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Best of, CD Review, Classical Music, Contemporary Classical, File Under?, jazz

Best of 2021: ECM Recordings

Parker Quartet; Kim Kashkashian, viola

György Kurtág: Six moments musicaux; Officium breve

Antonin Dvořák: String Quintet op. 97

ECM Records

 

The Czech composer Antonin Dvořák (1844-1901) and Hungarian composer György Kurtág (1926-) are seldom mentioned in the same breath. One is more often likely to hear Dvořák being discussed in relation to his older colleague Johannes Brahms, and a similar pairing might be made between Kurtág and György Ligeti. However, they are paired by the Parker Quartet and violist Kim Kashkashian on a 2021 ECM CD. 

 

While their musical languages are worlds apart, connections between Dvořák and Kurtág, both as composers and teachers, might be found in their shared affinity for chamber music. The Parker Quartet and Kashkashian (who has recorded both Kurtág and Ligeti for ECM), provide a fitting approach to each piece on the recording.  In the Kurtág  selections, they make the most of the silences, extreme shifts of demeanor, and the aphoristic fragility of the often Webernian approach to line. This contrasts nicely with the warmly expressive interpretation they give to Dvořák’s String Quintet, op. 97. Written during his visit to America, it is one of Dvořák’s finest chamber pieces. Compelling playing and imaginative curation here.

 

Ayumi Tanaka Trio

Subaqueous Silence

Ayumi Tanaka, piano; Christian Meaas Svendsen, double bass; Per Oddvar Johansen, drums

ECM Records

 

Pianist Ayumi Tanaka makes her leader debut on ECM Records with Subaqueous Silence, a trio recording alongside bassist Christian Meaas Svendsen, who makes his label debut, and drummer Per Oddvar Johansen, who has recorded with a number of ECM’s other artists. Tanaka moved to Norway because she found the improvised music being made there compelling. She fits right with her colleagues in the trio, but also brings the sensibility of, as she describes it, “chamber music … Japanese classical music,” to create a distinctive sound and approach. Her use of space, with silences and pianissimo passages prominent in the texture, is counterbalanced by arpeggiations rife with dissonance and bass note stabs. Indeed, in places one wonders if Kurtág (see above), might be a touchstone. Elsewhere, her harmonies oscillate between jazz and extended chords that seem borrowed from early in the twentieth century; Tanaka certainly has Debussy and Schoenberg under her hands. Svendson is a study in opposites as well, grounding the harmony with slow-moving bass notes, and playing raucous high harmonics in a few places. His arco playing is quite attractive. Johansen is a perfect percussionist for this setting, subtle, responsive, and more textural than propulsive. One hopes this is the beginning of a long term collaboration for these three talented improvisers. 

 

Eberhard Weber

Once Upon a Time

ECM Records

 

On Once Upon a Time, Bassist Eberhard Weber is captured in a live performance from 1994 at Avignon’s Théâtre des Halles, part of a festival celebrating bassists organized by Barre Phillips. Weber explores a number of his then recently recorded works, including ensemble pieces such as his Trio for Bassoon and Bass, deconstructing and reanimating them in this solo setting. One of the ways that he accomplishes this is by using delay pedals to create five-second loops, over which he adds additional voices. Weber often opts for a clean sound, but allows for some timbral modifications around the edges, again via pedals. These are particularly surprising in the one standard on the CD, “My Favorite Things,” which is given the overdub treatment; particularly rousing riffs and squalling notes from the highest register appear over the chordal vamp. Another standout is the extended workout Weber gives to his piece “Pendulum,” with an attractive melody and variation after variation explored throughout the compass of the instrument. “Delirium” explores chords and harmonics in equal measure, while “Ready out There” is a feast of virtuosity. 

Marc Johnson

Overpass

ECM Records

 

For an entirely different kind of solo bass recording, Marc Johnson plays originals and others’ compositions significant to his work from throughout his career on double bass. Thus, “Love Theme from Spartacus” recalls his work in 1970 with Bill Evans’ last trio, as does a welcome return to his showcase “Nardis.” Both of these have grown in conception and are thoughtfully reinvestigated. The oft recorded “Freedom Jazz Dance,” by Eddie Harris, elicits a polyphonic performance with a low-register ostinato and florid soloing in the cello register. Among Johnson’s own compositions, particularly impressive is “Strike Each Tuneful String,” which references the African instrument with ox tendon strings called the Inanga. It features a melody in the low register complemented by chordal harmonics. The exoticism of “Samurai Fly,” a reworking of Johnson’s eighties tune “Samurai Hee-Haw,” features Asian exoticism in a more overt tip of the hat to nonwestern musical material. It also includes a small amount of overdubbing, more subtle than Weber’s looping but just as effective. “Yin and Yang” instead plays with using four-string strumming to create a thickened texture, while the closer “Whorled Whirled World,” appropriate to the title, features circular patterning that resembles double time walking with a splash of minimalism tossed in for good measure. A varied and compelling outing that will occupy a well-deserved spot among ECM’s collection of solo bass recordings. 

