WARM SEASONS GREETINGS

to all NFE readers. COMING SOON (between now and 31 Jan 2003): the full latest index; Michael Tippett on the web; profiles of Joanna MacGregor and Patrick Moraz; new music dates for 2003; more web sources; post-Christmas blues sounds; reviews: Takemitsu, Torke, Tviett, Rouse, Akira Inoue, Henze, Nuorvala, Bjork. I hope I can get the archives working in the new year (with a little help from Blogger). Then I’ll be able to reduce the extent of posting on this main page and do a little pruning. Apologies for the download time, meanwhile. Best wishes and thanks for your support, SB.

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THE SOLID MENTAL GRACE OF 2002

Another extraordinary year for serious, joyous, energetically creative music in many different genres. Here I’ve chosen recordings that have made a big impression on me. I hesitate to talk of ‘best’, because that elevates one person’s judgement ludicrously. The great thing about music is that it can hit you in so many ways from so many different angles. And just as I put the last keystroke into this exciting collection of aural possibilities I remembered three that, in other circumstances, I couldn’t do without: the fourth volume of the Naxos complete orchestral works of Rodrigo series, Weather Report's 'Live and Unrealeased', and the new 3 CD set marking twenty years of avant-music magazine, The Wire. More about all those soon. Meanwhile, here are some weighty discs to check out, in no particular order:

Joanna McGregor, Neural Circuits (Sound Circus)
One of the most adventurous pianists on the ‘contemporary classical’ scene dances her fingers around Sawnhey, Part, Schnittke, Messiaen and African melody with the Britten Sinfonia and Ensemble Bash. www.soundcircus.com

Mark Anthony Turnage, Fractured Lines / Silent Cities (Chandos)
Four orchestral set-pieces for the BBC Symphony / Slatkin, with Evelyn Glennie and Pete Erskine excelling as soloists on ‘Fractured Lines’. [Turnage at Schott]

Threnody Ensemble, Timbre Hollow (All Tomorrow's Parties)
Remarkable après-Tortoise art music from the genre-defying new music kids on the block. They listen to the universe and play it back in miniature. www.threnodyensemble.com

Messiaen, Complete Organ Works (DG)
Olivier Latry sheds new light on the textural, eerie, multi-chordal aural universe that comprises Messiaen’s organ music.

The Necks, Hanging Gardens (Recommended)
The Australian piano, bass and keys trio traverse fresh territory in unexpected alt-jazz chamber music. www.thenecks.com

John Coltrane, A Love Supreme (Impulse)
The definitive studio and live edition of Coltrane’s burning, spiritual classic. The original masters are lost, but this still seers the soul. www.imulse.com

Godspeed! You Black Emperor, Yanqui U.X.O. (Constellation)
Godspeed! drone, deform, derange and crescendo their way towards a new world order in instrumental, post-rock soundscaping. www.brainwashed.com/godspeed/

Porcupine Tree, Metanoia (Delerium)
Never mind ‘In Absentia’ (though it’s not at all bad): these, vivid, twisted instrumental explorations are the real reason to get excited about the Tree. www.porcupinetree.com/

Bill Frisell, Rarum (ECM)
A superb 2-disc viewpoint on Frisell’s guitaristic alterity and FX spaciousness in a range of ECM settings. The definitive survey. [Bill Frisell on Songtone]

Harrison Birtwistle, Pulse Shadows (Tedec)
Evocative, dense and revealing settings of texts from Romanian-Jewish poet Paul Celan in nine songs and nine string quartet movements. [Birtwistle at Braunarts]

Messiaen, Vignt Regards Sur L'Enfant Jesus (Hyperion)
Virtuosity, poise, control, sweetness, mystery and ferocity characterise Steven Osbourne’s compelling take on this timelessly classic piano cycle.

Deirdre Cartwright, Precious Things (Blow the Fuse)
An extraordinary guitar talent with an unselfish, uncluttered, liquid technique and strong compositional and arranging skills. Deirdre Cartwright is the very spirit of jazz. www.blowthefuse.com

Sigur Ros, ( ) (Fat Cat)
Melting, pulsating instrumentation and shadowy, electronic scatting soothe us across the far-northern lights of an ambient planet. http://sigur-ros.com/

G.F. Handel, Arcadian Duets (Veritas)
Extraordinary singing and delicate chamber instrumentation lend these overlooked songs a vignette quality which can be lost when they are merged into an oratorio setting. http://gfhandel.org/

Michael Torke, Rapture / An American Abroad / Jasper (Naxos)
Post-minimalist percussive fireworks aided by Colin Currie in the Concerto and luscious, unapologetic Torkean tonality in ‘Jasper’ and ‘An American Abroad’. Part of the superb Naxos American Classics series. [Torke at Classical Net]

Bill Bruford's Earthworks, Footloose and Fancy Free (Discipline).
Acoustic surprises from the contemporary, drum-led jazz quartet who fizz and finesse in constantly unexpected directions, while moving ever closer to those post-bop roots. www.disciplineglobalmobile.com

John Scofield, Uberjam (Verve)
Scofield’s filigree guitar lines cross into new jazz, hip-hop, funk and pysch territory. This is the one he reckons Miles Davis would have really liked. Who can disagree? [Scofield Home Page]

Monteverdi, Madrigali guerrieri et amorosi (Harmonia Mundi)
Stylish and crisp performances of Monteverdi’s 1638 collection of passionate, secular songs. Poets set include Petrarch, Rinnuccini and Tasso. The music is sonorous and revolutionary. [The Monteverdi Pages]

Martin Taylor, Solo (P3)
Along with ‘Artistry’, the fine jazz guitarist’s best lone workout. Musical sensitivity and unassuming (but jaw-dropping) technique make him among the most respected players of his era. www.martintaylor.com

Tommy Hamilton, Into the Silence (Spartacus)
Exquisitely atmospeheric, rubato sax quartet blend of standards, early chants, folk song and classics like John Coltane’s ‘Naima’.

Brian Ferneyhough, Works for Flute (Bridge)
Kolbeinn Bjarnason plays piccolo, flute and bass flute gloriously on this rich collection of deceptively (and relatively!) simple reflections from the doyen of twenty-first century maximalism. [Ferneyhough at editions-peters]

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BRUFORD BELIES THE BEAT

Album: ‘FOOTLOOSE AND FANCY FREE’
Artists: Bill Bruford’s Earthworks
CD: 15 April, 2002
Number of Discs: 2
Label: Discipline DGM0201

Deploying a set mostly culled from the band's two recent albums, 'The Sound Of Surprise' and 'A Part and Yet Apart', this live workout from Bill Bruford's Earthworks catches them in fine fettle at London's Pizza Express in summer 2001. (There is a matching DVD from a New York concert on the same tour with a substantially similar selection of material, plus a Bruford interview and discogragaphy.)

Additional pieces here include 'If Summer Had Its Ghosts', the title track from the album of the same name with Eddie Gomez and Ralph Towner, and 'Original Sin' from the Bruford-Levin Upper Extremities project. The ever-popular 'Bridge of Inhibition' (from the first Earthworks outing way back in 1987) is also included as an encore.

I was fortunate enough to attend the concerts from which this was recorded. It doesn't quite capture the energy of the front row, of course. But 'Footloose And Fancy Free' is, as you would expect, a high quality recording and a fitting rendition of the band that could almost give 'fusion' a good name. On this recording we are exempted the between-music patter, which means that we do not have to endure the leader's constant (unnecessary) apologies for past incursions in Yes and King Crimson. His jazz credentials are testified eloquently by the music, and his audience is broader than his past (in Britain at least), so why he needs to dig up that old turf is a mystery. It's as if he doesn't quite believe how far he's come himself.

If you haven't heard them for a few years, Earthworks as a unit have also moved well away from their earlier experimentations around Bruford's Simmons electronic chordal drum set, opting instead for a more orthodox acoustic quartet. Or perhaps that should be heterodox, for the quirky spirit of Django Bates and Iain Ballamy lives on even in their absence. This second line-up is angular, joyfully melodic in a non-obvious way, playfully polyrhythmic and deliberately transgressive of received musical categories.

Steve Hamilton on piano and Mark Hodgson on bass (brought in after an earlier dalliance with Geoff Gascoyne) pass muster as much by their ability to listen to and re-absorb musical ideas as by their prodigious playing talents. Patrick Clahar on sax, who features on this album, has now been replaced by Tim Garland, courtesy of Chick Corea and a thundering reputation on the burgeoning London jazz scene. He is bringing added compositional depth and material to an already powerful line-up. Clahar, as you will hear on ‘Footloose and Fancy Free’, is an extraordinary technician. But arguably he lacks an original sax voice. That could never be said of Garland.

One musician who doesn’t feature here, but who has played with Earthworks on past US and European tours, is guitarist Larry Coryell. It was never intended to be other than a passing gigging acquaintanceship, but it produced valuable, fresh angles on established compositions. Let's hope that Bruford and Coryell will release some highlights of this live collaboration in 2003.

Meanwhile, as ‘Footloose and Fancy Free’ demonstrates, Bill Bruford's own ever-maturing writing credits make him infinitely more than a drummer and percussionist. He is eager for us to realise this. And as he adds in the liner notes, "Being a performing artist doesn't mean being able to do it once perfectly in perfect conditions, rather it means being able to do it imperfectly in imperfect conditions night after night. That's when you polish the diamond." There is evidence of both the inspiration and the perspiration this implies on these CDs. And, yes, in spite of my comment on his apparent over-concern about those rock roots, he is right in his protestations. Forget 'prog': buy this.

EARTHWORKS UPDATE

Those who want to hear Earthworks first-hand will have an opportunity to do so early in 2003. Their website details further US and European dates, including a residency at Ronnie Scott's in London from 31 March. My own analysis of the embryonic second line up (captured late in their day on ‘Footloose and Fancy Free’, q.v. above) is linked to Bruford’s own reviews page and is hosted by Henry Potts.

A MAHLER MIRACLE?

The story of Gilbert E Kaplan’s extraordinary relationship with Gustav Mahler’s Second Symphony (Resurrection) is set to take on a fresh dimension next year with a new rendition of a significantly ‘corrected’ score – also being re-issued by Universal Edition – appearing on Deutsche Grammophon.

