Bonjour was founded in 2012 by composer and bassist Florent Ghys. By combining low strings- basses cellos, and guitars- with drumkit, pitched percussion, melodica, and voices, Ghys was able to create music which flows effortlessly across genres, creating a unique sound that is “equal parts groove, melody and meditation.” This release is Bonjour’s self-titled debut. The work is performance-based, but is still compelling in nature. Jazz and new classical influences can be heard in these works, but with an edge that pushes the music toward adventure, edginess, and slightly avante-garde. Ghys is joined by cellist Ashley Bathgate, guitarist James Moore, bassist Eleonore Oppenheim, and percussionist Owen Weaver. This release precedes a series of New York City performances which will begin in September 2016.

Shelter is the result of an unusual collaboration among Bang on a Can's founding composers Michael Gordon, David Lang and Julia Wolfe. Scored for three sopranos and a 17-piece ensemble, the project explores what "shelter" means in different cultures. Ensemble Signal's debut recording, under music director Brad Lubman and producer Michael Riesman, was originally commissioned for the Next Wave Festival by the Brooklyn Academy of Music and premiered with Trio Mediaeval in Cologne, Germany in 2005.

When Michael Gordon's Timber, scored for six amplified wooden 2-by-4s, premiered in 2009, it brought the physicality and endurance of percussion performance to a new level. In the liner notes for Slagwerk Den Haag's recording of the piece, released on Cataloupe Music in 2011, Gordon described a connection to the work of shamanist author Carlos Castaneda, whose self-imposed spirit journey in the desert could wipe the brain clean and "bring on visions." Newly recorded by Mantra Percussion and reworked by an A-list of producers and DJs, Gordon's deep exploration into the extreme possibilities of rhythm gets the full electronic treatment on Timber Remixed. This album contains six key remixes by Squarepusher, Oneohtrix Point Never, Tim Hecker, Johann Johannsson, Fennesz and Hauschka.

Bonjour was founded in 2012 by composer and bassist Florent Ghys. By combining low strings- basses cellos, and guitars- with drumkit, pitched percussion, melodica, and voices, Ghys was able to create music which flows effortlessly across genres, creating a unique sound that is “equal parts groove, melody and meditation.” This release is Bonjour’s self-titled debut. The work is performance-based, but is still compelling in nature. Jazz and new classical influences can be heard in these works, but with an edge that pushes the music toward adventure, edginess, and slightly avante-garde. Ghys is joined by cellist Ashley Bathgate, guitarist James Moore, bassist Eleonore Oppenheim, and percussionist Owen Weaver. This release precedes a series of New York City performances which will begin in September 2016.

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

An opera in one act for solo baritone voice, solo piano and ensemble, David Lang's 'the loser' has been lauded by the New York Times as a "boldly unconventional" work, and that's almost putting it mildly. 'the loser' is based on the Thomas Bernhard novel of the same name, in which an anonymous narrator and once-promising concert pianist retells the story of his friend's suicide. As it turns out, both were students in the same master class, taught by Vladimir Horowitz, as a young Glenn Gould. Playing in the shadow of Gould brings both to the realization that true greatness will never be theirs, wrecking both their lives forever. As David Lang tells it, "The story is not at all about Gould, Horowitz, or classical music. On one level, the novel is an intense tour-de-force of character development, as the narrator tells you more about himself and his world. In it's own strangely beautiful way, however, it's also about perfectionism, hard work, how we justify our lives to ourselves, and how we learn to appreciate beauty and become alienated from it at the same time." Featuring Rod Gilfry (baritone), Conrad Tao (piano) and the Bang on a Can Opera Ensemble conducted by Lesley Leighton, 'the loser' premiered at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in 2016 and made it's west coast premiere at the LA Opera in early 2019. Tracked in New York and Los Angeles, the studio recording recaptures what the LA Times described as "a mesmerizingly virtuosic performance by Rod Gilfry, destined for the annals of opera."

"As the long-awaited follow-up to the 2006 Cantaloupe release The Essential Martin Bresnick, this volume of Bresnick's recorded oeuvre focuses on the epic five-part string quartet The Planet on the Table, composed in 2019 and recorded by the Brentano String Quartet. Inspired, or better yet instigated, by the poetry of Wallace Stevens, the piece is meant to convey music and sounds that emerge from the mists of memory.Poignant, meditative and powerful, The Planet on the Table sets the tone for the two challenging pieces that follow: Parisot, featuring cellist Ashley Bathgate, and Bird As Prophet, featuring violinist Elly Toyoda and pianist Lisa Moore. Both are extended studies in evoking the spirit of their namesakes — Brazilian cellist Aldo Parisot, known for his musicality and technical brilliance, and composer Robert Schumann (with a nod to Charlie Parker), whose piano miniature Bird As Prophet from the Waldszenen also served as inspiration.The recording concludes with Lisa Moore's intense performance of Bundists, for solo piano — a brief but lively work that folds elements of Schumann, Ligeti, and other fragments of Bresnick's own into a burst of color and sound."