 

Andrew Cyrille Quartet

The News 

ECM Records

David Virelles, piano; Bill Frisell, guitar; Ben Street, bass; Andrew Cyrille, drums and percussion

 

Andrew Cyrille is now an octogenarian, an age at which many musicians have already retired or are slowing down. Cyrille retains a superlative technique and while his latest quartet outing for ECM, The News, emphasizes interplay and texture over power, it is clear that there is much of that yet remaining in the drummer’s arsenal as well. 

 

Cyrille is credited with three of the compositions on The News. The title track was originally a solo percussion piece. Recast for the quartet, it is the most experimental sounding piece on the album. David Virelles plays synth as well as his usual instrument, the piano, Ben Street plays the bass both arco and pizzicato, guitarist Bill Frisell daubs dissonance and darting linear flurries here and there, and Cyrille employs a number of drums and percussion instruments in a spell binding, unorthodox fashion. The drummer places newspaper over the snare and toms and plays with brushes: an intriguing timbral choice. “The Dance of the Nuances,” co-authored by Cyrille with the group’s pianist David Virelles, features bowed bass and single line solos punctuated by Cyrille’s syncopated drumming.

 

Three pieces are credited to Frisell. “Go Happy Lucky” is a mid tempo blues bounce that is jubilant in tone. Frisell plays the head and the first solo section in jaunty fashion, followed by succulent arpeggiations  from Virelles. Cyrille’s drumming is propulsive and responsive to the melodic gestures of the soloists. Street plays walking lines that lead to the return of the head, this time with the whole group digging in and matching Frisell. “The Mountain” begins with a simple melody and chord progression played by Frisell. Gradually, it becomes more chromatic and embellished as Virelles and Street push the guitarist’s material outside. Cyrille adds a counter rhythm that also complicates the piece’s surface. “Baby” is one of Frisell’s pastoral Americana style pieces. His honeyed melody is supplied counterpoint by Street, Fender Rhodes comping from Virelles, and subdued drumming by Cyrille. Virelles contributes the composition “Incienso,” which has an ambling melody and an intricate chord structure filled with Brazilian allusions and polytonal reference points. 

 

The one piece used by a musician outside the group is “Leaving East of Java” by Steve Colson. This is a felicitous inclusion. A performer, composer, and educator, it is unfortunate that Colson’s work isn’t better known today. “Leaving East of Java” includes guitar and piano in octaves and intricate chords rolled by Virelles. Synthetic scales evoke the exoticism, if not the specific content, of Javanese gamelan. Partway through, Street takes a suave solo succeeded by florid playing from Frisell and a repeated riff from Virelles. The pianist then plummets into the bass register, placing quick scalar passages underneath Street’s legato playing. The octaves return briefly to punctuate the piece’s close. 

 

The final composition, “With You in Mind” by Cyrille, features the drummer intoning a spoken word introduction of an original poem. The main section of the piece starts as a duo, with Virelles and Street creating a gently lilting ambience with traditional harmonies and rhythmic gestures that reflect the poetry (it would be great to see this poem set with the tune for singers). A piquant piano chord invites Frisell and Virelles to join the proceedings, with the guitarist creating an arrangement of the tune with chordal embellishments and Cyrille imparting the time with graceful poise. It ends in a whorl of chordal extensions and soft cymbal sizzle. 

 

Jazz players and audiences alike are often seeking “new standards” to canonize. There are several tunes here that qualify. The News is one of our Best of 2021 recordings. 

 

-Christian Carey

 

 

 

by Christian Carey
Best of, CD Review, CDs, Contemporary Classical, Experimental Music, File Under?