Kaplan’s landmark recording of the gargantuan 80 minute work first appeared in 1988 after the amateur conductor, institutional investor and full-time obsessive, had spent ten years learning to handle the work from scratch. The recording, most recently issued by Conifer Classics in September 1998, features a 125 strong London Symphony Orchestra and five choirs totalling 200 voices: the Ardwyn Singers, the BBC Welsh Chorus, the Cardiff Polyphonic Choir, the Dyfed Choir and the London Symphony Chorus. Oh, and let’s not forget soloists Benita Valente and Maureen Forrester, and the off-stage brass band.

To describe this as a monumental, wide screen performance of overwhelming dynamic range and emotion would be an underestimate. For many Mahler lovers it is nirvana. Even for agnostics, like myself, it is little short of breathtaking. And in the market place (not, it has to be said, a good arbiter of quality) the Kaplan Edition is outselling Bernstein, Haitink, Rattle and Solti put together. Indeed, though not universally appreciated by musicologists (what is?), it remains the best selling version of any of Mahler’s symphonic works in the world today.

Now, as if his sole dedication to this work and a grandstand performance at the Salzburg Festival in 1996 was not enough, Gilbert Kaplan has just spent two years in Vienna consulting 14 autographed sources to arrive at the definitive edition of the score. More than 380 errors and oversights in the existing universal edition were picked up, from minor intonations to fresh bursts of brass and leaps from C-natural to C-sharp. Much of this painstaking work research was undertaken through the ministrations of world renowned expert Dr Renate Stark-Voit.

The ‘first performance’ of the new Mahler 2 was given recently at the Musikvereinsaal in Vienna, 95 years after the original. Stark-Voit was a special adviser. Expect the new Kaplan edition around April 2003. Whatever you think – and it will be fascinating to compare with the LSO recording – it is an extraordinary labour of love and academic devotion.

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RIGHT SAID JACK

After their acclaimed Thirsty Ear releases ‘Masses’ and ‘Amassed’, the UK experimental breakbeat duo Spring Heel Jack & Friends assemble a formidable group of hi-res improvisers including Matthew Shipp, Evan Parker, J Spaceman, William Parker and Han Bennink for a Contemporary Music Network tour co-sponsored by The Wire magazine. Bath: Michael Tippett Centre (22 January 2003), London: Queen Elizabeth Hall (23 January), Exeter: Phoenix (24 January), Brighton: Dome/Corn Exchange (25 January), Birmingham: Medicine Bar (26 January), Leeds: The Wardrobe (29 January), Gateshead: Caedmon Hall (30 January), Kendal: Brewery Arts Centre (31 January). Definitely worth catching.

MASTERFUL MONTEVERDI

Madrigali guerrieri ed amorosi

Composer: Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643)
Ensemble: Concerto Vocale
Conductor: René Jacobs
Performer: John Bowen, Bernarda Fink, Maria Christina Kiehr, Antonio Abete, Victor Torres, et al.
Label: Harmonia Mundi HMC9017367
Released: 4 November, 2002
Number of Discs: 2

Think of musical revolutionaries across the ages and the mind instantly turns (for different reasons) to Bach, Beethoven, Schoenberg, Cage, Messiaen and Boulez. Rarely does the name Claudio Monteverdi crop up. It ought to. Though best known for the Vespers, a glorious collection of devotional music dedicated to Pope Paul V in 1610 (three years before he was made maestro di cappella at St Mark's Church in Venice), Monteverdi’s greatest innovations – alongside motets in ‘modern style’, the seconda prattica – mainly fall into two areas: operas and madrigals.

In many ways ‘Orfeo’ was the first operatic work to really capitalise on the dramatic form we know today. But it was eight varied collections of songs published between 1587 and 1638 (together with a ninth set made available after the composer’s death in 1651) that track Monteverdi’s full musical flowering.

These madrigals of war and love are the passionate culmination of that cycle, which spans both small scale settings and panoramic vocal dramas. They were published five years before Monteverdi died as book eight. Drawing on wide, secular poetic influences like those of Petrarch, Rinnuccini and Tasso, the late madrigals also link into the operatic tradition through the central works in the two main sections : the “Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda” and the “Lamento della ninfa”.

These Harmonia Mundi discs combine polished and stylish performances from Concerto Vocale under Rene Jacobs and fine overall production. Bowen and Kiehr are in especially good form. The sound is clear, crisp and well differentiated without losing the natural sensuousness of some of the literary and musical allusions. Thoroughly recommended.

Those who want to know more about the technique behind the music should look out for Eric T Chafe’s ‘Monteverdi’s Tonal Language’. The full settings of book eight are available through Amazon and in good music stores. Harmonia Mundi also have a Monteverdi recorded discography on the web. A good collection of internet resources are to be found on Monteverdi.org.

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STRUMMER’S DEMISE

Album: ‘Sandinista’
Artists: The Clash
LP 1980; CD 4 October, 1999
Number of Discs: 2
Label: Columbia 4953482

In theory The Clash are the apotheosis of a movement that defiantly refused to write or play music proficiently. Nonsense. 'Sandinista' is testimony to the unhinged, witty, rude and wildly inconsistent musicality of political punk at its best. Its grooves hum to the sound of rockabilly, waltz, gospel, dance, jazz, children's ditties, funk, reggae, disco, dub, nifty instrumentals, psychedelia … even a bit of new wave and the odd Clash rock-out! The sad news today of Joe Strummer's death (on 22 December 2002) should be incentive enough to check out his headline band’s most ebullient, defiant recorded statement.

There are some palpably ludicrous and unlistenable things here, of course; but also moments of unalloyed genius suspended in time. My favourites are the more experimental dub and proto-dance tracks. ‘Equaliser’ and ‘Crooked Beat’ are among the standouts, way ahead of their time. No doubt today’s turntablists will be re-mixing them shortly.

Overall it will be impossible for you not to find something you love and something you hate on these CDs. Probably right next door to each other. That's the point. There is no serious attempt at quality control, which makes the overall impact of the album even more surprising. As an answer to the question "what would it sound like to hear The Clash attempting to play in the widest variety of imaginable popular styles?" there can be no doubt that 'Sandinista' is the only possible riposte. It is this that enables it to emerge as a powerful, anti-coherent protest against corporate rock.

The single 'London Calling' (not on here, of course) was a staple at Brixton parties right through to the late '80s and early '90s -- which is the only reason that an arty-farty muso type like me would have come across them. The arrival of a crazily eclectic album of the same name, then its terrible twin, 'Sandinista', signalled the final demise of the dreaded 'party tape'. It simply wasn't needed any more. "Why the hell did you put this garbage on after that last track?", someone would explode in righteous fury to the host... only to discover that the whole deranged thing was one band, one album. Unsurprisingly ‘The Guns of Brixton’ is hidden away at the end of ‘Broadway Song’ Extraordinary.

The Clash imploded in 1985, having outlived most on the original punk scene. Joe Strummer provided soundtracks to Alan Cox’s movie, ‘Walker’ (1988) and American director Jim Jarsmuch’s ‘Mystery Train’ (1989). After a brief stint with The Pogues in 1991 Strummer slipped into obscurity. In 1999 he re-emerged with The Mescaleros, releasing ‘Rock Art & the X-Ray Style’ that year and ‘Global A-Go-Go’ in 2001. Both albums pursue an industrial folk-rooted raucous guitar take on worldbeat trends. One of Strummer’s last gigs was a benefit for the firefighters strike in November 2002.

STILL BREAKING THE ICE

I first came across the Icebreaker at London's South Bank in the early 1990s. I think it was as part of the Meltdown festival in 1994, the year it was curated by Dutch composer Louis Andriessen, whose landmark work 'Hocketus' became a speciality of theirs.

The ensemble has played a key role in broadening the appeal in Britain of what is sometimes called 'post-minimalism' -- the musical movement spawned partly on the basis of early Steve Reich and the likes of Terry Riley and Lamont Young, but elaborated beyond its sparkling ascetiscism into a musical aesthetic rather than a mere set of conventions. It obeys though-composed art music conventions, incorporates rhythmic ideas and instrumentation from rock and jazz, checks worldbeat, and finds expression through attention to the potency of the manifest and the variable in the aural world. Archetypal post-modern music, you could say.

Jocelyn Pook, David Gordon, Michael Torke and Graham Fitkin, alongside the ubiquitous Andriessen and a host of new European practitioners, are the better known names in this area. Steve Martland took the genre in a muscular, combative direction in Britain. Michael Nyman headed off into neo-Haydn, goth-roccocoism (and bastardised the minimalising form for profit, according to some.) Meredith Monk almost criss-crossed with Laurie Anderson in the popular imagination. Piano Circus began again with Reich and have taken in Future Sound of London, Heiner Goebbels and a swathe of other experimentalists on the way.

In the US Icebreaker's allies and collaborators have long been found in the New York downtown scene that has flourished since the 1980s. The Bang on A Can festival and BoaC Ensemble (turn way left at CBGBs and keep going) have now been in Britain on a number of occasions.

Icebreaker are on tour in Germany and Holland in early 2003. There are no immediate prospects of British dates as far as I can see. Their official web site is the best source of future information. They describe themselves as follows:

"Icebreaker is a 12-piece group consisting of panpipes, saxes, electric violin and cello, guitars, percussion and keyboards. It boasts an exciting repertoire that encompasses some of the best known and most exciting names in contemporary music today and creates a music that appeals to contemporary classical, rock and alternative music audiences alike. Icebreaker has established itself as one of the UK's leading contemporary music interpreters."

The full Icebreaker discography is here. Their first recording was an eponymously titled cassette which I still have, but which I believe is now unavailable.

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A DEFENSIBLE MUSICAL ENTERPRISE?

