Tag Archives: Drum kit

Ludwig van Pritsker


Composers Concordance COMCON0062

Oh, no! Not another Beethoven tribute. Up til now I’ve successfully avoided the avalanche of Beethoven tributes. Those old enough (as is this writer) will recall a similar avalanche from 1970, Beethoven’s 200th birthday. That year gave us countless new recordings of everything Beethoven wrote or almost wrote (the reconstruction of the Beethoven 10th for example. It also gave us some clever contemporary works influenced by the master, most notably perhaps, Mauricio Kagel’s “Ludwig van”.

2020 saw an overwhelming fattenning of the volume of new recordings of Beethoven’s works by yet another generation of appreciative artists. This blogger has declined to review these because these new readings become matters of personal preference and it I think these preferences are best left to water cooler (or social media) discussions. It is curious, though, that no one (as far as I know) has attempted to record the re-orchestrations of Beethoven’s work by the likes of Felix Weingartner but that is a matter for another blog perhaps.

Track List:
1 Ludwig’s Night Out
(for guitar, keys, bass and drums)
EroicAnization
(for Di.J. and chamber ensemble)
2 Eroica Erupted
3 Eroica Extracted
4 Erotic Eroica
5 Eulogy Eroica
feat. Chanda Rule
6 Erroneous Eroica
7 Eka Tala Eroica
8 Für Elise Charleston
(for chamber ensemble)

So along comes ensemble KONTRASTE who chose to commission Gene Pritsker to write a piece for said anniversary. Pritsker continues to be both prolific and interesting in his blending of classical, jazz, klezmer, rap, and hip-hop into a coherent musical style. And the result is the six movement EroicAnization written for the ensemble. In the time of Covid the recording was done in studio in Nuremberg by the ensemble with Pritsker recording the guitar parts in New York.

The work is bookended by two shorter works, “Ludwig’s Night Out”, a humorous deconstruction of Beethoven’s Violin and Piano Sonata No. 7. The work is described by the composer as an imaginary trip to town by the elder composer where he visits various night clubs. It is all in good fun and provides a nice introduction to the more complex six movement EroicAnization where he uses sampling alongside the ensemble in a wild humorous ride. He includes the sweet voice of Chandra Rule in the Elegy section. It is in many ways a summation of musical styles up to this moment as he embraces the genres mentioned above.

The ending bookend piece is another less complex but no less entertaining short tribute which embraces klezmer and jazz, something one could imagine having existed during the brief Weimar Republic before toxic takeover of National Socialism, the doomed to failure Nazi regime. In many ways this album is an island of manic joy in these peculiarly apocalyptic times.

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Dane Rousay’s Blip


cover

Dane Rousay is a San Antonio based percussionist and this is the first of several planned releases.  This is a solo effort largely with drum kit and perhaps a couple of enhancements or additional percussive hardware.  There are 8 rather brief tracks on this album, all of an experimental nature and all very well recorded.

One small disclaimer:  I generally don’t review download only releases but Mr. Rousay was persistent and kind in his requests for a review.  Another aspect is that there appears to be an increase in this purely digital release format and to ignore that in favor of a demand for a physical product would likely be missing an opportunity to hear some good work.

Despite the brevity there is much for the ear.  The percussion seems to be closely miked and that is apparently the point here.  Each track is like a mini-etude or experiment which will presumably be used as material for other work.  Whether this is jazz, free jazz, new music, classical, etc. is actually beside the point.  The point appears to be the sound itself.

There are no liner notes and little in the way of explanation to be found even on the composer’s web site.  (That’s not necessarily a negative thing either.)  It is not clear if this music is improvised or composed or if there is any predetermined structure and there appears to be no intended connection between each of the tracks.  Most of the work is mallets or sticks of some sort hitting the targeted percussive surface though he does make use of extended techniques such as rubbing the mallets across the surface creating rich harmonics in the manner of the spectralists.