Best of 2021: Recording of the Year

Number Pieces

John Cage

Apartment House

Another Timbre 4XCD boxed set

 

John Cage’s Number Pieces, late compositions (from 1987-1992) are given two designations, a number indicating the size of the ensemble and a superscript indicating its order in multiple pieces for the same-sized grouping (Quintet #2 = 52). Fragments of pitches, sometimes single notes, are indicated; dynamics appear sporadically. Rhythm is codified through the use of “time brackets,” indicating how long before a performer can move to another fragment. Most of the pieces are for a particular instrumentation, although a few are unspecified. Thus, while a considerable amount of interpretation remains in the performers’ hands, Number Pieces are less aleatoric than many of Cage’s works from the 1950s to the early 1980s. Commentators have likened some of them to Morton Feldman’s compositions, as both regularly employ soft dynamics and slow tempi, with gradually evolving pitch collections accumulating into pointillist harmonies. While none of these pieces approach a pitch center, in addition to the numerous dissonances one might expect in a Cage piece, it is notable how many minor and major thirds appear in the texture.

 

Apartment House has recorded a quadruple CD set, released on Another Timbre, of all the number pieces for medium ensembles (from 5 up to 14). It includes some alternative versions and one of the “4” pieces. The group has previously released benchmark recordings on Another Timbre of other New York School repertoire and that of the Wandelweiser Collective, and are thus well-seasoned for this project. If anything, Apartment House surpasses expectations, making much of the subtle distinctions between pieces while presenting a comprehensive collection imbued with Cage’s late musical sensibilities. Excellent liner notes by label owner Simon Reynell help to put Number Pieces into perspective. Quotes from Cage’s late interviews, talks, and writings are edifying in and of themselves, and support the manner that Apartment House has inhabited the Number Pieces they interpret. John Cage: Number Pieces is Sequenza 21’s Recording of the Year.

-Christian Carey

 

 

 

by Christian Carey
Best of, CD Review, Choral Music, early music, File Under?

Best of 2021: Holiday Music

Hodie Christus Natus Est

Boston Camerata, Anne Azéma

Harmonia Mundi CD

 

A trio of female singers accompanied by hurdy gurdy, harp, rebec, and bells present a diverse program of medieval Christmas music in English, Latin, Italian, Iberian, and French. Plainsong hymns, responses, carols, and dances, all by anonymous sources, are performed with impeccable sound, blend, and tuning and an impressive variety of approaches. Some of the music is intoned as chant while other pieces are metricized. This repertoire would not have appeared together in a single performance, especially given the blend of sacred and secular pieces, but Hodie Christus Natus Est is a rich program that displays historically informed performance at its very finest.

 

A Mexican Christmas

The Newberry Consort | Ellen Hargis, David Douglass directors

EnsAmble Ad-Hoc | Francy Acosta, José Luis Posada directors

Navona Records CD

 

Much like composers from Spain in the first half of the seventeenth century, Mexican composers during the same time period adhered to the “prima pratica” principles exemplified in sixteenth century Italy, most notably by Palestrina. They may have been latecomers to Baroque musical practices, but tarrying with earlier contrapuntal styles resulted in an extravagant coda to music of the Renaissance.

 

A Mexican Christmas is a live recording of Christmas music performed by the Newberry Consort and Ensemble Ad-Hoc. Rather than focusing on Mexican liturgical music, of which there is also a significant repertory, the main emphasis of the program is extra liturgical and secular music, including stirring instrumental selections by Santiago de Murcia. If one is unfamiliar with the composers Juan Guitierrez de Padilla, Gaspar Fernandes, and Juan Garcia Despedes, the selections here provide an excellent introduction to this underserved repertoire.

 

In the Bleak Midwinter: Christmas Carols from King’s

Choir of King’s College, Cambridge, Daniel Hyde

King’s College, Cambridge CD

 

Every year, I think that the Choir of King’s College, Cambridge has arrived at the pinnacle of presenting Christmas carols. In 2021, they once again prove that they have even more room to climb. In the Bleak Midwinter features fresh approaches to arrangements and descants, talented soloists, memorable organ solos, and selections from corners of the repertoire, old and new, that merit more attention. Director Daniel Hyde does an admirable job musically and curatorially, favoring a lithe approach to phrasing and tempo that prevents the schmaltz that ruins so many recordings of carols. Organist Matthew Hyde supplies a colorful yet balanced array of textures when accompanying the choir. His performance of “Improvisation on Adeste Fideles,” by Francis Pott, supplies a memorable postlude to the proceedings. My favorite carol is Holst’s “In the Bleak Midwinter,” and the rendition here is practically peerless.

