Brutal New Music Reviews

  Elise Noyes and Gina Hyunmin Lee - Clairières; but a moment A wonderful listen for any lovers of late-Romantic art song, Clairi ères; but a moment brings a delightfully new sense of clarity to Lili Boulanger's vocal music. Presented here by Elise Noyes, soprano and Gina Hyunmin Lee , piano, the album pairs Boulanger's 1914 thirteen-song cycle  Clairières dans le ciel (Clearings in the Sky)  with a newly commissioned companion cycle, If all this is but a moment... , by Monica Pearce . Boulanger's music, this cycle in particular, has seen more traction in the last few years. It is apparent that Noyes and Lee have spent a lot of time with Boulanger's music, resulting in such a meticulous recording. Especially of note is Lee's expressive and balanced playing, which brings attention to Boulanger's engaging harmonic shifts and colors throughout the cycle. If all this is but a moment...  is a real gem to have added to this album. Pearce has created an almost biograph...

     Nirmali Fenn - When Apathy is Betrayal Just under an hour long, Nirmali Fenn's When Apathy is Betrayal  connects an intensely spiritual musical langu age with the visceral reality of the modern world. Written for two sopranos and an ensemble of flute, percussion, strings, and electronics, Fenn's music captivates the listener, forcing us to reflect with intent. The two sopranos,  Barbora Kabátková and Pavla Radostova, brilliantly navigate the demanding and theatrical writing, switching from independent virtuosic solo lines, to blending within the larger ensemble, to acting as one more-than-human combined vocal instrument - often supplemented with live electronics. The cohesive success of the work is largely due to the fact that  When Apathy is Betrayal is bookended by forceful drumming solos, inspired by Sri Lankan Kandyan drumming. The percussionists of Prague Modern, Štěpán Hon and Ladislav Bilan Jr., are able to seamlessly incorporate the style ...

     Duo Étrange - i wish i were dead With their debut album,   Duo Étrange , Sahara von Hattenberger and Vanessa Croome, presents a collection of contemporary works, blurring between art song and chamber music. Supported on some of the pieces by pianist, Joanne Kang, and clarinetist, Airat Ichmouratov,  i wish i were dead  claims to brazenly support contemporary classical music. Even on its fringes, the works are all focused around traditionally pleasant sounds and accessibility. Duo Étrange's mission also comes across as quasi-paradoxical, giving us all newly composed music, but only when directly related to ancient themes and traditional mystic texts.  Two pieces by Jeffrey Fong open the album, new commissions which set excerpts of a Medieval epic poem. Fong's jerky vocal writing is assuaged by Croome's incredibly lyrical voice, but it still results in the musical impression that the composer has no care whether or not the text is hea...

   Portland Percussion Group -  Patterns & Form Their first album out on New Focus Recordings,   Portland Percussion Group 's Patterns & Form  showcases their technical skills and aesthetic range as an ensemble dedicated to percussion chamber music. The three works included on the album were all written with a direct connection to the ensemble. Each approaches different stereotypes associated with percussion music, which tracks as all three composers are either also percussionists or heavily involved in the world of percussion music.  The titular work, Alejandro Viñao's Patterns & Form , is presented in three movements and takes up a little more than half the album. It is by far the strongest of the three pieces presented here, both compositionally and in performance.  Viñao's  work is composed for eight percussionists and piano, with this recording featuring guest pianist Yoko Greeney. The recording and mixing on this piece is in...

  Ensemble Dal Niente - portrait RE / Flux / Pacific Time Ensemble Dal Niente 's recent album features three composers, each of whom have a history of collaboration with the group. The commissioned works all have their own unique approach to Dal Niente's expertise with experimental music. As a whole, the album is an incredible example of how successful new works can be when there is a strong relationship between composers and the ensemble. Igor Santos' portrait R E  opens the album. T he sixteen-minute work for sampler and large ensemble immediately creates a grand sense of atmosphere with electronic white noise and ambient-sounding swells in the ensemble. Pretty quickly, the sampler sounds Santos chooses come across as cliché and the computer start-ups noises gimmicky . Despite this, Santos incorporates some incredible moments of beauty throughout the piece. His use of the recording of Paulo Freire and dec onstructing it with the low instruments in the ensemble is both eng...

 Peter Paulsen - Shanghaied Paisano album review The audience is a floating spectator, journeying across Paulsen's interpretation of Ferlinghetti's poetic documentary. In his latest album, Peter Paulsen , composer and bassist, expands upon his previous chamber jazz output, moving closer to a contemporary third stream. Shanghaied Paisano combines the talents of Paulsen's TurksHeadKnot contemporary trio with the Latin-influenced  Dalí String Quartet . The album, released August 2023 via Navona Records , comprises of the titular, large-scale four-movement work inspired by the poetry of Lawrence Ferlinghetti and closes off with a rousing arrangement of Jobim's Chega de saudade .  Shanghaied Paisano 's opening movement, "And Then Went", starts the audience off with a dissonant chorale led by Chris Bacas on soprano saxophone. Paulsen's clean voicings make the chords approachable and give off a clearly distinguishable melody within the dense harmonies. The re...