A Walk to Meryton
Made by Musicbots and Arne Eigenfeldt
Redshift Records TK533 (redshiftmusicsociety.bandcamp.com)

North Vancouver-based composer Arne Eigenfeldt has worked with Artificial Intelligence since the1980s. His musical tool creation Musebots is a modular, interactive system which generates countless musical environments like washes, percussive sounds, held notes, intervals and low to high pitches. Ten pieces with video co-written and generated by Musebots feature genres like contemporary music, jazz, spoken word and electronics. Live human performers John Korsrud (trumpet, flugelhorn), Meredith Bates (violin), Jon Bentley (soprano & tenor saxophones) and Barbara Adler (text/reading) were recorded then overlaid to the Musebots tracks. Each musician was given a generated score with melodies, harmonic progressions and suggestions where to improvise. Adler wrote her spoken texts based on her conversations with Eigenfeldt about walking, Jane Austin, musebots and internal dialogs.

Room for a Moment features tonal, accessible lyricism like electronic clicks, held notes and ringing bell sounds between phrases. Background spoken words and violin mix well to closing comforting sound. Fit As You Are opens with a repeated walking and exercising drum beat. Then a bit slower with intervals and held notes. Spoken word articulation at times matches the generated rhythms. Trumpet and sax fit well but are too soft. In Pleasure to Suffer grim low held notes support higher lines of spoken word, alternating bell like sounds and held notes. Abrupt saxophone trills add interest. 

I am SO surprised and excited by this Musebots generated music. Yes, it still has that “familiar TV/film computer sound” yet Musebot’s lush harmonic tonal to atonal melodies, washes and percussive rhythms combine perfectly with the human performers.

Vanessa Marcoux – Cendres
Vanessa Marcoux; Marie-Christine Poirier; Strings
Independent (youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_m8IULQX12yWqxLhPw-lHI63QGXkhcnHpQ)

This CD comes without any information about Vanessa Marcoux other than that she’s the violin soloist in her own compositions, performing with pianist Marie-Christine Poirier, also heard here, as Duo Cordelia. Also lacking, other than the movement titles, are any descriptions of the music. Searching online, I learned that she’s Québecoise, was born in 1986, studied composition with Ana Sokolović, was a member of the Juno-nominated klezmer band Oktopus and scored the film adaptation of Gabrielle Roy’s novel La riviėre sans repos.

At 28 minutes, Marcoux’s arrangement for violin, piano and string ensemble of her Violin Sonata dominates the disc. In Lento, the violin wails in desperation. The discordant tango of La porte entrebâillėe grows steadily faster and wilder. Improvisation – Le déroute is an extended, vehement solo cadenza. Tempo rubato’s lyricism is tinged with regret; the concluding Molto Aggressivo defines itself.

Petite Suite Aquatique is in two movements. Aquarium features long-lined, plaintive violin melodies over abrupt piano rhythms. In Deep Blue Saloon, a Romany-flavoured dance is followed by honky-tonk ragtime, ending raucously. According to the only description by Marcoux I could find online, it represents “a bar frequented by the motley fauna of the deep sea who have come to witness the burlesque stripping of a wanton octopus.” (!)

The densely-scored Cendres for string quintet begins with agitated propulsion before subsiding to restless songfulness. Although the CD lasts only 48 minutes, Marcoux’s intensely gripping, tempestuous music left me completely satisfied.

Cartografia del Mar
Andre Cabráin; Pedro Mateo Ganzález
Eudora Records EUD-SAC-2307 (eudorarecords.com)

The sea, like amniotic fluid, has the power to join us all, as creatures of consciousness, through the power of music. Cartografia Del Mar (A Map of the Sea) is a deeply stirring international and intergenerational program presented here by accomplished flutist (and Scotsman) Andre Cebrián and eminent classical guitarist (and Spaniard) Pedro Mateo González. The album’s, suites and stand-alone compositions are from Astor Piazzolla, Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Toru Takemitsu, Robert Beaser, Leo Brouwer and Feliu Gasull. 

Up first is Piazzolla’s Histoire du Tango. Lyrical and pungent, heavy with the aroma of Argentinian night life through the past century, this magnificent suite has been brilliantly re-imagined by Cebrián and González. In the first movement, Bordel 1900, the duo explores the bordello as the instigator of the 20th century roots of tango. Light, airy, joyous are all descriptive of this movement. Coy, jejune passages are interspersed with waves of intimacy and pungent secrets as Cambrián and González traverse intrigues of the Buenos Aires night like a single-celled organism. 