 

-Christian Carey

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

Best of 2021: Electronic

 

Supermundane 

John Thayer

Self-released

 

Far In

Helado Negro

4AD

 

Weightless (10 hour version)

Signals

Marconi Union

Just Music

 

Changing Landscapes (Isle of Eigg)

Arthur King

AKP

 

Fast Idol

Black Marble

Sacred Bones

 

 

Ookii Gekkou

Vanishing Twin

Fire Records

 

John Thayer is a musician who wears many hats: composer, audio engineer, sound artist, and percussionist. He has played with a host of new music performers, including Zeena Parkins, Daniel Carter, Fred Lonberg-Holm, Kato Hideki, Ezra Feinberg, Arp, Robbie Lee,  Jeff Tobias, and Jim Pugliese. It is his work with Arp that is likely best known, and Thayer’s solo release Supermundane is an extension of that project, incorporating mallet percussion, field recordings, and synthesis into a varied yet cohesive whole. “Strata” is a succinct curtain-raiser that introduces both ambient and fourth world elements. It leads attacca into “Akaku,” which features polyrhythmic percussion, synth bass put in a lead role, and treated drums. The title track is a catchy yet intricately constructed piece, with a syncopated riff that overlaps bass instruments and a busy adornment of marimba alongside industrial field recordings. The longer tracks, “Kimyoin” and “Veil,” use similar elements but add slowly morphing synths to build accreting formal designs. 

 

Percussion plays an enhanced role in Helado Negro’s Far In, his first LP since moving from Brooklyn to North Carolina. Just as Roberto Carlos Lang wanted to provide himself more space in his day-to-day life than the hustle bustle of New York would allow, Far In seems more spacious in its arrangements and expressive character. The undergirding of electronica with drum ‘n bass textures and layered vocals makes for a winning blend of materials. “Hometown Dream” features melodic bass-lines, a funk-inspired chord progression on electric piano, and fluid vocals. Upon hearing “Gemini and Leo,” the listener will likely be toe-tapping and humming along for the rest of the day. Benamin supplies ardent chorus vocals on “Telescope;” Kacy Hill and Buscabulla also make guest appearances on the ballads “Wake Up Tomorrow” and “Agosto.” 

 

This year, Taylor Swift releasing a ten-minute version of the song “All too Well” was considered remarkable, but what about a ten-hour long track? Marconi Union consulted with sound therapists to create a nightlong version of their piece “Weightless.” Designed to help with relaxation, sleep, and even to lower your blood pressure, “Weightless” is ambient electronica’s version of a cozy blanket. The band’s 2021 album, Signals, has a different approach, once again foregrounding percussion in a musical celebration of powerful progenitors such as Jaki Liebezeit, Clive Deamer, and Tony Allen. Propulsive yet still retaining the Marconi Union’s melodic forward sound, it is a case of a fine band prioritizing musical growth.

 

Grandaddy’s Jason Lyttle collaborated with LA collective Arthur King on their latest Changing Landscapes project, for which the band visited Scotland’s Isle of Eigg this year. The results of their field recordings and improvised synth responses created a compelling half hour of music that combines concrete sensibilities with minimal ostinatos. Particularly compelling is the use of spoken word in counterpoint on “An Sgurr” and water as a layered backdrop on “Laig Beach.” Isle of Eigg was featured as part of KCRW’s “A Day of Serenity” and, during the spring, a documentary about the project was screened at Grand Park’s Our LA Voices 2021 alongside a gallery installation that ran in Los Angeles. This type of immersive, interdisciplinary approach befits Arthur King’s imaginative, process based, and location driven work.

 

Black Marble is the stage name for Chris Stewart, an artist smitten with eighties synth pop. Fast Idol, his 2021 Sacred Bones recording, doesn’t merely replicate the sound world of FM synths and drum machines. Instead, Black Marble stretches out several of his songs past the eighties’ single terrain of three minutes, at times into five and six minute long pieces that feature winsome interludes and off-kilter structures. Check out the lead off track “Somewhere” for a case in point. Hooks abound amid the solos, with “Bodies” and “Try” supplying particularly memorable melodies. Stewart’s previous album was a Best of 2020 release, and Fast Idol is even better. 

 

Ookii Gekkou (meaning ‘big moonlight’ in Japanese), is Vanishing Twin’s “lockdown album,” that the band thought of as a “dream catcher for the madness.” Instead of shouting into the darkness, Vanishing Twin decided dystopian dance was in order. Field recordings, bells, and tasty riffs from guitars and synths populate Ookii Gekkou’s ornate arrangements. Influences abound: disco, Afro-futurist jazz, twee pop, space sounds, and synth pop. Highly recommended. 

