Glenn Kotche – Adventureland
Glenn Kotche; Kronos Quartet; eighth blackbird; Gamelan Galak Tika
Cantaloupe CA21098
No doubt about it, Adventureland is a product of a curious and singular musical mind. Glenn Kotche, most widely known as the drummer of the Chicago alternative rock band Wilco, is as well a percussionist and a very active composer of well-received postmodernist concert works. While on this album he wears his well-worn composer hat, his approach as a drummer and percussionist to composition and sonic textures permeates much of his Adventureland suite.
Kotche was commissioned in 2006 by the Kronos Quartet to compose the seven-section string quartet plus percussion score Anomaly. Seven additional movements were added for this album. One of the most juicy-savoury elements in this musical gumbo is experiencing the constantly shifting instrumental textures. For example Chicago’s eighth blackbird ensemble, Kronos Quartet and electronics are featured in the dreamlike Triple Fantasy. Interwoven throughout the suite are the five movements of The Haunted, scored for “two pianos vs. percussion,” which pit non- and semi-pitched percussion sounds against the pianos’ range of single and clustered tones.
A standout both in timbre and performance are the Balinese gamelan sounds performed by Boston’s skilled 18-musician Gamelan Galak Tika, directed by Evan Ziporyn in “The Traveling Turtle” movement.
In places, Kotche’s music may remind you of Steve Reich’s motivically constrained additive strategies. By way of contrast however, it also possesses more frequent and abrupt changes in melody, harmony and metre, as well as more flow, form, texture and mood than does the minimalist master’s. Kotche aptly summed up his musical rollercoaster ride: “I called this Adventureland because besides being something that’s fun, it’s also kind of weird and mysterious, and at the same time scary and intimidating.”