Distant Early Warning Aesthetics
AST09CD
USA 1999

As a curious footnote to the above, there is an entirely different Icebreaker active in the US at the moment. Apparently ‘inspired’ by, er… the radar defence stations of the Antarctic, this project is the work of two Transatlantic producers and it is funded by NATO. Something to cheer us up while Bush bombs Iraq and starts World War 3, perhaps? Anyway, aside from potential scepticism about music being supported by the military industrial complex, the anonymous Amazon.co.uk review makes it sound aurally intriguing:

‘Alexander Perls and Simon Break, who create sparse, yet intense electronica, that slots somewhere in between the sound of Brian Eno and Bundy K Brown. Encased in a bleak surround and a mass of swirling atmospheres, ‘Distant Early Warning’s textures remain fairly constant, with tracks like "Co-prosperity Sphere" and the eerie, almost motionless "Reconnaissance Flight" setting the theme. They capture the loneliness and isolation of conflict with an unnerving calmness and sensitivity. "Listening Station" and "The Track North which address the dissemination of data are mysterious and beautiful slices of transatlantic audio. These are tracks where pulsing, high-pitch tones float on an ambient surface, anchored by distant beats, tonal organs and crackling radio interference. ‘

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COLTRANE’S RE-ISSUED CLASSIC RULES SUPREME

Audio CD (28 October, 2002)
Number of Discs: 2
Label: Impulse 5899452

Here at last is the definitive edition of one of the landmark albums of the twentieth century, John Coltane’s ‘A Love Supreme’. Traversing the limits of bop into free improvisory territory, this is the master at his most expressive, explosive and enduringly spiritual. It opened up a whole new vista of jazz then, and still unblocks ears today.

The first four tracks each contain the working melodic elements of the piece: ‘Acknowledgement’, ‘Resolution’, ‘Pursuance’ and ‘Psalm’. The live rendition follows, and then there are alternative takes and breakdowns of the first two movements - including a contribution from Archie Shepp (long hypothesised before the evidence here came to hand). The new source tape and some deft production really do make a significant difference to our appreciation of Coltrane’s achievement. It still isn't the master, but it is an early generation copy.The outtakes and a classic live Antibes performance reclaimed from what was effectively a bootleg also provide us with fresh perspectives on ‘A Love Supreme’, as it moves towards forty years in our presence.

An unfathomable amount of development has taken place in the jazz world since this extraordinary work was recorded, of course. But it still retains the capacity to surprise, entice and delight even the most over-educated listeners; surely a true testimony to its greatness. Winnowing sax, uncomplicated melodic sophistication, subtle modal development, percussive ingenuity (not just from the drummer) and a spirit of blazing (but well-tempered) religious passion make these inter-twining tracks what they are: wholly entrancing.

As if all this wasn’t enough, there is also a new book which helps to fill in the background to the album, the era that witnessed its birth and the creative force behind it. ‘A Love Supreme: The Creation of John Coltrane’s Classic Album’ by Ashley Kahn (Granta Books 2002, ISBN: 186207545X), has a Foreword by percussion legend Elvin Jones. It is full of information and insight, of course. But nothing can surpass the sonic delights so lovingly re-mastered on this CD. The story is, above all else, in those notes and in the personality and atmosphere that reveals them to be something inexplicably transcendent.

MORE DIFFICULT LISTENING

Sunday Evenings 9-11pm. Public Radio RTR FM (92.1)
Perth, Western Australia
Contemporary classical, experimental, electronic,
industrial, ambient, noise, etc.
Presenters: Bryce Moore and Sarah Combes.

'Welcome to the Difficult Listening Hour, the spot on your dial for the relentless and impenetrable sound of difficult music ...'
Laurie Anderson, from 'Home of the Brave'

'One of the most zealous supporters of contemporary music broadcasting...'
John L Walters, The Guardian


Public radio RTR FM is now broadcasting over the internet, 24 hours a day. Follow the Real Audio link from the Difficult Listening page, shown in the .sig below. If you want to catch Difficult Listening in particular, it goes to air at 1.00pm Sunday GMT, 9.00am US Eastern Time, and 6.00am US Pacific time.

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15 December 2002
Presented by Sarah Combes

Pierre-Andre Arcand
The circle of drums (4' 47")
CD: The Animal Machines (OHM/Avatar: ohm/avtr 015)

Caul
Arc (5' 36")
Caul
CD: Crucible (Malignant: VIRUS 03CD)

Halim El-Dabh
Element, Being and Primeval (7' 26")
CD: Crossing into the Electric Magnetic (Without Fear: WFR 003)


Jethro Tilton
Night (6' 6")
CD: Somatic Dosing Unit (Beautamous Loaf: BLICD003)

Domenico De Clario
I went to the doctor (16' 41")
CD: Shaker Road: Quit Existing (Nonplace Recordings: efa27310-2, non10)

Autechre
clipper (8' 21")
CD: tri repetae (Warp: cd38)

Coil
Ravenous (4' 56")
CD: Horse Rotor Vator (Some Bizarre: ROTA CD1)

Cevin Key
Greenhouse Gases (7' 23")
CD: Music for Cats (Metropolis: MET 075)

Aphex Twin
Phlange Phace (6' 57")
CD: The Aphex Twin Classics (R & S recordings: RS 95035 CD)

Skinny Puppy
Love (4' 12")
Stairs & Flowers (6' 59")
CD: Mind: The Perpectual Intercourse (Nettwerk Productions: W2 30005)

Download
Attalal (5' 27")
CD: Furnace (Cleopatra: CLEO 9644-2)

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8 December 2002
Presented by Sarah Combes

Anon (Trad)
Kofu Yataiyabashi (8' 36")
CD: Matsuri (Celestial Harmonies: 13081-2)

Martin Bartlett
Hexachords (11' 33")
Peter Hannan, soprano recorder; Buchla 400 computer-controlled synthesiser
CD: Burning Water (Periplum: P 0020)

Caul
Cluster (5' 46")
CD: Crucible (Malignant: VIRUS 03CD)

Contrastate
Mort aux Vaches (40' 45")
CD: Mort aux Vaches (Staalplaat: )

Hideko Kawamoto
Night Ascends from the Ear Like a Butterfly (8' 15")
CD: Sonic Circuits VII (Innova: 116)

Derek Thunes
Blues (3' 37")
Kronos Quartet
CD: In Formation (Reference: RR-9CD)

Plateau
Urban Chillage (4' 12")
Chateau Plateau (4' 27")
CD: Music For Grass Bars (Hypnotic: CLP-9966-2)

Monte Cazzaza
The Womb is a Happening Thing (Pro-Choice Mix) (6' 12")
CD: Power Versus Wisdom, Live (Side Effects: DFX 15)

The Birthday Party
Deep in the Woods (4' 35")
CD: The Birthday Party Hits (Shock Records: CAKE5)

Einsturzende Neubauten
Yu-Gung (Futter mein Ego)
Half Man
CD: Some Bizarre (Bart: CD 331)

Skinny Puppy
Tormentor (4' 21")
CD: Too Dark Park (Nettwerk/Capitol Records: CDP 7946832)

Kraftwerk
Spacelab (6' 48")
CD: The Man Machine (Capitol Records: CDP 7 460392)

Ministry
I Prefer (3' 52")
CD: The Land of Rape and Honey (Sire: 925799-2)

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These playlists are stored cumulatively (for the last three months) at the website listed below. Contact DL if you want to receive them by email. If you have some music that you think DL might be interested in broadcasting, on tape, CD or vinyl, don't hesitate to get in touch.

difflist@westnet.com.au
http://www.westnet.com.au/mooreb
PO Box 2237
Kardinya WA 6163
Australia.

TWENTY HIGHLIGHTS IN 2002

The end of the year beckons, and everyone (surely) has to be forgiven at least one favourites list. There has been so much good music around in 2002, in spite of the blights wished upon us by the usual money-grabbing elements in the recording industry. It is fiendishly difficult to choose, but my selection includes (in no particular order) Birtwistle, Turnage, Torke, new Messiaen Recordings, The Necks, classic Coltane, Joanna MacGregor, Threnody Ensemble and eleven more...

STABBING SOPHIE WITH A TICKET SNUB

Opera; ‘Sophie’s Choice’, music and libretto by Nicholas Maw [see
NewFrontEars stories on December 15 and 16]

Doyen of modern opera reviewers Andrew Porter, (“Grabbed by the grotesque” – Times Literary Supplement, 11/12/02) seems to have been mightily annoyed by the way the Royal Opera House Covent Garden handled press previews for its newest production. In an entertaining review-cum-hatchet-job he accuses Nicholas Maw’s ‘Sophie’s Choice’ score of being derivative, unimaginative and predictable. (The same process tends to work in a different subjective direction when a reviewer enjoys the overall impact: I seem to recall that Porter lauded John Adams’s 'The Death of Klinghoffer' precisely for its ‘ingenious musical references’ back in ’91. Of course these things can be done artlessly… and they can certainly be made to sound artless by a critic who doesn’t appreciate what he deems to be the more ‘conservative’ contemporary composers.) Anyway, in the case of ‘Sophie’ all this is simply too much -- or perhaps too little -- for Porter to bare:

‘The text is delivered largely in arioso-recitative, at dictation speed’, he writes. ‘The music is puzzling.’ Then again, he seems to be pretty clear about it: ‘The start is Vaughan Williams’s Tallis Fantasy, plus glissandos from Britten’s Midsummer Night’s Dream between the widespread common chords, and the narrator a new Captain Vere or Aschenbach. There are passages of dense, shifting harmonies over long pedals. There’s a good deal of unaccompanied, unison-strings line in Mahlerian, perhaps Shostakovich-like, gesture. “Time for a bit of counterpoint” seems to have prompted a Hindemithian interlude, “Must get in an ensemble somehow” a largo concertato for quartet and chorus. “Ought to have a duet somewhere” results in an odd waltz for soprano and mezzo (a Resistance leader and Sophie) – one of Maw’s less predictable responses to situation and text. It was hard to hear much musical structure, or much engagement with the drama on more than picturesque, illustrative, narrative levels.’

Funny, other listeners have noted an interesting range of allusions, vernacular quotations (Polish and Hungarian folk tunes, for example), thoughtful melodic effects and a discernible architecture to the piece in those shifting harmonies. And some even appreciate references to other twentieth century greats who themselves tackled the moral torment of their times. Dif’rent strokes, I guess.

Porter further attacks Maw’s overall take on William Styron’s novel for failing to engage with the element of play and parody in its inherently sexual tragicomedy. But the composer made it quite clear from the outset that it is the moral drama he is concerned with. It doesn’t seem entirely congruous to accuse something of being long and laboured while simultaneously chiding it for not being even more ambitious. But maybe congruity is not the essence of this biting critique. Might Porter have rather enjoyed awarding ‘Sophie’ a bad sex award, too?