 

-Christian Carey

 

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

Best of 2021 – Burned into the Orange by Peter Gilbert (CD Review)

Burned into the Orange

Music of Peter Gilbert

Arditti String Quartet; Iridium Quartet, Emmanuele Arciuli, piano; et al. 

New Focus Records CD/DL

 

This is composer Peter Gilbert’s second recording for New Focus; the first was back in 2008, The Long Arch of Undreamt Things. He is Associate Professor of Music at University of New Mexico, and has a long artistic pedigree filled with prestigious residencies, performances, and awards. There is a visceral character in Gilbert’s music that distinguishes it, and in his recent music it appears that geography plays as much of a role as any of the aforementioned experiences. The searing heat of the summer sun in the Southwest, the beauty of its flora and fauna, and the changes of light against mountain streams are all analogous to the diverse array of instrumental colors that Gilbert brings to bear. 

 

A case in point is Intermezzo: Orange into Silver, which Gilbert synesthetically describes as depicting the oranges inspired by the New Mexico landscape moving to a metallic silver, “…a kind of astral wind that ultimately settles into another of the Rilke-inspired clouds of breath.” A plethora of timbres are contained within these broad strokes, belying the piece’s three-minute duration with a varied splendor of synthetic sounds. Elsewhere the approach is more distilled. Arditti String Quartet plays deconstructed double stops with furious intensity on The Voice Opens Wide to Forget That Which You Are Singing. A live recording by basset recorder player Jeremias Schwarzer with electronics by Gilbert, The Palm of Your Hand Touches My Body is the most extended piece on the album and also its most engaging, challenging the listener to locate whether particular sounds emanate from the recorder or the electronics throughout: a satisfying game of musical hide and seek. Wave Dash, Camilla Hoetenga, flute and Magdalena Meitzner, percussion, perform Channeling the Waters, which seems to encompass more whitecaps than burbling brooks. 

 

Standout Soon as the Sun Forsook the Eastern Main features the pianist Emmanuele Arculi in a close-miked series of corruscating arpeggios, which is succeeded by electronic interpolations of synthetic harmonic series and polytonal verticals. Thunderous bass notes are set against a shimmering upper register electronic drone, all added to the mix of verticals. Another layer, of sampled vocalize, moves the piece still further toward the ethereal. One gets a foreshadowing of the electronics, at least its approach, in Meditation upon the Awakening of the Spirit, placed earlier on the disc. Upon the Awakening, another piece for electronics and live performers, in this case the Iridium Quartet (who are saxophonists) also explores spectral series, including detuned upper partials, and disjunct yet lyrical melodic material. By the Lonely Traveller’s Call for tuba with amplified mute supplies a unique palette of sounds and engaging formal design. Gilbert is a consummate craftsman with an unerring ear for textures, both electronic and acoustic. Recommended. 

 

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

Josquin 500 Part Two

Josquin 500 Part Two

The Josquin Legacy

Gesualdo Six

Harmonia Mundi CD

In Principio

De Labyrintho, Walter Tesolin

Baryton CD

Josquin Desprez

The Renaissance Master – Sacred Music and Chansons

Cappella Amsterdam, Daniel Reuss

Ensemble Clément Janequin, Ensemble Organum, Marcel Pérès

Ensemble Les Eléments, 

Ensemble Clément Janequin, Dominique Visse

Huelgas-Ensemble, Paul Van Nevel

La Chapelle Royale, Philippe Herreweghe

Theatre of Voices, Paul Hillier

Harmonia Mundi 3xCD

Josquin and the Franco-Flemish School

Ensemble Gille Binchois

Kings Singers

Early Music Consort of London

Hilliard Ensemble

Warner Classics 34XCD boxed set

Josquin – Baisiez Moy

thélème, Jean-Christophe Groffe 

Aparté CD

 

These releases commemorating the 500th anniversary of Josquin’s death take different, but equally diverting, approaches to assessing the composer’s legacy. They demonstrate the flexibility of approaches possible in interpreting the composer’s work. 