Italian icon Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s Sonatina Op.205 is rendered here with exquisite care and skill by both artists, and captures every nuance of this gorgeous, rhythmically varied suite, rife with nearly unbearable beauty. Japanese composer Takemitsu contributes his masterful work, Toward the Sea. In the first movement, The Night, the listener’s skin tingles… all senses are open and awash with an eerie feeling of unseen presences, swathed in mystery… lower flute tones evoke a feeling of isolation, while the guitar is the veritable vapor on which the flute floats. Also of note is the “Mountain Songs” suite by New England-born Beaser. It is a work of pure Americana, stunningly rendered with authenticity by the duo. A magnificent work!

Nancy Galbraith – Everything Flows
Boston Modern Orchestra Project; Gil Rose
BMOP Sound 1096 (bmopsound.bandcamp.com/album/nancy-galbraith-everything-flows-concerto-for-solo-percussion-and-orchestra)

I’ve previously written reviews in The WholeNote praising five different CDs by the Boston Modern Orchestra Project and conductor Gil Rose. Here’s another. These three very entertaining concertos by Nancy Galbraith, chair of composition at Carnegie Mellon University in her native Pittsburgh, were written for, premiered by and now recorded by three “friends and/or colleagues” – violinist-conductor-composer Alyssa Wang, new-music-championing flutist Lindsey Goodman and virtuoso percussionist Abby Langhorst.

Galbraith’s Violin Concerto No.1 (2016) begins with perky percussion and the violin playing buoyant Chinese-sounding melodies. In the elegiac second movement, Eggshell White Night, Galbraith’s tribute to a late friend, the violin laments amid gentle harp and piano arpeggios over solemn, sustained orchestral chords. The finale begins as a perpetuum mobile with headlong violin figurations and ends with grandiose orchestral perorations accompanying the violin’s rapid passagework.

The Flute Concerto (2019) is similarly structured. Two cheerful movements featuring percussion-enlivened Latin American dance rhythms bracket the Nocturne, in which the flute plays plaintive phrases and melodies, electronically echoed and amplified, over gloomy orchestral chords.

A wild barrage of syncopated Latin American rhythms launches the one-movement Everything Flows: Concerto for Solo Percussion and Orchestra (2019), gradually subsiding to a slower, quieter central section that evokes, for me, African drumming and the thumb-played mbira. The concerto ends with a raucous, jazzy jam session. It would be great fun to watch as the soloist becomes a one-person percussion section, playing nearly non-stop on at least 12 different instruments!

Virgil Thomson – A Gallery of Portraits for Piano and Other Piano Works
Craig Rutenberg
Everbest Music 1003 (virgilthomson.org)

Virgil Thomson (1896-1989) is chiefly remembered for his operas Four Saints in Three Acts and The Mother of Us All, both set to librettos by Gertrude Stein, and the orchestral suites he derived from his film scores – the one he arranged from Louisiana Story won the Pulitzer Prize in 1949. Writers about music also continue to cite Thomson’s acerbic reviews from his tenure as music critic of New York’s Herald Tribune (1940-1954).

This two-CD set contains 81 piano miniatures, most under two minutes, including 70 of the approximately 160 Portraits Thomson composed portraying friends and acquaintances, each present during the music’s creation. There are sentimental melodies, often hinting at familiar hymns and folk tunes, military fanfares and marches, merry-go-round music and playful dances, many spiced with puckish “wrong notes.”

I recognized only seven names among those depicted: composers Paul Bowles (a quirky, mildly-dissonant waltz), Lou Harrison (melodically and rhythmically ambiguous) and Aaron Copland (emphatically folksy); Pablo Picasso (Prokofiev-like percussiveness) and Picasso’s mistress Dora Maar (restlessly meandering); actor-producer John Houseman (meditative) and this recording’s pianist, Craig Rutenberg (gently rocking). Rutenberg, a good friend of Thomson, has enjoyed a distinguished career as teacher, vocal coach and accompanist for such stars as Diana Damrau, Frederica von Stade and Ben Heppner.  

Five selections from Thomson’s ballet Filling Station evoke vigorous work-songs, while the four-piece Suite from the film The Plow that Broke the Plains features Cowboy Songs and Blues, adding to this collection’s significance.