Classical Music

Classical Music

Broad gestures, rich textures and narrative sweep are vivid signatures of Alex Weiser's music. Born and raised in New York City, Weiser composes cosmopolitan music that merges a deeply felt historical perspective with a vibrant, forward-looking creative pulse. An energetic advocate for contemporary classical music and for the work of his peers, Weiser co-founded and directs Kettle Corn New Music, and is Public Programs Manager at the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research. Meditative and devotional in scope, 'and all the days were purple' sets Yiddish and English poems to music in a song cycle that seeks out the divine while reflecting on the longing, beauty, and tumult of life. The album includes texts by Anna Margolin, Edward Hirsch, Rachel Korn, and Abraham Sutzkever, and performances by Eliza Bagg (voice), Lee Dionne (piano), Maya Bennardo (violin), Hannah Levinson (viola), Hannah Collins (cello) and Mike Compitello (percussion). The recording also includes 'Three Epitaphs,' composed in 2016 and featuring excerpts from texts on love and life's transience by Williams Carlos Williams, Seikilos and Emily Dickinson.

Dark Currents is the third full-length recording by Splinter Reeds, the West Coast's premier reed quintet featuring Kyle Bruckmann (English horn), Bill Kalinkos, Nicki Roman, Jeff Anderle (bass clarinet) and Dana Jessen. The album opens with Michael Gordon's majestic "Tall Grass," which cascades upwards into undulating waves of melody before spreading outward on a moody canvas that surges with tension and emotion. By contrast, Paula Mathussen's "Antenna Studies" combines ambient soundscapes and found sounds, while the musicians quietly tease their instruments with breath control and percussive pad strikes as a somber melodic figure gradually begins to take shape. Taken together, these two 20-minute performances propel the listener forward on an ever-changing journey, by turns hypnotic, ecstatic, surreal and spooky, that tests the pre-conceived boundaries of modern chamber music.

David Lang is a member of Bang on a Can, and Cantaloupe Music is “from the creators of Bang on a Can,” but this CD/DVD combination appears not to be a Bang on a Can project, strictly speaking. These are three separate works, although the release has the overall title of “Elevated.” This is not explained—if “explained” is the right word to use in this context—until one views the DVD.

It makes more sense to view and discuss the DVD first. Prima la musica e poi il video? It is not clear if Lang was writing music for preexisting videos, or if the videos were edited to fit Lang’s music. (Cantaloupe modishly refuses to include helpful booklet notes in any release of theirs that I am aware of.) Lang’s Wed is paired with a 1972 video called Treat Bottle by William Wegman. You might recall that Wegman is the photographer whose Weimeraner dogs are his most frequent (only?) models. Treat Bottle is a five-minute video, homemade in quality, depicting the efforts of one of his dogs to remove a tasty snack from a glass bottle. This the dog finally succeeds in doing, but not until he breaks the bottle into several pieces. You don’t have to be a PETA activist to be made uncomfortable by the sight of a handsome dog nosing the jagged edges of a broken bottle; I hope this was not as bad as it appears to be. One could argue how appropriate Lang’s Wed is for these images. Scored for solo piano, Wed is pretty and rather sad. It is the shortest work here, and the least melodically and harmonically static. In fact, the most interesting thing about it is the way it presents the listener with just enough challenge to prevent it from falling into the “New Age” genre.

I “freaked out” when I first saw Bill Morrison’s short film Light Is Falling and the longer Decasia, both with fabulous scores by Michael Gordon, another Bang on a Canner. Morrison takes archival films in various states of decay—nitrate film stock is notoriously sensitive to the ravages of time—and uses the film’s physical degradation as an expressive medium over and above (and sometimes in contradiction to) the film’s nominal subject. The fading, blotching, and distortions have an abstract beauty all their own, although, like most types of beauty, it is not without its horrific aspects. Morrison’s How to Pray is based on 10-minute footage showing icebergs, photographed from the water, in the process of being worn down by wind and waves. The degradation of the icebergs is paralleled by the decay of the film itself. What is the foreground and what is the background? Lang’s music is appropriately “frozen,” rocking to and fro between less than a handful of harmonic and melodic options. A cello and keyboards (a piano and a Hammond organ) fruitlessly occupy themselves within the limitations imposed on them while the electric guitar and drums coldly push them along. The word “endgame” came to mind.

