Tag Archives: New Music

Other Minds 17. Day 2


The second night at Other Minds featured two different generations of composers. As is their practice Other Minds on this night featured two composers already established and fairly well known in new music circles as well as three up and coming artists.

The first performance was by San Francisco’s own champions of new music, the Del Sol Quartet. They performed the American premiere of American expatriate composer Gloria Coates’ String Quartet No. 5 composed in 1988. This and her 8 other quartets have been made available on the brave and progressive Naxos CD label. Coates also holds the record as the most prolific woman symphonist of all time with some 16 symphonies to her credit (many of those are available and well worth seeking on CD as Well).

String Quartet No. 5 is cast in three movements. By the composers description all of the movements are canons, a simple counterpoint form. But the result is hardly simple. Using microtonal glissandi, sometimes having instruments tuned a quarter tone apart and relying on creative ways of synchronizing the players individual tempos Coates achieved a complex sounding but friendly and approachable result. The quartet which lasted about 30 minutes would be a challenge for any ensemble but the Del Sol (which, except for the cellist, perform standing in a break with convention) clearly knew and liked the work and gave an intense and beautiful rendering sounding at times like there were more than four players. The piece has an almost romantic feel at times, cleverly incorporating melodies into a sound world uniquely the composer’s own (I am at a loss to identify a precedent). I sincerely hope that this work and her other works become better known in this, her native country. It is a tribute to the acumen of the Other Minds team that music like this is presented here. The audience greeted the performance very appreciatively.

Next up was Harold Budd on piano playing with Keith Lowe on double bass augmented with electronic effects. The piece, titled “It’s Only a Daydream” from 2011 is, by Budd’s description, entirely improvisational as is most of his music. Lowe began playing first with long sustained tones awash with rich harmonics. Budd’s piano then entered and we were transported to the familiar sound world which is Budd’s musical signature. Those who knew his collaborations with Brian Eno and his later solo works recognized his somber pretty ambient sounds. The two musicians were well matched and played a sort of jazz duet trading solos and accompaniments evoking a curiously nostalgic and hypnotic atmosphere of a strange dream-like lounge. Time seemed suspended and I don’t know exactly how long they played but when they finished the enthusiastic audience reception brought them back for a shorter encore, something I had never seen occur before at this festival.

Following intermission Ikue Mori took the stage sitting at her laptop which controls her various electronic sounds. She played the laptop solo for a few minutes and was then joined by UC Berkeley faculty composer Ken Ueno on vocals. But ah, what unusual vocals. His extended vocal techniques seem to come equally from Tuvan throat singing, Buddhist chanting, David Hykes (of the harmonic choir), Meredith Monk, Diamanda Galas, Kenji Suzuki (of the band Can), Tan Dun (on Taoism) and God knows what else. After another few minutes Tyshawn Sorey, a doctoral candidate in composition at Columbia, seated himself quietly at his drum/percussion kit, then with an assertive fortissimo bang on the side drum confidently entered the energetic fray. Mori sat intently gazing at her computer screen and entering the sound changes for her part while Ueno, holding the microphone to his mouth with both hands issued passionate wordless vocalizations of endless variety and Sorey executed a similar endless variety of high energy acoustic percussion sounds.

Mori calmly issued computer commands to perform her Japanese/New York/ punk/free jazz/Stockhausen expanded percussions while the academic Ueno improvised intense growling, multiphonic, wild vocals with few pauses and Sorey got in touch with his AACM ancestors producing a unified three ring circus of wonderful musical mayhem transcending any concept of genre. Three different traditions, separate but working together. Metaphorical? You decide.

Well deserved and enthusiastic applause greeted the intense but calm Mori and the sweaty and apparently exhausted but satisfied Ueno and Sorey.

The relative order of Coates followed by the ethereal calm improvisations of Budd were but a distant memory (albeit a pleasant one) after the ritual emotional exorcism of the second half. This is the rich variety that characterizes these concerts. And now anticipation builds for tomorrow’s finale.

Other Minds Festival 17


Thursday night was the opening concert of Other Minds 17th annual series at the beautiful Kanbar Hall in the San Francisco Jewish Community Center which features a typically eclectic selection of new and recent music. Six countries are represented this year including the United States, Germany, Japan, Denmark, Norway and Finland.

