Brutal New Music Reviews

 Derek Bermel - Intonations album review His music expands classical music's intonation system in an audience friendly manner. Intonations is Derek Bermel 's second album released on Naxos ' "American Classics" series. The album explores Bermel's roles as both composer and clarinetist, accompanied by the JACK Quartet  and electric guitarist Wiek Hijmans . The titular track, Intonations , takes advantage of JACK's extreme technical command as an ensemble to explore subtle, yet intense divulsions into microtonality. In the first movement, "I. Harmonica", Bermel alternates between justly tuned and slightly detuned chords, literally mimicking the sound of a blues harmonicist overblowing and bending pitches. Bermel's implementation of pleasing microtonality continues through the next two movements, in the forms of a hymn and hustle dance. Intonations cyclically concludes by reviving the original harmonica motive from the opening of the entire pie...

 Kim Diehnelt - Yarmouth Time Yarmouth Time  is an example of 'lite' twenty-first century classical music. Yarmouth Time , composed by Kim Diehnelt , is a simple, yet elegant duo for violin and violoncello. The piece was composed during her time wintering in Yarmouth, Maine, where she wished to capture the town's "natural beauty." The duo was released on the recent album,  Moto Finale , featuring Trio Casals on the Navona label. Diehnelt's piece is brought to life by two members of the trio, Alexandr Kislitsyn on violin and Ovidiu Marinescu on cello. Yarmouth Time  is an example of 'lite' twenty-first century classical music. The harmonic soundworld aims to pacify the general, non-musically literate public. The overarching form is also approachable: a slow, open introduction gives way to a fun and quirky groove in the form of running sixteenth notes. Diehnelt then contrasts the jittery opening with an icy glacier of static harmonics, before returning ...

 Jane Antonia Cornish - Ocean By the end of the piece, one is so enamored with the calmness that the final bar comes and goes without any notice. Composers have tried their hand to musically emulate the roaring waves of the ocean time and time again throughout all of history. Thus it comes to no surprise that Jane Antonia Cornish ’s Ocean does the same. What is surprising is her method of achieving such sonorous ripples: writing a work for six grand pianos. Her new album "Sierra" is a collaborative effort with Bang on a Can 's pianist Vicky Chow , and comprises of a collection of music for multiple pianos. Published by Cantaloupe Music , "Sierra" is five tracks of Chow overdubbing and accompanying herself on pianos, culminating in the wild ride of the titular track. Ocean  distinguishes itself from the album by its sense of perpetual motion. Chow expertly navigates the challenge of recording herself six times, with the result sounding as one giant grand piano, ...

Korf ar son Korf ar son's releases combine intricate visual art, floating piano notes, imperfect sounds, and most importantly, utter silence.  The latest release of Korf ar son  is a multidisciplinary masterwork in four parts. The duo has produced some of the most mindful artworks this generation has heard and seen. That being said, their work is meant for a specific niche community in contemporary classical music, and is not for the general audience. Korf ar son, Breton for "body of sound", is comprised of composer,  Nebel lang  (Pablo), and visual artist,  Sylvain Levier . Together, Nebel lang and Levier have exponentially expanded upon the definition of contemporary graphic scores and artistic collaboration. While some could say they are stuck in the time of high modernism, each work has evolved from the simple concept of a graphic score into a full piece of collaborative art. Each of the four artworks, Wilhelm Schimmel 40445 , Wilh. Hauschildt , F. Röse...

Menelaos Peistikos - Le persone al sole Peistikos' music is both haunting and mystical, leaving behind a complete musical journey in just under four minutes.  Menelaos Peistikos ' piano miniature, Le persone al sole , is one of the many works by contemporary Mediterranean composers featured on  Erato Alakiozidou 's recent album release, "Silent Landscapes." Le persone al sole , People in the Sun, is inspired by the Edward Hopper painting of the same name. The piece alternates between two contrasting musical thoughts, which slowly morph into one unit by the final cadence. Peistikos' music is both haunting and mystical, leaving behind a complete musical journey in just under four minutes. He seamlessly blends lyrical melodies with sudden bouts of anxiety, which are further amplified by Alakiozidou's delicate hands. Listen to the recording here or on Spotify. Check out the entire album by Da Vinci Publishing here .

 Jan Krzywicki - Catching Light Jan Krzywicki's  Catching Light  is an incredibly pleasant yet stimulating work; it is of no surprise to see it already have multiple performances, and hopefully it will do well to expand the repertoire for this ensemble. Catching Light  beautifully captures the morphing qualities of physical light in three movements: flickering, shimmering, and burning. Originally composed in 2014, the work has had multiple performances, the most recent being by the Network for New Music Ensemble on a concert this past February, with the composer conducting. The piece is written for an adaptation of the Pierrot ensemble (flute, clarinet, violin, cello, piano, and percussion), an ensemble of which Krzywicki takes full advantage when building iridescent musical colors. While at times cliché, Krzywicki effectively forms musical metaphors for the attributes of listed lights. Due to his clear control of form, none of the kitschy sounds come across as unc...

 Cole Reyes - Circular Reasoning   While groovy, the nature of Reyes' piece makes it too likely to turn into background music, overlooking the incredible amount of talent and musical subtlety of the performers. Cole Reyes  is young composer of tonal and tonal-adjacent music based in the Brooklyn area. Circular Reasoning , an 11 minute work for string quartet, begins by catching the listener's attention with percussive rhythmic grooves. Performed by the Bergamot Quartet , the piece implements a vast array of timbral colors for a string quartet, all shown within a relatively strict tonal template. Reyes' usage of slow glissandi over multiple bars call to mind the accidental warping of a dying record player, an interesting and effective method of modulation.  Moments of slight relaxation occur in the work, but for the majority, Reyes presents us with a moto perpetuo sound for 11 minutes. After a short while, the fluttering, out of breath high runs and the low, power cho...