Anyway, where many have found the denouement fittingly moving, he is merely stirred to observe: ‘Not easy to write a music-drama that ends: “‘At Auschwitz, tell me, where was God?’ The response: ‘Where was man?’” ‘

What of Porter’s own flourishing literary finale? It is, as I indicated, suitably revealing of its critical sources: ‘This account’, the reviewer tells us breathlessly, ‘is based on asingle hearing of ‘Sophie’s Choice’, for’ (indignity of indignities) ‘Covent Garden had withheld its usual, enlightened invitation to critics to attend rehearsals of a new opera, [to] discover in detail what is being essayed and created, [to] get “reservations” out of the way, and [to] follow the first performance with mind and ear attuned.’

Well the sheer inconsideration of those wicked ROH johnnies, thinking that overwhelming press interest plus initial technical problems means that they might be justified in spreading the freebies a little more evenly this time. They and their kind clearly deserve all the stick you can give them, don’t they? Anyway, perhaps someone will buy poor Porter a stiff drink and tell him to chill out a bit on this one… Meanwhile those who think they can restrain their wrath for a few more days can make their own judgement via satellite: BBC 4 televises the opera on December 22, 2002.

More lively debate on all this at rec.music.classical.contemporary.

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MAHAVISHNU UPDATED AND CANNED

Mahavishnu Project: 'Live Bootleg'
Label: Aggregate Music, PO Box 3158 Teaneck NJ 07666
Release date: February 2002
Information: info@mahavishnuproject.com

Canned in the sense of 'captured live on CD', not 'dropped'. And a good thing too. For if your idea of a covers band is a group of lowly clones unhealthily addicted to passing fashions, Gregg Bendian's worthy venture dedicated to John McLaughlin's ground-breaking '70s compatriots should quickly disabuse you of that notion.

Encouraged by, among others, Kermit Driscoll (Bill Frisell et al) and The Great Man JM Himself, Greg (dr), Pete McCann (gtr), Steve Hunt (keys), Todd Reynolds (v) and Stephan Crump (bs) give eight fine tunes from the legendary Mahavishnu Orchestra an entertaining workout. The selections are from 'The Inner Mounting Flame', 'Birds of Fire' and 'Between Nothingness and Eternity' albums.

Bendian writes: 'Ultimately we think of Mahavishnu as a unique form of chamber music and our band as a kind of repertory chamber ensemble... Bill Milkowski refers to the original Mahavishnu's approach as "chamber punk" - I really like that!'

Others will be aware of John McLaughlin, Jan Hammer, Jerry Goodman, Billy Cobham, Rick Laird and the other members of the Mahavishnu Orchestra as musicians who -- along with Weather Report and Chick Corea's Return To Forever -- broadcast the very best of jazz-rock fusion into the ether. (It has to be admitted that they have had many, less worthy imitators in that much-maligned genre.)

The music on this disc was recorded live onto DAT from a house soundboard. The liner notes advise the listener to expect some diminution of quality as against a through-recorded live album, but I have to say that I am pretty satisfied with the end product. A burning 'Celestial Terrestial Commuters' comes off particularly well, and played loud (as Bendian avers) the whole CD is both detailed and punchy. Soundboard recordings tend to be a bit flat, but this has enough roundedness in the acoustic to work nicely. It achieves a scale fitting to the electric chamber moniker.

Mahavishnu-heads should note that these are not (thank heavens) note-for-note reproductions of the original pieces but creative interpretations which project the spirit of Mahavishnu into a new era. It would be wonderful if the band made it to Europe eventually, though that might be asking a bit much. The Project are very fine musicians in their own right and not only can they carry off these performances with finesse, they also appreciate the dynamics that made Mahavishnu so electrifying in the other-than-a-pure-voltage sense.

Gratitude to my good friend and aural sparring partner Jonathan Crawford (respec') for pointing this one out to me. The other tracks on the album are: 'The Dance of Maya', 'Trilogy ('The Sunlit Path / Mere de la Mer / Tomorrow's Story Not the Same'), 'Dawn' / 'Open Country Jam', 'Birds of Fire', 'Resolution' / 'The Noonward Race', the seventeen minute 'Dream', and 'One Word'. Check it out.

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ON THIS DAY IN 2000

The singer Kirsty Macoll, queen of ironic mockney post-folk balladry, tragically died off the coast of Mexico when she was hit by a speedboat while out scuba-diving with her son. Worthy of memorial attention are the tongue-in-cheek Latin grooves on her last album ('Tropical Brainstorm'), the wonderful 'A New England' -- transformed from the mundanity of Billy Bragg's original by the magic touch of Steve Lilywhite's production and instrumentation -- and occasional duets with her legendary father Ewan Macoll. Along with loveable Pogue-ish rogue Shane McGowan, Kirsty also produced just about the only decent Christmas single of the last thirty years, 'The Fairytale of New York'. The collection ‘The One and Only’ contains some additional gems, such as the extended 7' 34" mix of 'A New England', which veers unexpectedly into prog-psychedelic territory. Always more than a mere popular singer, Kirsty Macoll was someone of whom it is rightly said that there is more to her than immediately meets the ear.

NOTE TO USERS: This weblog is updated daily at the moment, but there have been technical problems (at Blogger's end) with uploading and archiving. Please call back again if you can't find what you want today!

JEHAN ALAIN: THE COMPLETE WORKS FOR ORGAN

Performer: Kevin Bowyer
Label: Nimbus
Catalogue Number: NI55512
Released: 21 April, 1998

Jehan Alain is perhaps best known for his ostinato, invocational miniature ‘Litanies’, which remains (along with Messaien’s sublime ‘Le Banquet Celeste’) one of my favourite devotional organ pieces. Its intense, syncopated repetitions on a liturgical fragment are by turns meditative and ecstatic: ‘Litanies’ is simultaneously a work of simplicity and sophistication.

In his tragically short life (he was killed at the age of 29 during the second world war, in 1940) Alain composed some 34 organ works. They were published posthumously in three volumes, along with a further two volumes of piano works. Aside from this Nimbus collection, two separate discs were issued in the 1990s by Naxos.

Jehan Alain was a pupil of Dupree and a contemporary of Debussy, Dukas, Faure and Ravel. His harmonic language reflects the prevailing French musical scene of the time, but also a good deal of un-pompous individual flare and, in ‘Trois Danses’, the influences of family friend Andre Marchal, who was organist at the Paris church of Saint-Germain-des-Pres.
These performances by Kevin Bowyer (who has also completed a J. S. Bach cycle, works by Schoenberg and Brahms, and a fine collection of organ pieces by Peter Maxwell Davies, Jonathan Harvey and Malcolm Williamson – Nimbus 5509) were recorded in June-July 1997 at the restored Marcussen organ in the Chapel of St Augustine, Tonbridge School, England.

The playing is wonderful and the recording highly skilled, but I confess to a bias towards performances of Alain’s music on less boxy instruments with a slightly flatter acoustic. The expansive chordal developments of his compositions are often complemented by subtle, angular details in alternate registers, and this delicate blend can be smudged by too round an ambience or too florid an instrumentation.

I realise that these are subjective preferences, and no doubt specialists in French organ music will tell me that I am wrong. (I also locate myself on what is today regarded as the ‘wrong’ side of parallel arguments concerning the ‘authentic’ performance of the Handel organ concertos, where I think the Karl Richter got it absolutely right for the scale of these pieces, for example.) Perhaps it is all really to do with intimacy. There is a fragility, a vulnerability, but also an unaffected, quiet certainty to Alain’s works that can all-too-easily be lost by over-performance or too large a sound. For me, though it is difficult to choose, Bowyer is a slightly better interpreter than Eric Lebrun on the Naxos set. But the dynamic and acoustic is not always quite as it should be.

Quibbling aside, though, this is a fine recent account of Alain’s somewhat overlooked organ cycle. I hesitate to use the word ‘complete’, since he would undoubtedly have gone on to even greater things if he had lived longer; but these pieces certainly constitute a true and faithful account of his work.

Marie-Claire Alain, the renowned organist and young sister of Jehan, has recorded what will probably, for historical reasons, remain the definitive performances of his works. She has also penned his biography*. I nonetheless look forward to further interpretations in different settings. Meanwhile, and in spite of a rather personal caveat, I have little hesitation in commending the Nimbus recording as the best available. The eleven pages of notes by Felix Aprahamian are concise and very illuminating.

Jehan Alain is definitely a composer who deserves more attention and recognition outside the circles of the cognoscenti. Treat yourself if you do not already know him.

* Check out the Erato boxed tribute. Her Jehan Alain set is only available on vinyl.

MORE ON MAW FROM MUSICWEB

Thanks to Len Mullenger for pointing out (of course) the model, detailed review of Nicholas Maw’s opera, ‘Sophie’s Choice’, by Marc Bridle. This features on the ever-excellent MusicWeb site. A must-visit place on the web. Bridle explores the music, libretto, staging and overall trajectory in considerable detail. His thoughtful, critical response is light years away from the cheap shots that have been fired in some sections of the media, and overall he is supportive of Maw’s and the ROH’s venture. Noting that, so far, the work is a ‘hit’, Bridle observes:

“Simon Rattle’s conducting is both urgent and spellbinding, and he produces ravishing sounds from the strings, notably the burnished-sounding ‘cellos and deeply sonorous basses. Indeed, the playing is largely magnificent. There are moments of pathos and of anger in the orchestral writing, but Maw is masterly at being able to make every sung or spoken word clearly audible above the orchestra. Most of the vocal writing is for single voice, or in dialogue, with only one or two pieces for duet or quartet (excluding the choral Auschwitz scenes where the singing is mostly monosyllabic.”

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JANE MONHEIT: ‘IN THE SUN’

Label: Sony Jazz 5094752
Released: 7 October 2002

One of the pleasant surprises in recent years has been the growing popularity of really top class jazz singers like Claire Martin, Diana Krall and Sarah Jane Morris. At a time when song is being blandly soul-ified and corporately schmaltzed, it is encouraging that potentially market-oriented performers are doing justice to the roots of their art and introducing the standards to new generations. The most high profile artists include sonorous new commercial talents like Norah Jones. Much more outré, and therefore of lower visibility, are the likes of Norma Winstone and Christine Tobin, who can move song form well into the left-field. (I hope to feature Tobin in the near future. She is quite extraordinary in her audaciousness and genre-defying iconoclasm.)

