Third Coast Percussion - "Between Breaths" album review
Third Coast Percussion - Between Breaths album review
Third Coast Percussion's upcoming album, Between Breaths, is a collection of world premiere recordings of works all specifically composed for the quartet. The album, released by Cedille Records on September 8th, is a follow up to TCP's 2022 album, this time exploring meditation and breaching sonic landscapes. The included works on Between Breaths are all expertly performed here by the quartet, as their style leans into the group's strengths.
The album opens with a new five-movement work by Missy Mazzoli. Millennium Canticles musically depicts a post-apocalyptic group of humans looking to recreate old rituals. Mazzoli's music is as nonsensical as it sounds. The actual fleeting moments of music are quite pleasant, but the Canticles are disoriented with loud, audible breathing (assuming this is from whence the album title comes), awkwardly half-shouted counting (which sounds reminiscent of high school drumline vocal cues), and even yelling practice rhythmic syllables in the last movement. The third canticle, Bloodied Bells, while a little over the top with several types of literal bells ringing, is the most interesting and truly haunting in terms of rituals.
The middle of the album is dedicated to In Practice, a jointly-composed piece by members of TCP. Just as the title says, the meditation is comprised of practice and warm-ups routines tossed between members of the ensemble. Experimental musical reflections have been popular since Oliveros' publication of Sonic Meditations, and in almost all cases they are more interesting to the participants than the audience.
The second half of Between Breaths showcases music of three less-acclaimed composers, which together make up the highlight of the album. Sunny X, an eleven-minute long work by Tyondai Braxton, places the listeners under a semi-electronic state of hypnosis. The steady groove works its way through sets of small rhythmic cells and combines nicely with Braxton's pre-recorded modular synthesizer. The second half opens up the feel of the groove with an interesting combination of ringing gongs, almglocken-like sounds, and pieces of wood.
Ayanna Woods' Triple Point was composed for TCP's 2017 Currents Creative Partnership. Woods has an incredible ear for contrasting groove with timbral oddities to create musical interest. Triple Point catches attention because the music cannot quite figure out what it wants, to be hip and groovy, or relaxed and somber. The album closes with Gemma Peacocke's gorgeous work for four players on two marimbas. Peacocke has written for TCP in the past and understands how they work together as an ensemble. Death Wish is a stunningly ear-pleasing piece, but suffers heavily from misaligned title and program notes. The music sounds neither like a death wish nor quite what her program notes specify. Both versions of the piece are beautiful, but one's impression is heavily altered by whether or not they have read the program notes.
While incredible in its own way, Between Breaths is limited in terms of style and sound. All the works on the album are quite similar, drawing from post-minimalist techniques and relying mostly on similar timbres and instruments. Listening to the album straight through, Between Breaths mushes into one long blathering of repetition. Since TCP so often performs live, I was also surprised to hear the amount of post-production added in the album. The final result crafts a pristine recording, but also sounds especially unnatural to the ears.
listen to and purchase the album here starting Sept. 8
Comments
Post a Comment