Men is “dedicated to Hans Werner Henze.” It is paired with Matt Mullican’s nearly 45-minute Elevated, which in turn draws upon 16mm film footage dating from 1935. Shot by one D. G. Oswald (an amateur with a film camera?), this footage affords fascinating glimpses of New York City and its environs during that time, including wrestling in Madison Square Garden, a burlesque dancer, shop windows, Luna Park, and children frolicking in front of an open fire hydrant on a scorching summer day. In other words, Oswald’s footage teems with life. In contrast, Lang’s music is even more petrified here than in How to Pray. Men sounds like a collaboration between Anton Bruckner and Morton Feldman. Sustained trombone notes—a very few notes!—serve as a trumpet of doom. Time is slowly marked off by dark, thick bass chords, and the music’s surface is roughed-up by metallic rattling of unidentified origin. Is the music commenting on the film? (Or vice-versa?) There’s no obvious connection between the two. I guess with the appropriate music, even footage of happy children opening presents on Christmas Day can be made to seem apocalyptic. Perhaps Lang (and Mullican?) are in mourning over a perceived loss of innocence and hopefulness since 1935.

The CD contains performances of all three musical works without video, of course, and the music’s viability does not depend on the visual content. In fact, I don’t think I could watch Treat Bottle again, although I am sure I will want to rehear Wed. Even so, I’d recommend viewing the DVD first, and then moving to the CD, because music is more difficult to “learn” than images. I imagine that the performances accurately represent Lang’s music, and the engineering gives no cause for complaint.

This release is recommended to those with a developed taste for the challenging and the unusual.

FANFARE: Raymond Tuttle

The young, New York-based Cantaloupe Music (affiliated with the founders of Bang on a Can) is quickly building quite a discography. The catalogue traverses both premiere recordings, such as Evan Ziporyn's stunning This is not a Clarinet--a disc that ranks as an absolute must-hear and one of the most exciting releases of recent years--and items very familiar to contemporary music fans (Terry Riley's In C). Although any record company venture is an inherent gamble, there's a particular risk for such a tyro label to issue already-recorded works. Take as an example de Leeuw's Tehillim for Nonesuch, or Steve Reich's own 1982 reading for ECM, which has been the standard-bearer for a generation. Why go at this same work yet another time?


Well, in the case of Alan Pierson's version with the ensemble Ossia, the answer is simple. Not only does he have a new perspective to offer, but he and his forces better Reich's recording. (It's worth noting as well that Pierson made a change to Reich's original instrumental arrangement; it is the same as the composer's chamber version of the piece, but adds a second string quartet.) Pierson's comfort and self-assuredness in these works are obvious. The vocals (featuring high soprano Elizabeth Phillips and lyric sopranos Akiko Fujimoto and Carolyn Dorey) are more confident and sure-footed--an achievement considering all the leaps Reich demands. Cantaloupe's brashly forward, bright sound also is miles above ECM's comparative dimness. The rhythms are vigorous and yet never sound mechanical (as in de Leew's version). Perhaps the most interesting result of all of these changes is a shift in the overall mood of the piece: whereas the ECM recording conjures a hypnotic feeling, this is pure ebullience--entirely fitting for the Biblical texts of praise used in Tehillim ("Psalms").


The Desert Music also is transformed. As with Tehillim, this piece exists in two versions, one for a chamber-sized ensemble, the other for symphonic forces. Unlike Tehillim, which is best known in its smaller arrangement (but can be heard in its orchestral form in a flat and disappointing performance with Zubin Mehta on the New York Philharmonic's 10-disc "American Celebrations" set), The Desert Music probably is most familiar in its larger setting, on a recording with Michael Tilson Thomas and the Brooklyn Philharmonic (Nonesuch). With Reich's permission, Pierson prepared his own edition of the piece that combines elements of Reich's two versions--in short, it's Reich's chamber arrangement with seven brass players added--and Reich is happy enough with it to declare this the new standard chamber version. Played by Alarm Will Sound and Ossia, Pierson's arrangement is broadly textured yet retains a certain intimacy that fits well with the William Carlos Williams poetry used here. As with Tehillim, the tautness, freshness, and enthusiasm in this recording casts a new light; here, the piece's vibrancy and lightness is remarkable. All around, it's a superb release, one in which Cantaloupe's gamble has paid off handsomely.
--Anastasia Tsioulcas, ClassicsToday.com