Among those in the ‘in between’ category I recently came across Jane Monheit, whose new album ‘In the Sun’ features traditions of different kinds - Leonard Bernstein's ‘Some Other Time’ (from ‘On the Town’), Ellington’s ‘Just Squeeze Me’, ‘Haunted Heart’ (not quite strong enough) and a wonderfully inventive, lightly bopping re-working of Irving Berlin’s ‘Cheek to Cheek’. Monheit’s clear, high, pure voice is also well suited to the Brazilian stylings of by Brazilian Ivan Lins. She came second in the 1998 Thelonius Monk Vocal Prize aged just 20. There is evidently much more to come.

The strings on the album are arranged by Alan Broadbent. Other stellar instrumentalists featured on a (little too smooth) production are bassist Ron Carter, trumpeter Tom Harrell, drummer Kenny Washington and tenor saxophonist Joel Frahm.

For me absolute the highlight was the surprise of Bill Evans’ and Eugene Lees’ ‘Turn Out The Stars’. That Evans magic works every time.

Apparently Monheit’s 2001 and 2000 CDs, ‘Come Dream With Me’ and ‘Never Never Land’ emphasise her capabilities as a popular chantreuse and are a little more up-beat. Those with purer jazz ballad inclinations like me may therefore prefer the quieter, more thoughtful strains of ‘In the Sun’. But it would be worth checking out all three.

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MAGGY BURROWES: A VOICE ‘ROUND MIDNIGHT

Meanwhile singer Maggy Burrowes, who teaches voice through the Feldenkrais Method of learning by awareness, is developing a following throughout clubs in London and the Southeast of England, including spots at well-known venues like Ronnie Scott’s. I heard a fifteen minute demo CD earlier today and was most impressed.

Burrowes has an extraordinarily expressive voice – tender, rich, emotionally persuasive and intense. Her versions of ‘Round Midnight’ and ‘Bye Bye Blackbird’ are enormously inventive and unselfconsciously melancholic. ‘Black Coffee’ and ‘No Moon At All’ also capture that smoky-but-clear 2 AM feeling. Only the more up-tempo and popularly diatonic ‘Under the Ivy’ (with Andy Smith on piano and keys) didn’t quite work for me.

Once again the quality of the sidespersons is crucial. Burrowes goes for an uncluttered and coolly cultured jazz sound. Phil Scraggs’ gently slapping bass is a joy. James Woodrow’s Epiphone (?) guitar is bell-like but somehow moody. Simon Robinson lends more piano on ‘Blackbird’ and Stephen Wrigley adds guitar on ‘No Moon’.

I have no direct source for Burrowes CDs or tapes at the moment, but I will let you know when I do. Meanwhile those in the London area are advised to scour their jazz listings for performances by Maggy and her accomplices. Thanks to Pam and Steve Chapman for pointing me in the direction of her work.

INDEX for December 2002 / Coming Soon

Upcoming next week: A cornucopia of Christmas delights including … Icebreaker (ensemble), Michael Tippett (composer), Godspeed! You Black Emperor (post-rock), Joanna MacGregor and Patrick Moraz (eclectic pianism)...

26.5 Nicholas Maw: ‘Sophie’s Choice’ (Royal Opera House)
26.4 Steve Howe: ‘Skyline’ et al
26.3 ‘Masterpiece Guitars’: Martin Taylor w. Steve Howe
26.2 Derek Bailey: ‘Guitar Drums’n’Bass’ (free improv)
26.1 The Necks live at the Purcell Room (15 December 2002)
25.3 New and Contemporary Music weblogs and websites - inc. december.org
25.2 Ravel: Piano Concertos in G and D; Valses
25.1 Adrian Legg: ‘Guitar for Mortals (14 December 2002)
22.4 Occasional Index, vol 1-22 (51 pieces, 20 June – 13 December 2002)
22.3 Handel: ‘Gloria’ and ‘Dixit Dominus’ (Emma Kirby et al)
22.2 Chad Wackerman: ‘Forty Reasons’ – jazz fusion / freeform
22.1 Striking a note or two for peace (CD collection; Godspeed!) [13 December 2002]
21.1 Gustav Holst: ‘The Planets’ w. Colin Matthews: ‘Pluto’ [11 December 2002]
20.1 Quota: Aaron Copland [8 December 2002]
19.1 Threnody Ensemble – biography [7 December 2002]
18.1 The Shout (Choir of Babel) – upcoming concerts [4 December 2002]
17.1 Fast ‘Trane approaching (London Jazz Festival) [26 November 2002]

NICHOLAS MAW: SOPHIE’S CHOICE, BUT THE CRITICS’?

The epic new opera by Nicholas Maw, ‘Sophie’s Choice’, is halfway through its premier run at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, London. Based on the best-selling novel by William Styron (which gained publicity as a film of the same name), Maw’s piece – to which he contributed a libretto based on the original text as well as four hours of music – is produced by Trevor Nunn and allegedly cost nearly £1 million to put on for an initial ten nights ending 22 December, when it is broadcast live on BBC 4.

Part of the expense has been occasioned by the heavily subsidised seats, aimed at placating the usual army of nay-sayers who like to dismiss modern opera as an elitist and redundant art. No doubt flying in Sir Simon Rattle from his new ensconcement with the Berlin Philharmonic cost a pretty penny too.

It has been widely observed that the potential disjuncture between the topic, the medium, the literary form and music makes ‘Sophie’s Choice’ ambitious, to put it mildly. Nicholas Maw is not a fashionable composer. He works in a tonal, lyrical but somehow recognisably modern form without being obviously in debt to either serialism or post-minimalism.

All-in-all this is an event that one can predict will have the critics slavering for a modicum of blood, and that has been the case in a number of instances, in spite of Rattle’s ardent defence of the venture and its music. The Guardian review is not untypical. In the US reactions have been more positive (search on Google for the breadth of reaction), and Le Monde was relatively nuanced.

The British critics, rather pathetically, seem to enjoy picking and digging at anything they see as ‘getting above its station’, and that has been the case here too. I have not had a chance to see the staged work – attempts to get tickets have been fruitless so far – but I have heard a bit if the score on the radio. In places it has a filmic quality, the recitatif is melodic, and the overall sound world is reminiscent of Britten (and sometimes, faintly, Tippett). It often eschews more traditionally operatic styles for cultural inference: folk traditions and flourishes. The denouement of the whole work (a quotation adapted from Ellie Weisel) is enormously moving, and unusually for an opera -- though perhaps not so for one that deals with the sheer artistic and ethical impossibility of the Holocaust -- the few silences are unbearably momentous.

The ROH has taken a considerable risk with this production, and is to be congratulated. Their background information sets the scene well. BBC Radio 3 information has come up trumps as usual. Sequenza 21 has some effective reportage story on ‘Sophie’s Choice’ and on its composer in their issue of 9-16 December. (Search in the back issues if you are reading this after then.)

Sadly this production, which has been commended for its visual impact and cleverness, as well as for the scale of the musical enterprise involved, is unlikely to be revived in the near future – and when it is it seems certain that Rattle will not have time to get behind the baton again. My guess is that it will be pared down to under three hours too. But whenever it appears again in Europe I’ll be there.

There are rumours of a US version, incidentally. The Met in NY has been shameful in its neglect of contemporary opera; a staging there would be quite a coup. And pretty unthinkable, I suppose…

Above all, this is a work of great moral force – what comparable horror is it that we should be avoiding in our age? If aesthetics can claim precedence over ethics in the post-Cold War era, how can this be so? It's up to us in the end... In the meantime 'Sophie's Choice' deserves a place in the twenty-first century repertoire, and Maw merits more than a second hearing.

STEVE HOWE: SKYLINE

Audio CD (28 October, 2002)
Label: InsideOut 65362

A slightly curious choice for review in NewFrontEars perhaps, but bear with me. Essentially a set of fresh soundscapes ideally suited to Steve Howe’s crystalline playing (the Gibson ES-175D and Fender Precision Bass take the most prominent spots in a sea of strings that also includes Koto, Danelectro Coral sitar, Autoharp and mandolin), ‘Skyline’ employs electronic keyboards for atmosphere and texture. The bass additions harmonise unobtrusively into the instrumental blend, and the percussion provides more of a pulse than a beat, “pushing the rhythms enough to complement the flavour”, as Howe says in a brief, prosaic liner note. Paul Sutin, a long-term collaborator, takes the keys on eight of the twelve tracks – which clock in at exactly one hour in total. A very rounded project.

Under the bar code on the back of the package we are encouraged by InsideOut to ‘File under Progressive Rock’. This is a tag that Howe will never escape, and just to rub it in there are two stickers reminding us that he is ‘the guitarist of [rather than ‘for’, interestingly enough] Yes’. In ‘Skyline’s context such labels are largely meaningless, of course, though they emphasise the particular market niche which provides Howe’s bread-and-butter income. And at least they fend off the other term that might well pollute such a venture, ‘New Age’. It’s hard to deny that this is restful, ambient music. But that need not be the insult it often implies. There are some softly strong themes at work here, and in a couple of places (‘Secret Arrow’ and ‘Camera Obscura’ come to mind) it as if a few of Howe’s trademark ascending and descending runs, with their oddly metered phrasing and counter-harmonic propensities, are being gently lowered toward us from the rooftop. This is soloing in slow motion, composition patiently reconstructed, improvisation through temporal expansion.

Each of the dozen tracks has its own charm, but some take a little more time to reveal their worth than others. Howe uses twenty-one different guitars (including electric, steel, Spanish and FX, 6- and 12-string) to good effect. In every case it is the overall tapestry of sound and emotional scope he is interested in, not instrument-swapping for its own sake. A few of the pieces drift in and out of consciousness, some stand out and call for more attention. I’m none-too-keen on fades, and that remains true even in this essentially pastoral setting. The hinted vocals and keyboard patches on the opening and closing pieces (‘Small Acts of Human Kindness’ and its reprise) are the most questionable aspects of the whole enterprise, and (ironically) they are also the point at which the guitarist’s lineage is most evident. They might just have worked better in Yes, and Yes might similarly work better sometimes if it paid more attention to Howe the colourist.

However, if Steve Howe is about the nearest Yes have got to a muse, his heart is rarely obscured. He tells us in his notes that “Skyline offers me the opportunity to explore the partnership of melodic and improvisational playing.” He is known for both, of course. Here you have the opportunity to view them at close quarters and at contemplative pace. Pleasingly, the join is hard to detect. In spite of its merits, many will probably still dismiss this album as elevator music. I can see why, to be fair. It isn’t the kind of thing I’d normally go for. But ‘elevational’ seems much more fitting to the tenor of ‘Skyline’, and (like the music itself) it is a more generous and measured judgement.

