Murray Hidary - Distanced Together Distanced Together  is a work which could have been considered art a few years ago, but instead Hidary simply produced another hokey, unoriginal piece of pandemic scrap. Murray Hidary is a composer, artist, and self-proclaimed tech pioneer. His recent sound installation piece, Distanced Together , is currently on display at Mass MOCA . As implied in the title, Distanced Together  is yet another work created to mimic the sounds of human experience during the Covid-19 pandemic. Hidary composed the large ensemble work for sixty solo string players, organized into a literal clock of twelve string quintets. Each player has their own separate part, but a vast majority of the music is doubled or simply passed from player to player. Premiered with live players the past weekend, Hidary's sound installation replaces each musician with a speaker playing a recording of the same part. Unfortunately, this faux-musician setup trivializes the work eve...

 Ryuichi Sakamoto - 12 album review The infatuation with imperfection diverges from one's expectations of a studio album, and challenges listeners to face the uncomfortable in a pleasant manner. Prolific electronic and film composer, Ryuichi Sakamoto , recently released his fifteenth studio album, 12 . The late in life opus is a tremendously personal statement from the composer, especially after being diagnosed with cancer for a second time. 12  collects twelve improvisational compositions for piano and synthesizer, all performed by the composer. The recording quality is reminiscent of a home studio. As 12 goes on, Sakamoto's labored breathing and the clacking of piano mechanisms morph into intimate, extra-musical accompaniments to each track. 12 , released by Milan Records in mid-January, is considerably less formal than much of Sakamoto's earlier work. The recordings are a curated collection of sketches created by the composer throughout his ongoing cancer treatment fr...

 Dalton H. Regnier - circuitbreaker Dalton H. Regnier 's circuitbreaker , for bass clarinet and marimba, was the first place winner of the inaugural ICA  Low Clarinet Festival's composition competition. The seven-minute long work was written for Transient Canvas duo, who gave the world premiere performance at the festival. In addition to composing, Regnier is trained as an experienced clarinetist and is thoroughly familiar with contemporary techniques for the instrument.  circuitbreaker immediately captivates with a gripping unison riff, which finds new ways to develop throughout the piece. The return of familiar thoughts, but never in quite the same way, contributes to the interest of the music. Regnier's bass clarinet writing is intuitive, but relies heavily on extended techniques. These wild sounds are expertly blended into the musical language and contribute to the sense of cohesion in the duo. Bass clarinetist, Amy Advocat, is competent and convincing with thes...

 Prismatic Congruency - "Dreams: neurotic, naughty and nebulous" Virtual Concert Prismatic Congruency is a new music concert series presented by the Boston New Music Initiative . This year's series theme is "Dreams: neurotic, naughty and nebulous", with the first of three virtual concerts being released today (check out the dates/info for all concerts here ). Today's concert features three solo pieces by three different composers (watch/listen to the YouTube premiere here ). Composer Lynn Blake John starts the program with her set of Whale Songs  for solo bassoon. Benjamin Yingst of the Tucson Symphony Orchestra performs the five movements with a strong sense of lyricality. The Whale Songs  are great examples of melodic, tonal etude-esque pieces for a low register instrument. A Tale of My Native Land #4 , an almost ten minute long work for solo piano, is second on the virtual concert. Composed by Charles Shadle , the work continues a series of previous piec...

 Missy Mazzoli - Dark with Excessive Bright album review Mazzoli has found a sound which works for her, somewhere between tonal post-minimalism and the cliches of modern film music.  Dark with Excessive Bright  is the latest album release by esteemed New York-based composer, Missy Mazzoli . The album is bookended by two, quite similar recordings of the titular work, modifying her concerto for double bass and string orchestra into a version for violin and string orchestra or string quintet. Peter Herresthal is featured as the violin soloist for Dark with Excessive Bright , and also performs an older work of Mazzoli's, Vespers for Violin , for violin and fixed media. Three orchestral works, spanning the last two decades of Mazzoli's output, are also featured and are recorded here for the first time: Sinfonia (for Orbiting Spheres) , These Worlds in Us , and Orpheus Undone . The Norwegian-based orchestra,  Artic Philharmonic , led by Tim Weiss, presents itself as an en...

 Akropolis Reed Quintet - Hymns for Private Use album review Hymns for Private Use  continues to showcase Akropolis' elegant playing while reflecting on music's role in the community. Not enough can be said for the superb quality of sound and musicality Akropolis Reed Quintet achieves on all of their releases, and Hymns for Private Use  is no exception. As an ensemble, they have single-handedly propelled forward the genre of the reed quintet in classical music, and strive to continually expand the repertoire with stellar recordings of new works. Hymns for Private Use , released on Bright Shiny Things ,    combines Akropolis' ensemble sound with singer Shara Nova , known across both popular and classical genres. The album is composed of two multi-movement works by composers Nico Muhly and Annika Socolofsky . You can find all links to purchasing and listening to Hymns for Private Use  on Akropolis' website here . As the titular work, Muhly's five Hymns...

 Max Johnson - When the Streets Were Quiet album review Johnson has a keen sense for melody, but his decision to require his music fit nicely into an easily-definable genre only hinders his compositional voice. When the Streets Were Quiet  was released this January by New Focus Recordings , and is a collection of chamber music for clarinet, piano, and strings by Max Johnson . Johnson is a bassist and composer most known for his jazz playing. In  When the Streets , Johnson goes out of his way to avoid any relation to jazz or popular music, instead attempting to use the traditional dividers between genres as a new way to prove himself as a composer. The first two pieces, Minerva and Nine O'Clock, When the Streets Were Quiet , are both long works which feature Lucy Hatem on clarinet. In complete honesty, the two works are almost indistinguishable in musical sound. Johnson is so committed to being a contemporary classical composer, that the material he uses is limited and tir...

 Quinn Collins - Nine Bagatelles album review Collins' world of thick, noise-filled sound is positively mind-numbing, resulting in an environment where any sense of mortal time ceases to exist. The analog modular synthesizer is an unpredictable beast of cables, nearly impossible to tame as a musical instrument. Quinn Collins, an electroacoustic composer based in Philadelphia,  attempts to do just this in his most recent album,  Nine Bagatelles . The album comprises nine 'semi-curated' improvisations for solo monophonic analog synthesizer. Collins successfully brings out a sense of musicality within the noise, creating complex rhythmic and timbral patterns. Each track emphasizes a new soundscape which is used by Collins as an improvisational jumping off point. Collins' world of thick, noise-filled sound is positively mind-numbing, resulting in an environment where any sense of mortal time ceases to exist. While the tracks vary from less than a minute to more than ten, th...

 Joseph Warner - Rite Rite is the latest solo release by bassist-composer Joseph Warner . The piece continues Warner's obsession with exploring and normalizing contemporary sounds on the contrabass. Rite takes the form of a five minute long haunted waltz, which becomes more and more apparent as the large-scale ABA form unfolds. The opening strikes the listener with unexpected multiphonics and a gritty sound, before presenting fragments of a later melody in an uneven meter. The middle pizzicato passage is the most convincing section of the work, which provides context to the opening material and clarifies the waltz-style groove. Warner's jazz harmonies in the middle waltz are engaging while approachable and naturally resonant on the instrument. It shows his strong ability in traditional playing and musical groove, before returning recontextualizing the material within the sound world of the opening arco section. Rite  is the first single from Warner's upcoming solo double ba...