This first night featured the palindromically named Norwegian ensemble Asamisimasa. They are a group of highly trained young musicians who dedicate themselves to the performance of post war avant garde and recent music (some written for them).

What makes them unique is their integration of traditional instruments with various types of electronics and techniques to modify and enhance their sound. They include standard video, digital processing and extended instrumental techniques as well as uncommon enhancements such as hand held megaphones and found sounds like tearing newspaper, spray cans and sliding blocks that rub on various surfaces.

The result was a wonderful embodiment of the post- Cagean musical esthetic which is the driving force behind Other Minds as they describe it in their mission statement. These dedicated skilled classical musicians played a program of a fellow Norwegian and a Danish composer. It was a performance that was adventurous, humorous and engaging.

The first half featured two works by Oivind Torvund. The first work from 2009 was “Neon Forest Space” for clarinet, cello, guitar/radio, percussion and pre-recorded media. Brief motivic segments, mostly by solo instruments, were strung together by a variety of sounds controlled by a musician who doubled as conductor. The overall impression was one of a spare impressionistic piece informed equally by the sound worlds of Pierre Boulez, Karlheinz Stockhausen and, according to the program, Black Flag.
The second piece was the world premiere of “Willibald Motor Landscape” written last year. This piece, using essentially the same instrumentation was built upon a recorded soundtrack of traffic sounds creating an impressionistic picture presumably of the road in the title.
The audience was very appreciative and we learned following intermission that all of the Oivind Torvund CDs had sold out! Welcome to America Mr. Torvund.

The second half of the night featured what was to have been a performance without pause of four pieces by Simon Steen-Andersen of Denmark. Unfortunately, following the performance of “Study for String Instrument #2” (for cello and whammy pedal, 2009), the cellist lost her footing on the darkened stage. The crashing sound seemed at first a part of the performance. But the lights were brought up quickly finding that the cellist was thankfully mostly unharmed and able to continue performing. However her cello had sustained a broken tuning peg. Charles Amirkhanian, the festival director tactfully asked the audience’s indulgence while another cello was obtained, a process which required only about 10 minutes (!). The cellist with the replacement cello returned to the stage to relieved and appreciative applause. Mr. Amirkhanian thanked the audience, who barely moved in the interim, for their patience.

The stage lights were darkened again and the ensemble restarted the piece which had been so briefly interrupted. From the microtonal glissandos duet of cello and whammy pedal they began the second piece, “Half a Bit of Nothing Integrated” (2007) for extremely amplified clarinet, percussion, cello and live video operated by the percussionist. In good humor and with professional showmanship the percussionist began by speaking, “Now where were we?”. And they performed with sounds of seemingly malfunctioning electronics evoking a post apocalyptic sound world which evoked worlds like that of “Blade Runner”.
This time there was no pause as they moved on with an illuminated stage to “On And Off And To And Fro” (2008). This piece featured megaphones operated by musicians who at times were miking the instrumentalists and at other times playing percussive effects with the microphones (blowing into them, scraping them, etc.) and playing quite skillfully with feedback created by holding the mikes various distances from the speakers. The sight of four musicians reading from scores and following a conductor with these megaphones evoked appreciative laughter from the audience. The final piece, “Study for String Instrument #3 (2011)”, was for cello and video. The cellist, Tanja Orning, played her instrument in non-melodic fashion with a bow which produced scraping sounds. Superimposed upon her was a video of her playing and the interest of the piece is a fascinating mostly visual duet between the live performer and the video. Her actions sometimes duplicated, sometimes opposed that of the video and the effect, sometimes humorously reminiscent of the Marx Brothers mirror routine, was an engaging and occasionally disturbing image (I’m not sure why it was disturbing actually).

Warm applause followed this lively and dedicated performance from this fine young group. All in all a very entertaining evening opening the always unpredictable and eclectic Other Minds Festival.

Hello world! This is “New Music Buff”


Welcome to my music blog. I am an avid listener, collector and supporter of music in general. I am particularly interested in new and cutting edge music.

What I offer here are informed opinions about what is essentially one of my hobbies. The blog title “New Music Buff” is intended to connote a somewhat casual perspective by an educated consumer.

I offer personal opinions which I hope will provoke discussion but also stimulate interest.

Thank you for reading.

Allan J. Cronin