Brutal New Music Reviews

 Paul Novak - Dialogues in Black and White Winner of the 2022 NACUSA   (National Association of Composers/USA) Composition Competition, Paul Novak 's Dialogues in Black and White for solo piano, originally composed in 2019, is a ten minute long journey through the entire range of the piano. Dialogues  opens with eerie rumblings, emanating from deep within the boughs of the resonant instrument. This low, squirrelly motive creates a texture which continues for the work's entirety. Novak quickly alternates between the extreme low and high registers of the piano, literally jerking the audience around. The  Dialogues ' consistent repetition turns tiresome after some time. Novak attempts to distract us by slightly changing the textures, but never enough to actually bring us somewhere new. Starting in the second half of the piece, Novak introduces an annoying, rhythmic hammering on the highest key of the piano. At first it excites and propels the piece, but a...

 Stephanie Lamprea - 14 R​é​citations by Georges Aperghis Stephanie Lamprea  is a true tour de force in the field of contemporary vocal music, having tackled almost all major works in the genre. Her latest album, a complete rendition of Georges Aperghis ' 14 Récitations , redefines the theatrical and timbral expectations of a traditional soprano. The concert-length song cycle for unaccompanied female voice presents the soloist as insane, futilely attempting to communicate with an unseen audience. Lamprea's dramatic range comes to the forefront in her recording, making the ultra-modernist work interesting even in its non-staged format, uncommon in much of Aperghis' rarely recorded works. The 14  Récitations , with Aperghis' background being in experimental theatre, are theatrical in nature, and Lamprea's approach to the entire cycle will certainly be the defining recording for decades to come. 14  Récitations is released by New Focus Recordings . Listen to the entire...

 Robert Honstein - Evergreen  Evergreen  is a beautiful addition to the pitched percussion duo repertoire.  Across the span of thirty minutes, Evergreen  personifies the experience of the winter solstice in five movements. Robert Honstein 's work for keyboard percussion duo (marimba, vibraphone, and glockenspiel/crotales) implements minimalist tropes common in pitched percussion writing, invoking the sense of lightness succumbing to darkness and vice-versa. Written for and recorded by arx duo , Evergreen matches the emotional aesthetic of the ensemble, which is also enforced by the performance video released by Vic Firth (watch and listen here ). The first movement, "Fading Light", introduces the motor of consistent eighths, heard throughout most of the piece. Opening with the interval of a fifth, the marimba slowly expands and contracts, with the vibraphone eventually layering overtop. While incredibly simplistic, Honstein's writing in this section is idiomatic...

 East Chamber Music - artsongLAB - Fall 2022 February 11, 2023  Premieres by:  Heather Savage , Hannah Sobel, D. Wesley Unruh East Chamber Music  is a for-profit group which hosts workshops, festivals, and lessons to promote contemporary music. Their recent artsongLAB features three different settings of the same poem, Who Has Seen the Wind? , by Christina Rossetti . The concept of a singular poem being set by multiple poems is not necessarily a new one, but has become more popular in recent decades, mostly as a gimmick to attract audiences. Performed by soprano,  Maghan McPhee , and pianist, Valerie Dueck , the virtual concert is provides excellent recordings for the three composers (important since that's what they paid for). Surprisingly, McPhee voice sounds increasingly strained as the three pieces progress; maybe it would have been better to record over a multiple day period. All three settings of the Rossetti are relatively straightforward, simple, and ple...

 Michael Nix - "Aperçu" Album Review Overall,  Aperçu  is an interesting experiment in the world of classical banjo music, but does not live up to Nix's vision. Michael Nix is a composer and performer on classical guitar, banjo, and banjo variants. Featured on his new album is an instrument of his own invention, the seven-string banjar. A combination of a classical guitar and a banjo, the banjar lends itself to Nix's background and style.  Aperçu , released by Parma Recording's Big Round Records  (where it is available for streaming and/or purchase), is an album dedicated to Nix's vision of the New Classic Banjo Project and features works by himself alongside four other contemporary composers. All works were written specifically for Nix and his hybrid banjar. Nix's mission for the New Classic Banjo Project is to 'develop and record a modern classical banjo repertoire'. However, his own compositions do not align with this narrative.  Aperçu has over...

 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...