 

Carlo Gesualdo and Josquin Desprez are worlds apart, in terms of musical language, personality, and chronology, but they share a particular coincidence of geography: both of them had formative musical experiences in Ferrara. Thus, it seemed natural for the Gesualdo Six to center their program The Josquin Legacy around Josquin’s brief but fruitful tenure in the d’Este court in 1503-1504. Another linchpin of the recording is its programming of Josquin’s predecessor Johannes Ockeghem, rival Heinrich Isaac, contemporaries Pierre de la Rue, Antoine Brumel, Loyset Compere, and Antoine de Fevin, and successors Antoine Willaert and Jean Lhéritier, all of whom also had connections to the d’Este court and Ferrara. The curation is excellent, and the singing is most compelling; Gesualdo Six present a well blended, sonorous, and vibrant sound and deliver contrapuntal passages with utmost clarity. Their performance of Josquin’s Nymphe des bois, a memorial piece for Ockeghem, is one of the finest I can remember of this often-recorded masterwork. Equally compelling are their warmly hued rendition of Willaert’s Infelix Ego and plangent performance of Pierre de la Rue’s Absalom Fili Mi, a piece once attributed to Josquin that underscores the musical connections shared among composers of the Franco-Flemish School who found inspiration in their Italian sojourns. 

 

In Principio, a recording of De Labyrintho, has a warmer sound with a bit more of the room provided as ambience. The approach here is to present musical settings by Josquin of biblical and medieval texts that provide a chronology starting in Advent and ending with the infancy of Jesus, including motets about Mary, the Mother of Christ. They perform several longer pieces, including Liber generationis Jesu Christ, O Admirabile Commercium, and the album’s closer, the elegant Factum est Autem, and excel at shaping their large-scale architecture, suggesting that form coincided with local counterpoint in Josquin’s conception of motet composition. 

 

The Renaissance Master is a triple-disc set that includes several of the best early music vocal ensembles performing sacred music and chansons. The liner notes, written by Henri Vanhault, admit that in celebrating Josquin, likely misattribution of pieces to him means that a compendium like this is also celebrating like-minded contemporary composers. With the chance to compare thrilling performances by such estimable interpreters, one needn’t worry too much if all of Josquin’s catalog is sorted. With such bounty, it is difficult to pick favorites, but the Huelgas Ensemble’s performance of the 24-voice Qui Habitat is quite something, as is the Theatre of Voices’ performance of Missa Beata Virgine. La Chapelle Royale wins the prize for fastest performance on record of Ave Maria Virgo Serena. For those who want an even deeper dive and the context of a compendious collection of composers of the Franco-Flemish School of which Josquin is a part, Warner Classics has issued a 34 CD boxed set that will keep one busy visiting fifteenth and early sixteenth century music throughout the holidays and beyond. Excellent performances by estimable ensembles here too. 

 

Thélème takes a particularly novel approach to performing  Josquin’s works, including several that seldom appear on recordings,  incorporating modern instruments, such as Fender Rhodes electric piano and Buchla synthesizer, on their Aparté CD Baisiez Moy. The result is fascinating, reminding one that there were various heterogeneous ways in which these pieces were presented during the time period of their composition. Check out “Unisono 2” to hear the recording at its furthest out. Josquin’s work is durable enough to withstand and, on Baisiez Moy, flourish in imaginative renditions. 

 

-Christian Carey

 

by Christian Carey
Ambient, Best of, CD Review, File Under?

Best of 2021: Philip Blackburn and Chris Campbell (CD Review)

Best of 2021: Recordings by Philip Blackburn and Chris Campbell

 

Philip Blackburn

Justinian Intonations

Neuma CD

 

Chris Campbell

Orison

Innova LP

 

 

Both Philip Blackburn and Chris Campbell are poly-artists, sitting astride composition and sound art and working with homemade (or, in the case of Blackburn, also Partch made) instruments. In 2021, Blackburn�s Justinian Intonations and Campbell�s Orison topped the currently crowded field of ambient classical, providing long form pieces that encourage contemplative listening. It is frustrating that some quarters have tagged them with a �New Age� label, as their work is more intricate and, frankly, interesting than what is generally given that genre designation.�

 

A sound prayer and meditation in seven parts, Campbell says of Orison that it is his version of sitting. The music is contemplative but also collaborative, made by a mixed instrumental ensemble of fourteen musicians that features some of contemporary classical�s heavy hitters. There are stretches of drone, but also places of activity, melodic patterns, instrumental solos, outbursts of percussion, swelling crescendos, and glissandos. Use of instrumental layering creates beguiling sounds deftly orchestrated. The move through a number of demeanors sparks interest without ever diminishing the contemplative aspects of the work. Orison is a dazzling, refreshing, and distinctively individual composition.

