Trace Label
V.A. : Post-Minimalism -2CD- (B,CHI,F,US,2006)****/**°'
A lot has happened in contemporary classical music but little has reached the media well. E.g., in Belgium the only national classical music radio was taken over by a new director and given a new direction with a whole bunch of new consuming producers so that they now mostly only select from the predictable narrow areas of a 19th century based opinion on classical music. Minimalism was some attempt that could have reached the public easily. It was based on recognisable patterns of repetition, and, for the newer generations of minimalist composers, it made the area between contemporary classical music and modern music composers more vague so that a link to more serious pop(ular) music was somewhat restored, so that a composer was not always destined to live in one of both fields. The Trace label was curious on the heritage of this new field of possibilities, and asked many composers, through myspace to show them the legacy.
The result is two CD’s with new compositions. Especially the first CD for me succeeded like a perfect answer to a well put question. It shows a well compiled variety where each track complete the other, and the line between new and modern music becomes ultra-thin, and shows some ideas of possibilities in the new area.
I pretty much like Eric Schwartz composition, which is like a heated up, more directly-driven piece with contrasting contemporary classical sounds, as if Xenakis goes into a “rock” mood, mixed with a bit of tango ; very expressive and with a lot to contribute. This is followed by a piece by Steve Peters, a somewhat improvised minimal piece lead by accordion with gongs, metal bowl, loops, recorded for a choreographical piece, a good example of the thin area between classical and modern, and also between inspiration and rationalisation. Nick Didkovsky’s contributed electric guitar piece uses a combination of electric guitar improvisation, with deductively constructing rhythmic cells. The piece was originally performed with Bang On A Can and was later rearranged for a trio, for his band Doctor Nerve and then again as a duo with Mark Stewart. This is quickly followed by a new minimalist classical idea by Belinda Reynolds, using canons with overlays of different collections of fifths to create the melodies and harmonies that way. Mathematical ideas and minimalism can go easily hand in hand. With open intuitive composing this always works fine. Ya Jun’s performance is done with electro-acoustic ? and acoustic kitchen sink material, including noisy iron movements, as well as bowl like sounds ; and is a rather meditative piece that makes found objects speak, and turn their sounds into a communication of object, environment and its qualities, also with harmonies. It is very good that the next track switches back to a more melodic piece. Ryan Brown’s track is an inventive, melodic classical music piece performed by acoustic guitars, vibraphone, and shows a better sound balance than the overestimated classical orchestra (which is so much overly accepted, some composers or interpretations of even old pieces start to neglect the balance of colours of sounds, because with the 19th century orchestra, there is used only the same limited variety for every existing piece, and with it comes an overestimation of written note melody). Ryan Brown returns to that perfect balance of instruments for his own composition. In that way it is another brilliant piece. Also interesting is Pierre Yves Macé’s study of melodic language, of stand-alone instruments and melodies, finding its rhythmic pulses, with a few harmonizing and a few undisturbing combinations of different semi-simularities of the other instruments. In that way at times of different interactions, some elements of minimalism comes to mind. Alphonse Izzo’s track is composed from digitally altered electric guitars, an ambient guitar piece with in harmony and with overtones, overlapping echos, in a similar effect as the previous track, shows something of new form of minimalist music.
On the second CD more improvised, electro-acoustic and guitar sound based pieces are added, (Marco Oppedisano, Fathmount, Olivier Pé/Yannick Franck) with use of feedback, loops (Istvan Peter B’Rack, Josh Millrod). It is an area which I find less interesting, because I noticed before that on live performances it was mostly the most mediocre musicians who were hiding behind the techniques of guitar sounds, loops and pedals, like also often behind the use of noise and chaos. In this case, in general, it still is less clear to me if the influence of minimalism here was for such an area always constructive or it made results come a bit too easyily ; minimalism became here too often a minimum-alism, also in inspiration and intellect. When it works I think the pieces are able to recall a minimum feeling of sound meditation. Instead of describing these examples from this album, often more soundscape pieces, more particularly, I will pick out a few of the other pieces. Dan Becker’s piece sounds like a combination of minimalist classical music, a slightly jazzy bass, dealing with the idea of construction and destruction in it, repetition and breaking rhythms and melodies, in some way for me, if it continues this way, this strange balance seems like to direct classical music towards a different form of jazz. John King’s piano piece shows an interesting balance between pulsations of constructive piano notes and random combinations and electronically manipulated piano sounds, and in some way contributes his own new vision to the minimalist heritage. Dean Rosenthal however entirely took a rational idea of numeric pitch controlled variations in the composition. This kind of completely rationalised mechanical way of constructive composing was something which was typical for the 50s to the 70s, even trying ethnic music ideas at times. Without reworking the mathematical ideas to something more loosely performed form of improvisation, I think these pieces felt often very unnatural, and I am left with the same feeling here as well. A beautiful piece is Hervé Zénouda’s violin/electrosonic mix, which remind me a bit of Einojuhani Rautavaara’s Cantus Arcticus (1972) piece using electronic birds and landscape describing orchestra, a favourite of mine. Something similar happens here, in a semi-minimalist way.
The double CD provides an insight in new music and for me was successful to show a more clear answer to the question : what possibilities has the progression of minimalism into music in general given to us ?