If, like me. you enjoy Howe’s sound, phrasing and melodic angularity but find this particular offering a little too soporific, I suggest you try Not Necessarily Acoustic, Natural Timbre or The Steve Howe Album – at least until his duo with the peerless jazz fretman Martin Taylor, appears in January 2003. That’s called Masterpiece Guitars (see immediately below).

MARTIN TAYLOR w. STEVE HOWE, MASTERPIECE GUITARS

For the past two years Martin Taylor has been recording some of the historic guitars from the Chinery Collection with Steve Howe. He embraked on a solo tour of the US earlier in the year which culminated in a concert with Steve at the National Museum of American History, where he played some of the guitars from the famous Blues Guitar Collection which is housed at the Smithsonian Institution.

The Washington Post remarked in its first Performing Arts Column: "No matter how complex or daring, Taylor's interpretation never short change the melodies; indeed, his remarkably fluid touch imbues a seamless beauty. Taylor is something to behold." He was also featured in an All Star Concert with George Benson, Kenny Burell and Larry Coryell.

Henry Potts writes: “Masterpiece Guitars, a collaboration between Steve Howe and Martin Taylor recorded in early 1996 and produced by Howe, is finally to be released by P3 Music in Feb 2003 (in Europe). Prior to general release, a limited edition series were available at the Classic American Guitar Show (Plainview, NY; 4-5 May), which Howe attended, and now via 20th Century Guitar Online magazine.”

BAILEY’S WITHOUT CREAM

Derek Bailey, Guitar, Drums ‘n’ Bass (Avant – Koch, 1997)

Mention guitar music and a few names instantly stand out – Segovia, Wes Montgomery, Hendrix. In his own way Derek Bailey, now implausibly in his seventies, has had just as dramatic and important an impact on the guitar landscape of the twentieth century as any of those ‘greats’. That his endeavours have taken place largely in the obscure world of free and improvised music explains his relative anonymity. His output has been varied and prodigious, however.

Of his many recordings Guitar Drums’n’Bass most readily achieves the status of pure fun. With running titles like N/JZ/BM [Remix], Re-Re-Re [Upmix], DNJBB [Cake Mix], Concrete [Cement Mix], Ninja [De Mix] and Pie [Amatosis mix], Bailey’s warped, off-kilter and violently eerie electric sound blends and competes with the critical beats of DJ Ninja. This is joyously discordant, disarming, danceable and deranged music.

If you are unfamiliar with Bailey’s sonic universe and want a CD to wreck the office Christmas party sound system, annoy the hell out of boorish metalheadz ("Oi, turn that bleedin' noise dahn mate!") or drive crotchety old Aunty Vera to an early grave, here is a glorious opportunity, dear reader. Indeed it must be the joys of the Season that called this little aural classic to mind after five years unworthy languishing in the attic.

Incidentally, the European Free Improvisation Derek Bailey page has up-to-date information, clips, concert news and resources. A one-off pioneer in new and avant garde music. "And is it jazz?" We can safely leave that one to the police....

THE NECKS LIVE AT THE PURCELL ROOM

Listen to all the music from their wonderful concert at this year's London Jazz Festival. BBC Radio Three link here. One of Australia's most compelling cultural enterprises, this piano, bass, and keyboards trio have generated an enormous cult following with an irresistible hypnotic mixture of ambient sound washes, shifting rhythms and psychedelic mood swings. They produce a post-jazz, post-rock, post-everything sonic experience that has few parallels or rivals. They are three musicians seizing the moment, communicating with a fierce energy and warmth - the music is a thrilling emotional journey into unknown territory.

"Like seeing a world in a grain of sand, The Necks permit us to hear a whole new world of music in a sliver of sound", The Guardian.

‘NEW’ & ‘CONTEMPORARY’ MUSIC WEBLOGS AND WEBSITES

Bruno’s place

Bruno Bollaert has been running the excellent december.org website since 1994. I discovered it only recently thanks to the good people at Servustats. The emphasis in a generally eclectic set of art music references is on contemporary through-composed tonal music (OK, ‘minimalist’, but I really don’t think that term does justice to the likes of Andreissen and Adams). It is a well organised and niftily designed log – aesthetically pleasing to the adventurous, helpfully off-putting to muzak lovers. Give december a visit and drop an encouraging note, if you are so inclined, to bruno@december.org. He has kindly name-checked NewFrontEars. Oh, and getting the twelfth month as your personal URL nearly nine years ago… how cool is that?

Freedom road?

What exactly qualifies as ‘new’ and ‘contemporary’? A quick web search tells you that whereas these were once ciphers for the daunting and demanding in modern musical arts, these days they can easily mean, respectively, the latest from Foo Fighters and a euphemism for AOR atrocities (as in ‘adult contemporary’, almost as pornographic as it sounds).

Back in October I enjoyed rant on the future of ‘classical’ and serious (as in ‘artistically purposeful’) musics. Of course this one runs and drones all over the web. And not just on music-alone sites. Check out the lively squeaks from Wirkman.com in his not-a-blog, for example. He has some valid points to make. His ‘popular’ horizons seem rather limited, admittedly. His take on jazz (“jazz musicians usually limit themselves to a 3-7 minute time slot”) is quixotic. And his libertarian politics ranges from stimulating to worrying (this is a US site). But, hey, it’s the Season of Goodwill. The man writes really stimulating, argumentative copy. And we can surely all be grateful for the crucial reference on to…

Sequenza 21

Simply the best weekly of its kind Sequenza 21 (in its own words) aims “to promote contemporary classical music and its creators. Our approach is that of music lovers who are catholic and apolitical in our tastes. We embrace all serious modern music and aim to do so without favouring one school or type of music over another. If we have a bias, it is toward living, working composers because they are the dedicated people who don't get enough attention or opportunities to have their music heard or recorded.”

It also avers that “the concept of quality [is] the only criteria for what endures in the arts. We consider our mission to be to help create and enlarge the audience for contemporary classical music. We welcome all fellow travellers on this mission.”

Amen to that, and congratulations to Duane Grant and Jerry Bowles on a superb source for modern music lovers. Check out their composer links, essential library and excellent general resources. This, in my view, is one of *the* places to begin in the ‘contemporary classical’ scene.

Listology: BBC, Questia, Bundler and miscellany

In case the obvious has passed you by, the BBC has a pretty useful reviews site. The A-Z ranges from the serious to the jolly, and back again. Search under ‘classical’ and ‘popular’ if you can’t take the melange. Better still, just dive in. There’s room for readers’ comments, with varying degrees of literacy.

While I’m here, let me also mention: Questia, one of the largest libraries on the web (with significant contemporary music resources); the Twentieth and Nineteenth Century Music Webring; Rob Le Grand’s interesting music collection; the anonymous but informative 'David Bundler'; and a couple of direct offbeat music sources: Primal Records and Infinite Jazz.

Happy (ideas) shopping.

RAVEL: PIANO CONCERTOS IN G AND D & 8 VALSES NOBLES

Composer: Maurice Ravel
Conductor: Pierre Boulez
Performer: Krystian Zimerman
Orchestra: Cleveland Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra
Label: DG 4492132
Released: 8 January, 1999

Ravel's Piano Concerto in G was the work that convinced me to start taking a serious interest in jazz. I don't know whether it has had anything like the same effect on the tonally ascetic Pierre Boulez, but we should all be genuinely grateful for his masterful guidance of the Cleveland Orchestra on this wonderful recording. Rich and detailed, the orchestral sound ideally complements the striking sensitivity of Krystian Zimerman's performance. (Boulez feels this work in his bones, a fact which leaves you sensing that he is suppressing an unexpected dimension to his musical personality in some of the more ideological postures he strikes on late- and post-twentieth century music.)

As ever, the approach of the soloist is critical. Zimerman makes his initial allegro attack with aplomb, and he pulls off the concluding, dynamic presto with equal attitude. But is in the heart-wrenching adagio, around which the whole work revolves, that he is at his strongest. While not technically exhausting, this is a difficult movement to perform to its full potential. But Zimerman's timing, leaning off the elusive beat to exactly the right degree, is magnificent.

The eight Valses Nobles et Sentimentales are a charming distraction (no disparagement intended) upon which the Cleveland is able to shimmer and shine. They clean the palette for the dark, pounding feast that is the Concerto for Left Hand in D.

This is not my favourite recording of the Left Hand Concerto, but it comes pretty close. What it lacks in menace it makes up for in exquisite detail and panoramic scope. If you haven’t heard it before you are in for a dark and delightful treat. And quibbles aside, this surely amounts to a definitive recording of these three great works.

ADRIAN LEGG: GUITAR FOR MORTALS

Origin: Roadrunner Records, 1993
Current import: USA, BLOU10782

I was fortunate enough to come across this album, and indeed Adrian Legg as an artist, quite by chance. Around the time 'Guitar For Mortals' was released Steve Howe shared the same label, Roadrunner Records. I went to interview Howe in a dingy North London office not long after the release of his 'Turbulence' CD (q.v.) and I was fortuitously given a copy of the Legg album by a PR intermediary. It has stayed with me ever since: an old friend I sometimes ignore but am always delighted and surprised to meet again when the moment seizes.

Adrian Legg is a guitarist of supreme adaptability and fluidity. His influences range from Jaco Pastorius to Nanci Griffith (see track four), from classical to Cajun, jazz and beyond. Out of this varied tapestry of styles and aesthetics he is able to weave crafty arrays of tunes: some haunting, some playful, all of them clever and thoughtful without being in the least self-regarding. Legg is an inspiring talent and, even more, an instrumentalist of real musical intent. Which can be unusual these days. Give this a careful listen, especially the evocative 'A Candle In Notre Dame'. It is an album of rare grace, good humour and breadth.

When you have recovered try 'Guitars And Other Cathedrals' (1991) and 'Fingers And Thumbs' (1999). You will not be disappointed if you have open ears and an expectant attitude.

