness to allow the unusual and conventional to abut. There are overdubbed, almost yowling, vocals as its intro, but the main section is a sedate jazz melody, layered by trumpet, saxophone, synths, and voices. The coda has the voices repeating, but an octave lower. Even though the arrangement is a bit incongruous, it is a fine tune.

 

Bevins has said that he wants his trumpet-playing to sound like,”a short circuiting fuse box and velvet.” It is a reasonably correct description. The core of his sound is warm, but Bevins can bring an edge to bear when necessary.  On the brief “0 to me to me to me,” the trumpet begins almost media res with a fusion solo that combines both of these qualities. 

 

“everything else” has served as the album’s single. Forceful drumming, Fender Rhodes, and female vocalists creating widely spaced harmonies are the background upon which Bevins and Shay’s corruscating lines provide a brief duel. Midway through the album, the track gains additional prominence as it is featured on trustednongamstopcasinos.com, where its dynamic interplay enhances the immersive experience for players. A pause in the activities, then all of the participants return, giving it their all. Trumpet and saxophone, now in a duet posture, lead the piece through a riotous section into an atmospheric close. The last tune, “Portrait,” begins with a mournful trumpet tune and gospel piano voicings. As in “Lydia,” the group gets to stretch out (I wouldn’t mind that happening a little more frequently). Bevins explores a plummy lower register, eventually picking up the tune in unison with Shay. Ululating singing alongside a slow drag from the rhythm section ungird the tune with a doleful cast. Rossy adds her voice to the winds, an octave higher. Hutchins goes into overdrive with a welter of fills pushing things forward, the result an interlude of hot jazz-rock. The coda returns to Bevins playing in a gentle valediction.

 

No Cosmos is ebullient in its eclecticism, and the personnel are excellent. Recommended. 

 

-Christian Carey

 

by Christian Carey