 

Blackburn�s Justinian Intonations begins with �Out Beyond,� a five-minute opener featuring the wide-ranging vocalist Ryland Angel singing a translation of Rumi in scalar passages, a conch shell solo, and ambient noise such as crunching footsteps. The title work is based on the reverberation times in two ancient cisterns in Europe. A simple device – clapping in the spaces – yields information that is stretched out, spectrally analyzed, and tweaked for maximum overtone experience. The results create harmonically intricate drones that change a great deal over the course of the piece. Angel�s chanting is overdubbed in places to add a performative element to the proceedings. Like Orison, Blackburn�s music is simultaneously meditative and animated, rewarding patient and close listening with an abundance of beautiful, unreproducible sounds.�

 

  • Christian Carey
by Christian Carey
Best of, CD Review, File Under?, Improv, jazz

Best of 2021 – Craig Taborn on ECM (CD Review)

Sequenza 21 Best of 2021

 

Craig Taborn

Shadowplay

ECM Records

 

I first became aware of pianist Craig Taborn in the early aughts, writing about him for (dearly departed) Copper Press and Signal to Noise and contributing reviews of his various outings as leader and sideperson since. In his recent playing, Taborn has displayed increasing expansiveness and interest in diversely complex formal designs. Shadowplay is a 2020 live recording of the pianist at Konzerthaus, Wien. The full hour and a quarter of it is improvised material, some pieces providing a fresh perspective on Taborn�s creativity.�

 

The opener, �Bird Templars�, is representative of the frequent juxtapositions of musical techniques employed on the recording. It starts pianissimo with a repeated mid-register tremolo and a gradually unfolding melody in the lower register, then doubled in rumbling octaves. The oscillation builds into chordal tremolos with the countermelody now placed in the middle register. A repeated figure in the bass starts to define the harmony, and it builds into octave arpeggios over the tremolos, now more insistent, and then a series of close-spaced intervals, a collection that will reappear in various guises. The roles shift, with chords in the left hand and a continually repeated unison in the right. These are the building blocks for the material that ensues, with a development in which sharing of material between hands is expanded and reconsidered. The middle section finally concludes with a keyboard spanning scale with the sustain pedal held down. This is followed by a section that puts the chords in the left hand and a mournful melody in the right in a grand crescendo of activity, which dissolves into the close-spaced interval group played inverted in the left hand while thirds in the right climb upward and revert back to tremolos to close. To work out such a framework on the fly takes technical skill, contrapuntal chops, and tremendous concentration.�

 

Beginning with dissonant fragments of material, �Shadowplay� demonstrates concern with stylistic plurality. It moves through swing time sections, ostinato arpeggiations, thick repeated chords, a passage of minimalism, and an extended coda of repeated mottos in both left and right hand that link together in polyrhythmic post-bop fashion. At the very end, the motto pops up an octave to explore the soprano register and then, abruptly, stops.�

 

The listener is treated to several more long form improvisations with compositional deployment of formal design, including the pair of �Discordia Concors,� a Schoenbergian essay with glissandos alongside melodic angularity and �Concordia Discors� that more resembles the color chords of Messiaen accompanying a mercurial ballad melody, which then goes into a double time ramble. There is a build to a protracted clarion repeated unison, then slowing to a glacial version of the ballad tune. �Conspiracy of Things� begins with a blustery cascade of dissonances that moves into an ebullient set of bebop variations. It finishes with an accelerando of chromatic passagework over a repeated bass groove.�

 

�A Code with Spells� brings together a bluesy ballad�s melodic embellishments, repeated bass riff, and imaginative chordal exploration. Here as elsewhere, many different dynamic shadings and variations of phrasing create an abundant variety of impressions. The repetition eventually spreads to the entire texture, in successive ferocious builds and then a decrescendoing denouement daring the listener to guess when it will cease. Near the end, a triplet figure inserts itself and proliferates to take over the rhythm, accelerating to an abrupt close.��

 

�Now in Hope� finishes the concert with a gospel/bop hybrid that is the closest material to traditional jazz on Shadowplay. At its conclusion, enthusiastic applause is left untrimmed – feel free to join in.�

 

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

Iron Orchid (CD Review)

Iron Orchid

Ning Yu and David Bird

New Focus Recordings

 

Composer and electronic musician David Bird’s work Iron Orchid enlists pianist Ning Yu as a collaborator. Bird’s electronics often provide steely sounds that accord both with the title and the inside the piano work that Yu does. In fact, the second word of the title plays a role in the piece as well, indicating the organic nature of its formal design. So does the presence of live electronics against an acoustic piano, albeit one that has effects, microtones, and reverb as part of its palette. Thus in sections like “Iron,” reverb-hued electronics and string noise create thorny textures; an interesting coda involves a simple piano ostinato that is distressed with quarter tones and Bird unleashing plucking noises to a quasi-electronica beat.