OCCASIONAL NewFrontEars INDEX

22.4 Occasional Index, vol 1-22 (51 pieces, 20 June – 13 December 2002)
22.3 Handel: ‘Gloria’ and ‘Dixit Dominus’ (Emma Kirby et al)
22.2 Chad Wackerman: ‘Forty Reasons’ – jazz fusion
22.1 Striking a note or two for peace (CD collection; Godspeed!) [13 December 2002]
21.1 Gustav Holst: ‘The Planets’ w. Colin Matthews: ‘Pluto’ [11 December 2002]
20.1 Quota: Aaron Copland [8 December 2002]
19.1 Threnody Ensemble – biography [7 December 2002]
18.1 The Shout – upcoming concerts [4 December 2002]
17.1 Fast ‘Trane approaching (London Jazz Festival) [26 November 2002]
16.2 Gig lines
16.1 Harrison Birtwistle: ‘The Woman and the Hare’ [20 October 2002]
15.2 Kombat Opera Songbook
15.1 Congratulations… BBC Music Magazine [9 October 2002]
14.2 ‘Old’ is the new ‘New’
14.1 ‘Classical’ gas leak: where we might go from here (polemics, essay) [9 September 2002]
13.1 Karl Richter’s definitive Handel Organ Concerto set [14 July 2002]
12.2 Harrison Birtwistle: ‘Refrains and Choruses’
12.1 Barry Mills: ‘Morning Sea’ (chamber pieces) [13 July 2002]
11.1 Listening post: current (very eclectic) playlist [12 July 2002]
10.1 Rear view: King Crimson’s ‘THRaKaTTaCK’ [11 July 2002]
9.1 Woman on the edge of musical nirvana: Suzanne Giraud [10 July 2002]
8.3 The Shout: A choir of Babel
8.2 Occasional Index, vol 1-8 (28 pieces, 20 June – )
8.1 Utopia revisited: Holdsworth’s secrets [9 July 2002]
7.5 Coming Soon
7.4 Earle Brown, RIP
7.3 Quota: Hunter S Thompson
7.2 Pli Selon free (Boulez)
7.1 Faure into the past [8 July 2002]
6.4 Difficult Listening (radio)
6.3 David Hobson (tenor) review
6.2 Readers and writing
6.1 London Record Finder [7 July 2002]
5.2 Listening post: George Crumb, Ancient Voices
5.1 Twentieth Century Landmarks [26 June 2002]
4.3 Turnage’s ‘Silver Tassie’
4.2 Air guitar in Brighton
4.1 Lindley’s Handel Organ Concertos [24 June 2002]
3.2 Boulez and Zappa: perfect strangers?
3.1 Dierdre Cartwright, Play (review) [23 June 2002]
2.5 Messiaen reconsidered (conference)
2.4 La Folia
2.3 Dierdre Cartwright Group, Precious things (new: review)
2.2 Birtwistle anecdotage
2.1 Bubalo, Chamber works (review) [22 June 2002]
1.5 Symbiosis, Lee and Schuller; David Hobson, Handel Arias
1.4 Quota: Andrew Clements on ROH, Aki Nawaz on racism in music
1.3 Eclectic Guitars
1.2 Birtwistle, Refrains and choruses (review)
1.1 Journeying to the heart of planet sound: a personal odyssey (SB,) [20 June 2002]

G. F. HANDEL: ‘GLORIA’ / ‘DIXIT DOMINUS’

Conductor: Laurence Cummings, Anders Ohrwall, et al.
Performer: Emma Kirkby, Anne Sofie von Otter, et al.
Orchestra: Royal Academy of Music Baroque Orchestra, Drottningholm Baroque Ensemble, et al.
Label: BIS BISCD1235
Released: 4 June, 2001

Emma Kirby's radiant performance on the premiere recording of Handel's rediscovered 'Gloria' is well worth the entrance price. The Royal Academy's Baroque Orchestra also give a strong performance, albeit one lacking the richer tones of John Eliot Gardiner's period ensemble on the Philips (462 597-2) recording which appeared a couple of months later. By Handel's standards this a fairly straight setting of a traditional text, but all the expected flourishes, trills, sustains and extended runs are there to add the colour we would expect. The outcome is a splendid combination of required simplicity and appropriate elaboration.

Gardiner's 'Dixit Dominus' is superior to the well-known archive one on this recording, which comes across a little flat. It would have been good if the Academy could have produced a third Handel work to supplement the 'Gloria' - perhaps a Motet like 'Saeviat tellus inter rigores' or the Psalm 'Nisi Dominus'. Gardiner tags on the Vivaldi 'Gloria' instead. But it is something of a curious afterthought, and given the choice of the two I would definitely plump for this CD if it is the Handel you are after.

A couple of other recordings have become available since this release and the Philips one. The Gottingen Handel Festival Edition is a live recording from their 3 June 2001 gala performance with Dominique Labelle, soprano, the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, and conductor Nicholas McGegan. And the Baroque Academy of Montreal offer another period instrument rendition on Atma Classique (ACD2 2215), accompanied by the Bach and Vivaldi settings. However, Emma Kirby remains the benchmark.

MORE THAN ENOUGH REASONS

Chad Wackerman, Forty Reasons (Times Square Records) - originally released 2001.

Best known for his earlier associations with Frank Zappa, Chad Wackerman is one of the doyens of fusion drumming. That could spell trouble. After all, jazz-rock territory is flooded with sub par musings and indulgent meanderings. With 'Forty Reasons', however, you could not be on more different territory. This is one of the most significant and underrated albums in its genre. I rushed out to buy it the year it was released, having heard its proponent on tour in London with Alan Holdsworth, whose intimidating legato guitar talents are also featured, alongside Jimmy Johnson on bass and Jim Cox on keyboards.

In concert Wackerman can occasionally be a little overpowering, swamping the more subtle accents and diversions of other musicians in a percussive storm. Here, however, the mix is just right, in every sense. There is a consideredness and musicality to these performances that puts them in a different league to those exaggerated instrumental pyrotechnics which can demean artists of this degree of technical virtuosity. But in 'Forty Reasons' what is being showcased is not just a drummer's prowess, but also a bandleader's thoughtfulness and a composer's inventiveness.

For this reason, power-trio cliches are pushed to one side. Instead we have some melodically and harmonically sophisticated compositions ranging over a typically nervy, shifting rhythmic base, and interspersed with delightfully dissonant, free form improvisations. The result is spell binding.

This album is best consumed as a whole: but it would be remiss of me not to mention 'Tell Me', which is a track of exemplary simplicity and extraordinary quality. The highlight is Alan Holdsworth's superlative solo: a flow of notes, ideas and cumulative elaborations that demonstrates precisely how a phrase can become a sentence and a sentence a paragraph of great dexterity and depth in the hands of a world-class artist.

Once you have come to appreciate this album, try Chad Wackerman's follow-up. 'The View', where the instrumentation and style is somewhat different, even if his trademark tub-thumping continues to be all over it.

STRIKING A NOTE OR TWO FOR PEACE

A number of recording artists have come together to produce the 'Peace Not War' CD collection, mindful of the current threat of conflagration in the Middle East. Among the contributors are Nitin Sawhney, Asian Dub Foundation, Public Enemy, Massive Attack and the delightfully monikered DJ DisOrientalist. I haven't heard this one, and we know that 'cause' complilations can be varied in quality, to say the least. But there will almost certainly be one or two tracks that intrigue or (dare I say it) entertain on this, so do pop down to your HMV, Virgin or Tower and pick up a copy. I know, I know -- you usually shop at independents only, but this is the Season of Mammon, and you could well find yourself in need of a redemptive action in one of the megastores, so here it is. The 'biggest' artist on the CD, incidentally, is chart-topping Ms Dynamite. I'm not a big fan of the current vogue for schmaltzy soulified R&B, but she undoubtedly has a strong voice. Full details here.

And if you were feeling the need to expunge commercialism altogether while retaining a sense of real ideological engagement in the presence of gathering war clouds, you could always opt instead (or in addition) for the latest offering from that most extraordinary Canadian, 9-person post-rock-avant-orchestral collective, Godspeed! You Black Emperor: Yanqui U.X.O. Of course the impact would somewhat be lost if you used Amazon as more than a convenient online catalogue, but you can't win all the time...

All of which leads me to note that I shall have to give Godspeed! some serious attention in the near future, having been blown away when I caught them live in Brighton earlier in 2002. Check out especially 'Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennae to Heaven'. What an ideal Christmas present that album would be.

MATTHEWS HITS THE RIGHT NOTE

Disc: Holst 'Planets' w. Colin Matthews 'Pluto'
Conductor: David Lloyd-Jones
Performer: Clare Rutter
Orchestra: Royal Scottish National Chorus, Royal Scottish National Orchestra
Label: Naxos 8555776
Released: 11 March, 2002

The recordings of Gustav Holst's 'Planets' are legion. Amazon has over 100 listings. Numerous too are the lesser composers who have aped the conventions of 'Mars' and 'Jupiter', in particular, to make themselves a fast buck out of writing film scores. Now, heaven help us, we have a toy classics-lite ensemble named after this well-known suite.

In the midst of all this faux popularity it is easy to forget just what a quality work 'The Planets' is. This new edition from Naxos, marking their fifteen years as a high selling classical label, provides an excellent stimulus to the memory. The Royal Scottish National Orchestra gives a fine account of itself in its rich, enthusiastic, but never overbearing approach to the score. This should not surprise us, because they are led in their endeavours by composer Colin Matthews. He has more reason than most to have given Holst's most famous work detailed attention, since he bravely responded to a commission from Kent Negano and the Halle orchestra to write a sequel. His 'Pluto: The Renewer' is included on this disc, along with a stirring rendition of Holst's little known 'The Mystic Trumpeter' (opus 18), based on a poem by Walt Whitman. Clare Rutter (sop) does more than enough to convince us that this orchestral song is worth listening to again.

What of Matthews' endeavours? The Halle first recorded and released 'Pluto' (named after the planet discovered in 1933, a year before Holst died) in 2001, on the Hyperion label. Comparisons with that disc are inevitable. Both are strong, but perhaps not surprisingly Matthews' own baton seems to bring a little greater clarity and contrast to his own composition. The RSNO's performance on 'Mars' and 'Venus' is also much more wilful than that of the Halle, and they match up well to each other on the more meditative movements and sequences too.