After multiple listens this reviewer is left with the impression of having visited the artist’s studio for a rather personal tour of some of his working ideas.  If you are a percussionist or a fan of percussion music this album will doubtless interest you.  It is not easy listening but it does appear to be a very personal exploration of this artist’s techniques and ideas.

I am looking forward to more from this interesting and seemingly uncompromising artist.

 

Rhys Chatham: Harmonie du Soir


Rhys Chatham performing in Richmond, CA 2013

Rhys Chatham performing in Richmond, CA 2013

Chatham’s new CD “Harmonie du Soir” on Northern Spy records was thoughtfully made available for sale at the ‘Secret Rose’ performance this past November. Of course I had to buy it but after that concert I found I needed time to digest the performance before I dare move on to listening to another of his deceptively simple sounding compositions. The CD consists of three compositions, Harmonie du Soir (2012), The Dream of Rhonabwy (2012) and a bonus track Drastic Classicism Revisited (1986/2012).  All the pieces represent aspects of the artist’s output which will be familiar to fans of his work.

rhys_chatham_-_harmonie_du_soir_2

The first track Harmonie du Soir (after the poem of the same name by Charles Baudelaire) was premiered and subsequently recorded in France in 2012.  In his liner notes Chatham points out that he uses tunings like those used previously in An Angel Moves Too Fast to See (1986) and Crimson Grail (2007).  It reminds this listener of Die Dönnergetter (1986).  It employs the same configuration of 6 electric guitars, electric bass and drum kit.  It is not, however, a reworking of the 1986 piece but rather a new piece which developed from similar methods.  Harmonie clocks in at 22’26”, similar in length.  The comparison ends there.  The difference between Dönnergetter and Harmonie is more like the difference between a Beethoven middle string quartet and a late string quartet.  Same ensemble, similar gestures but an overall very different impact. Like all of Chatham’s guitar pieces this is best heard at a substantial volume level if you want to appreciate the harmonics which result from the tuning system he uses.  This is post-punk after all and the wall of sound is frequently an essential part of the piece.  It begins with a minimalist type repeating of a 2 note pattern punctuated after a few repeats by the drum kit and on to some droning harmonies aching for a melody in an insistent rhythm.  This moves on to a faster section which takes on not the dance-like character like he does in Die Dönnergetter, rather it is a sort of deconstruction.  It is consists of guitar tremolos and rolls on the drum kit and moves into a new somewhat pointillistic  guitar figure accompanied by a throbbing bass line and a steady rhythm on the drum kit.  This  is followed by a return to the music which opened the piece.  Clearly this is a composer whose work continues to develop and show variety.

The second piece is another with precedents in the composer’s previous compositional efforts.  This is essentially a piece for a wind and brass orchestra with percussion.  No strings, no guitars or bass.  It marks a return for Chatham to writing for and playing trumpet.  The piece was written for a 70 piece brass band called Harmonie de Pontarlier, named for the town of their origin. It is 20’26” in length and Rhys plays trumpet along with the band.  One is reminded of pieces like his Waterloo No. 2 (1981) which appeared on his CD “Die Dönnergetter”.  The composer takes his approach to writing for band but here expands into symphonic proportions.  According to the liner notes this was written as a soundtrack to a film.   After multiple listenings I came to hear this as though it were an homage to grand romantic symphonists like Bruckner or Mahler.  This is a briefer symphony than those ancestors would have written but the spirit is there if dressed in more contemporary guise.  The music relies on sustained tones and intervals which, like Chatham’s guitar pieces, produce cascades of harmonics, a mesmerizing experience.

The last piece is listed as being a “bonus track”.  It is Drastic Classicism Revisited and is a sort of reworking of Chatham’s earlier work Drastic Classicism from 1981.  It was originally written for a dance choreographed by Karole Armitage and was performed by the musician live on stage with the dancers.  Post-punk for modern dance.  At 9’36” it is the shortest track but well worth its inclusion on this beautifully produced disc. I can’t wait to hear more from the Northern Spy  (http://northernspyrecords.com/artist/rhys-chatham/) catalog.  All in all a great listening experience by this wonderful expatriate American composer.  I highly recommend it.

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