Volume 26 Issue 8 - July and August 2021

from the Pacific Northwest, often incorporating
the vibrant sounds of nature with the
pastoral timbre of the oboe, oboe d’amore and
English horn.
Although each composition brought
different perspectives of the oboe family’s
tonal variety, the one that really stood out was
the final work Silkys, co-created in 2020 by
Catherine Lee and Juniana Lanning. Silkys
depicts the lifecycle of the domestic silk moth
with the integration of field recordings of
natural sounds. You can hear the entire metamorphosis
from the very beginnings of life,
crawling around as a caterpillar, to being
sealed in a cocoon hearing the faint world
around outside, to developing and trying
new wings, to finally emerging a free moth.
Lee has cleverly paired this composition
with images, creating a video to enhance the
experience.
Lee showcases her beautiful dark tone
on all three instruments and her mastery of
20th-century techniques. Remote Together
is a direct reflection of current society and
nature’s ability to adapt to surrounding
circumstances.
Melissa Scott
Alan Hovhaness – Selected Piano
Compositions
Şahan Arzruni
Kalan 773 (kalan.com)
! Drawing upon
his friendship with
the composer and
what he describes
as “stacks of handwritten
manuscripts,”
Armenian
pianist-ethnomusicologist-media
personality Şahan Arzruni performs ten
works by Alan Hovhaness, several unpublished,
here receiving their first recordings.
Hovhaness (1911-2000) was born in
Massachusetts to an Armenian father and
Scottish mother. Many of his hundreds of
compositions reference Armenian historical
and musical traditions. Embracing as well
the melodic, rhythmic, modal and colouristic
resources of other diverse cultures,
Hovhaness’ music evokes ritualistic processions,
incantations and dances in moods
ranging from lamentation to jubilation.
This disc contains 34 tracks, nearly all
under three minutes long. In the five-movement
Invocations for Vahakn, Op.54, No.1,
percussionist Adam Rosenblatt adds Chinese
drums, Burmese gongs, cymbal, conch and
thunder sheet to the suitably aggressive
music. (Vahakn was an ancient Armenian war
god.) Rosenblatt rejoins Arzruni in the eightmovement
Sonata Hakhpat, Op.54, No.2.
(The Hakhpat monastery complex in Armenia
is a UNESCO World Heritage site, dating
from the tenth century.) Unlike its martial
companion piece, it begins with slow, belllike
chords; a pensive Pastoral and mournful
Aria provide repose between mesmerizing,
propulsive dances.
Of the solo piano works, my special favourites
are the quirky Suite on Greek Tunes,
the sensuous Mystic Flute and the glowing,
beautiful Journey into Dawn. I enjoyed
the entire CD, though, along with all of
Hovhaness’ music that I’ve heard throughout
over 60 years of appreciative listening to it on
disc. Quite simply, I’m a fan!
Michael Schulman
Eric Lyon: Giga Concerto
String Noise; Greg Saunier; International
Contemporary Ensemble
New Focus Recordings FCR293
(newfocusrecordings.com/catalogue)
! Frenetic energy
and whirling
pastiche permeate
throughout
Eric Lyon’s
Giga Concerto.
Performed by
the International
Contemporary
Ensemble (ICE), with guest soloists, this sixmovement
work is certainly a fun ride. The
composer notes that the music of Brahms is
decidedly “gloomy” and aims to avoid this
attribute in his own music. The Giga Concerto
does exactly that: the obvious polar opposite
of gloom. The listener is treated to pure giddiness
as Lyon enjoys many jaunty moments
in each movement of the piece. The joviality
of mood is unrelenting with many
sarcastic string slides and punchy percussive
romps. This release is truly a carnival dance
in a not-to-distant land. The International
Contemporary Ensemble, soloists Conrad
Harris and Pauline Kim Harris (also known
as the duo String Noise) and percussionist
Greg Saunier execute the piece with supreme
musicianship and technical mastery. The Giga
Concerto is wonderfully buoyant – the perfect
listen on a gloomy day.
Adam Scime
113 Composers Collective – Resistance/
Resonance
Duo Gelland
New Focus Recordings FCR291
(newfocusrecordings.com/catalogue)
! Duo Gelland
is comprised of
virtuoso violinists
Cecilia and
Martin Gelland. In
their nearly 30-year
history, the duo
continues to champion
contemporary
music to a seemingly inexhaustible degree.
In the duo’s latest release titled Resistance/
Resonance, members of the 133 Composers
Collective were commissioned to provide the
six pieces on the album.
Each piece delivers a wide-ranging
approach to the violin duet from a noisebased
aesthetic to shimmering landscapes
produced by string harmonics. Jeremy
Wagner’s Oberleitung is a jagged study
in electric gestures. Michael Duffy offers
contrast with airy tones and gentle threads.
The nostalgia-laden Autochrome Lumière by
Joshua Musikantow offers a more melodic
approach matched with prickly taps of the
bow on the instruments. Sam Krahn’s piece,
the title track, is an engaging juxtaposition of
different characters that provide interesting
contrast and occasional togetherness. Difficult
Ferns by Adam Zahller is a decidedly microtonal
work filled with unstable and phantom
imagery. The last track on the disc, cistern
. anechoic . sonolucent by Tiffany M.
Skidmore, creates a distant shadow aura
amid slow-moving whispers – a piece that is
magnificent in its understated quality.
Duo Gelland has produced yet another
astounding example of their talents, and they
handle each piece with an expressive and
technical mastery that is not to be missed.
Adam Scime
Caeli
Bára Gísladóttir; Skúli Sverrisson
Sono Luminus SLE 70020
(sonoluminus.com)
! The duo of
Icelandic bass
players Bára
Gísladóttir and
Skúli Sverrisson
has documented
their finely tuned
working relationship
with
Caeli. Deep explorations of sounds from
Gísladóttir’s double bass are sculpted by
Sverrisson’s skillful mastery of the electric
version of the instrument, shaded by the
subtle blues and greys of his electronics. Long
expansive bowed scrapes are pushed to the
edge, just hanging on before bubbling over
to the world of overtones and edgy depths of
deep space.
This music is definitely not for everyone,
but I found the work expressive and beautiful.
More along the lines of a Deep Listening
experience, it is enigmatically shy of information
either on the album or the press kit, so I
am going to assume they are improvisations
curated and finely edited to their current
state. Caeli is exquisite in its expression of
layered textural nuances created between
the partnership of the acoustic double bass
and the electric bass and processing. This is
an album that is at times darkly overbearing
while simultaneously free and endless; it
is without borders, almost frightening in
the way one might dream about falling off
the edge of a flat Earth or losing sight of
the mothership while floating in space. The
length of the double album only enhances the
endlessness.
46 | July and August 2021 thewholenote.com