Opinion will obviously be divided, but I think Matthews has written a sequel of compelling authority and vision. He segues his composition out of the embers of 'Neptune', picking up its mystical resonance before moving us towards a couple of dissonant climaxes. The conclusion too his piece is mesmerising. There are plenty of Holstian references in this 6 minute 42 second score, but Matthews does not try straightforwardly to 'write Holst'. He is his own man. His piece blends in well with the other Planets - as becomes more apparent on successive listenings to the whole refigured work. But it does not mimic. Its language is inventive, such that only those who feel the need to render modern in inverted commas when they use it as an epithet to music are likely to miss the point.

The Halle give the nervous or traditional listener the 'proper' ending to Holst's suite as well as Matthews' addendum, in case they want to re-programme their CD player accordingly. Naxos and the RSNO go that natural step further by integrating the two without qualification, and they also provide us with a first-rate account of that Holst 'scena' for soprano and orchestra too. A milestone that deserves high praise. My advice would be to get both versions. Then try out some of Matthews' other orchestral works on the 1996 Collins Classic recording, which includes 'Hidden Variables', 'Memorial', 'Quatrain' and 'Machines And Dreams'.

QUOTA

"Composers tend to think that most people really care a lot about music. Well, most people don't." -- Aaron Copland

[Editor's note: Several people have pointed out to me that the July 02 archive has been down. I've managed to salvage the material and repost the archive. Three items seem to be repeated when you click on July. Just keep on scrolling down if this happens to you.]

THRENODY ENSEMBLE

Along with The Necks (an Ozzie avant-minimalist jazz combo), Threnody Ensemble are one of the most alluring and innovative chamber groups around at the moment. Here's a flavour of where they're coming from. Visit their website and hear a 6+ minute excerpt from their new album.

"Dave Cerf and Erik Hoversten have been collaborating since they were three-years-old. Over the past 25 years, the tools of this collaboration have changed from Legos and action figures to musical instruments and computers. But apart from this, little has changed.

"They started Threnody Ensemble in 1997, and began collaborating with cellist Dominique Davison who had played in Erik’s other band, A Minor Forest. With producer Brian Paulson, they recorded the album Timbre Hollow over the next several years. As a part of this process, the trio was expanded to include cellist Amy Domingues as well as other musicians playing piano, contrabass, clarinet, and percussion. Timbre Hollow was released by the New Albion label in 2000.

"In both recorded and live incarnations, Threnody Ensemble’s identity is fluid. Though the group’s material was originally based around the interaction between two acoustic guitars and a cello, more recent works have eliminated this structure entirely. Today, Dave and Erik collaborate with a variety of musicians from disparate musical traditions and assemble different groups for each tour or project.

"It is difficult to determine how these former rock musicians playing so-called experimental music and recording for a classical music label fit into today’s music scene. Strictly speaking, Threnody Ensemble’s music is neither "classical" nor "popular." It is both composed and improvised, acoustic and computer-generated. Threnody Ensemble fuses elements of non-Western musical traditions with their own contemporary compositions to create new hybrid forms. In combining musical traditions, the aims are both aesthetic and conceptual. In part, the intent is to complicate lazy notions of musical identity and authenticity.

"The Ensemble's core members come from diverse musical backgrounds. Erik studied ethnomusicology and composition at the University of California, Berkeley, focusing on Javanese, Balinese, Korean, Indian, and Ghanaian traditions. He played in the noted San Francisco avant-rock band A Minor Forest from 1993-1998. He is now teaching and studying at the University of California, San Diego where he is pursuing a PhD in Music.

"Dave studied West African, Indonesian, and Indian musics at California Institute for the Arts. He was a member of the Washington D.C. based group Lorelei and has played in numerous heavy metal bands. In addition to his musical activities, Dave is active in photography, film and video, and radio drama.

"Amy Domingues began cello studies at 9. While classically trained, she has explored other means of sonic expression in bands such as Telegraph Melts and the All Scars. A frequent studio musician, she appeared on 6 albums in 2001 by the bands Fugazi, Ted Leo/Pharmacists, Dead Meadow, Edith Frost, Jenny Toomey, and Beauty Pill. She recently completed work in the studio for Mary Timony's forthcoming solo record and is currently collaborating with Brendan Canty (Fugazi) and Jerry Busher (Allscars) under the name Garland of Hours. She has worked with Threnody Ensemble since 1998.

Dominique has performed in orchestras since childhood. She played bass in the punk band Spitboy and later She played cello in A Minor Forest and New York's 33.3. She is an architect in New Haven, Connecticut."

(c) Threnody Ensemble

THE SHOUT - UPCOMING CONCERTS

Adey Grummett writes:

'The Shout is off and around again with a new show. Strangely, at this time of year, it has a seasonal theme but, don't panic, we haven't taken that too seriously. So the songs range from Hanukah hymns to 'Shopping' by the Pet Shop Boys and Orlando's fabulously filthy harmonisations of 'In The Bleak Midwinter'.

We are indoors at the Drill Hall on Saturday 14 December at 8.30pm and Sunday 15 at 4pm and the following Saturday 21 at 8.30pm and Sunday 22 at 4pm.

As well as those we are doing a series of free gigs outdoors. This gets a bit complicated so here is a list.

Friday 13 Dec between 12 and 2pm
British Library Plaza, Camden Town Hall and Russell Square.

Saturday 14 Dec between 4pm and 6pm
Fitzroy Square, Heal's (Tott.Ct.Rd.) and Colville Place Gardens

Friday 20 Dec between 12 and 2pm
British Library Plaza, Tavistock Square and Russell Square

Saturday 21 Dec between 4pm and 6pm
Fitzroy Square, Whitfield Gardens (behind Cafe Nero) and Colville Place Gardens.

The Drill Hall box office number is 020 7307 5060 or you can go to www.drillhall.co.uk

Do come. If you haven't succumbed to my banging on about The Shout by now then you really ought to have! Deadly serious singing fun.'

See website info on the left for further details on The Shout. SB.

FAST 'TRANE APPROACHING

Each year the London Jazz Festival throws up a profusion of exciting artists, confirming the capital's cutting-edge status in the burgeoning, global-edged European jazz scene. (Yes, dear US friends: you read that correctly.)

Tenorist Joe Lavano and alto Lee Konitz represent, among other things, the homage to black America and its centrality in twentieth century blues-based musics. But Lavano has also bitten the opera bug, his octet tearing into Caruso's I Pagliacci at the Queen Elizabeth Hall over the weekend. Konitz, meanwhile blows cool and cooler. Somewhere else on the scale, Nigerian saxophonist Femi Kuti (son of legendary Afrobeat trailblazer Fela) syncopated and funked his way into the hearts of a physically stoic but emotionally entranced RFH audience.

Headlining regular Courtney Pine's Barbican set was perhaps the highlight of the Festival, however. Billed partly as a tribute to John Coltrane, it could have sounded reverential and referential. But that is hardly Pine's style, and his culturedly untamed spirit did not disappoint. Courtney is as much predator as musician when he takes to the stage. His assertive presence, by turns lingering and fiery, haunts a sound of almost architectural finesse.

Where 'Trane managed to be both spiritually centred and sonically disturbing, Pine (a very different character bitten by the same kind of musical bug) combines personal assurance and professional aggression. The result, underwritten by stellar guests including sitarist Sheema Mukherjee and drum'n'bass team Donald Gamble and Bob Fordjour, was heart stopping. This is what John Prescott might have called 'traditional values in a modern setting', but with no spin.The band was, indeed, devoid of turtablists this time.But they still managed to produce something that emulated the studied playfulness of plunderphonics.

Pine is hip, but also very far from cool. His irony is steel-edged. Scorching, technically sharp circular runs rip bloody chunks out of the melody line. Cascades of notes alternate with wispy, subtle harmonic references and auto-suggestions. Where Coltrane drew an audience into his mesmeric sound-puzzles by stripping away at peripherals, Pine assembles a maze-like collage of aural accompanists (tonight including Hammond organ, guitars, voices, bass and percussion). Then it seems as if he scythes through them with a floating, finely tuned chainsaw. Electrifying, literally. You have to hear him live, man...

Simon Barrow

GIG LINES

If you didn't manage to catch Boulez conducting Stravinsky or Simon Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic in London (Mahler/Haydn), you missed some real treats. And then there was the often-patchy-but-sometimes-brilliant Keith Emerson/The Nice re-union at the Royal Festival Hall. More about both anon...

NEITHER TORTUOUS NOR HAIRY

Harrison Birtwistle: The Woman and the Hare, Duets for Storab [and other songs]; Brabbin & Nash Ensemble w. McFadden, Watson etc. (Black Box, £12.99)

Yeah, yeah.... I know. I bash on about Birtwistle too much. And some of you still think that he's obscure, overrated and generally squeaky-gateish. The thing is, you're wrong. And this excellent collection of first recordings shows why. The Woman and the Hare lasts only 15 minutes and squeezes in more musical freshness and ideas than most composers will come up with in a lifetime. Earlier in NewFrontEars I reviewed a collection of Birtwistle's ensemble pieces, most of them instrumental [see below, somewhere or other]. This set complements them perfectly. An ideal instroduction to the music that emerges from the man. Text and sonority are intertwined in perfect harmony, and for once you get a glimpse of their musical origins -- so often carefully disguised in Birtwistle's arcadian universe. A joy. Honest. Buy one and stop me...

KOMBATIVE NEW OPERA

BAC OctoberFest
28 September - 27 October

Kombat Opera Songbook
Fri 18 Oct, 8pm

The Kombat opera songbook consists of hundreds of songs lasting between 15 seconds and 2 minutes and 27 seconds. Richard Thomas, fresh-faced, cherubic composer of Tourette's Diva and the infamous Jerry Springer opera, tries out songs 1 - 202 of his future epic song cycle, A Thousand and Wun. If needed, there are 33 encores held in reserve. There will be five of the best singers you've ever heard in your life: Adey Grummet, Benjamin Lake, Lore Lixenburg, Valda Aviks and Wills Morgan. Described by one audience member as 'stand-up opera', the first 101 songs were hits in BAC Opera 2002. If these work out, Richard might write the other 799.

Tickets £4.75 Concessions £3.50
Visit BAC for the full picture
or email boxoffice@bac.org.uk

CONGRATULATIONS...

To BBC Music Magazine on it 100th issue. The cover CD is Purcell, plus Purcell remade by various contemporary composers. Well worth that trot down to your newsagent....