 

The shape of Iron Orchid is somewhat hollowed out, with the outer movements of sizable duration while the central movements serve as aphoristic impressions. “Interlude” includes high sine tones throughout, with an atonal introduction followed by flowing ostinatos. “Prism” features a slow build from the electronics while foregrounded piano plays an angular and rising accelerando; Bird responds in kind with analog bleeps. “A Thin War of Metal” once again juxtaposes acerbic electronic textures with clusters and extended chords that give a nod to postmodern jazz. “Between Walls” returns the proceedings to inside the piano effects, this time  against windswept electronics. 

 

The final movement, “Petals,” brings together a number of non-metallic sounds to create a section that highlights the organic nature of Iron Orchid’s concept. A submarine klaxon opens the movement, followed by granular synth textures set against Yu playing reverberant single notes. A cello sample enters to create counterpoint against the piano, while a distorted series of electronic ostinatos push against the acoustic foreground. Yu takes up a mournful chord progression that banishes the most pointed electronic interjections, with bent notes, rumbling, and periodic percussive attacks creating an affecting coda. Iron Orchid is an engaging listen throughout. At a half hour long, it seems to cry out for a sequel to fill out a duo recital program. Here’s hoping. 

 

-Christian Carey

 

by Christian Carey
Best of, CD Review, File Under?, Piano, Twentieth Century Composer

Best of 2021: Messiaen on Kairos (CD Review)

Sequenza 21 – Best of 2021

 

Olivier Messiaen

Vingt regards sur l’enfant-Jésus

Alfonso Gómez, piano

Kairos CD

 

In 1944, Olivier Messiaen wrote a recital length work (about 2 hours in duration) for pianist Yvonne Loriod, one of his proteges and, later, his spouse. Vingt regard sur l’enfant-Jésus (“Twenty Visions of the Infant Jesus”) widely encompasses the techniques of Messiaen’s musical language and epitomizes the importance of religious contemplation and corresponding symbolism in his work. Where some Christmas music takes a sentimental approach to regarding the infant Jesus, there is none of that here. Instead, Vingt regards explores the awe inspiring power of this event, with music that ranges from ecstatic joy (Noël) to prayerful reverence (Le Baiser de-l’Enfant Jésus) to fear of the abyss. 

 

Messiaen was quick to point out that, while religious symbolism and belief were intrinsic to his creativity, believers and non-believers alike could be moved by his music. However, his intimate knowledge of scriptural symbolism is intrinsic to Vingt Regards and is well explicated in Meinrad Walter’s lucid booklet notes. The movements are interconnected in a number of ways. The modes of limited transposition are the building blocks of the pitch material, and the composer’s characteristic birdsong is also present in many places, with great eloquence in Regards de la Vierge. Messiaen pointed out a particular chordal motif that is frequently present at pivotal points, as well as a God theme, a theme of the Star and the Cross, and a theme of Mystical Love, helping to bind Vingt Regards together. Correspondingly, his interest in syncopation and mixed meters abets the livelier sections, with complex yet exuberant dance music, as in Regard de l’esprit de joie, and in Par lui tout a été fait. In addition to Trinitarian formulations, Messiaen pays special attention to the Virgin Mary. Indeed, Première Communion de la Vierge (“First Communion of the Virgin”) is one of the most moving portions of the piece.

 

There are a number of recordings of Vingt Regards, but Alfonso Gómez proves to be an individual and distinctive interpreter, skilful in navigating the piece’s many challenges and expressive details. Aphoristic sections like L’Echange and Regard des hauteurs , are provided with incisive clarity of gesture, the latter’s birdsong practically evoking a grove of avians. Where Gómez truly thrives, though, is in the longer movements, where he shapes the juxtaposition of motives to underpin vivid textures. His rendition of the piece’s final movement, Regard de l’église d’amour (“Contemplation of the Church of Love”)  knits together many threads of the essential material of Vingt Regards, providing a sophisticated and powerful conclusions to this towering example of 20th century pianism. 

 

by Christian Carey