Souvenirs
Carlos Manuel Vargas
Navona Records nv6615 (navonarecords.com/catalog/nv6615)

Multi-award winning, Dominican Republic-born, Boston-based pianist Carlos Manuel Vargas performs a compilation of 13 technically and stylistically wide-ranging eclectic international solo compositions chosen with “[persons of influence on] my career in mind, hence the title of “Souvenirs” … a small gesture for all the support I have received over the years.”

The opening Impressões Seresteiras by Heitor Villa-Lobos is an attention-grabbing virtuosic and dramatic piece. From soft sparkling beginning, to louder clear runs, trills and lower notes, Vargas plays with well thought-out precision. Earl Wild’s arrangements of two George Gershwin compositions for solo piano – Virtuosic Etudes after Gershwin: The man I love, and Embraceable You – are each more classical/romantic takes of the famous jazz tunes, performed here with unique colourful sounds. The highlight of the three Rafael Bullumba Landestoy compositions is the short danceable jazz/Latin sounding Estudio en Zamba which drives Vargas’ energetic performance. Vargas plays the original first two movements of Alexander Scriabin’s Sonata Fantasy:  Piano Sonata No. 2 in G Sharp Minor Op.19. A soft reflective straightforwardly intelligent rendition of I. Andante I is contrasted by the superfast II. Presto. Three famous Edith Piaf songs are included and the highlight is Varga’s interpretation of La vie en rose, arranged by Roberto Piana. Vargas’ slightly rubato emotional playing gives the sense of a sung melody as it alternates between left and right hand to a soft high-pitched closing. Inspired performances of Poulenc, Vitier and Golijov compositions complete the release.

Kinetic
Kinetic Ensemble
Bright Shiny Things BSTC-0189 (brightshiny.ninja/kinetic)

Houston-based Kinetic ensemble was formed in 2015. The 16 professional younger generation string players perform without a conductor in flexible classical chamber and orchestral formations. This debut release consists of four works Kinetic commissioned and premiered which explore the connection between musical sounds and the natural world. 

The Wilderness Anthology by Patrick Harlin is an intriguing seven-movement, beautifully scored work for string orchestra and pre-recorded audio soundscapes from remote and imperiled ecosystems on the Amazon. I. Reverence/Dusk opens with very quiet prerecorded wildlife sounds like bird whistling. Instrumentals begin with melodic, contrapuntal string parts and repeated rhythmic low strings groove. VII. Dawn/Reverence features held notes alternating with recorded wave sounds. 

Avian themes reappear in Paul Novak’s A String Quartet is like a Flock of Birds, with very tight playing of accessible contemporary music. The held notes, plucks, high pitches and melodies are played alone or all at once in fast to slow tempi. To me it sounds like a sunny day with birds in the backyard! Next is Nicky Sohn’s What Happens if Pipes Burst? The softer slower string interludes are very musical and reflective. A faster ending with virtuosic super fast playing adds excitement. Daniel Temkin’s Ocean’s Call for String Orchestra is a three-movement composition for full orchestra. The extended cello solos in I. Hanging Cliffs, Rising Mist are dramatic. III. Lullaby Waves is sparse with passionate solos and an intense closing that slows down to bring this enjoyable album to an exquisite conclusion.

Gundaris Pone – Portraits
Liepaja Symphony Orchestra; Guntis Kuzma; Normunds Sne
SKANI LMIC SKANI 161 (lmic.lv/lv/skani/catalogue?id=244)

In 1950, Latvia-born Gundaris Pone (1932-1994) moved to the U.S., studied composition and, from 1963 until his death, taught composition at the State University of New York at New Paltz, also serving as artistic director and conductor of New Paltz’s annual Music in the Mountains Festival.

Pone’s single-movement, 24-minute Avanti! (1975) features violent dissonances, funereal solemnity and bitter irony, with quotations from the 1905 Latvian revolutionary anthem, With Battle Cries on Our Lips, Berg’s Wozzeck, a lamenting Bach chorale and repeated cuckoo calls. Helping to coordinate the score’s polyrhythms, conductor Guntis Kuzma is assisted by Normunds Šnē.

Filled with exaggerated, off-kilter cinematic tropes, American Portraits (1983-1984) depicts stereotypical representations of five professions: inventor (eerie woodwinds, jagged bursts of heavy percussion); film star (jaunty, cliché cowboy sauntering); powerful financier (film-noir dramatics with pounding brass and percussion); gangster (train whistles and boisterous jazzy riffs – Pone specified “1920s style,” so conductor Kuzma added a washboard to the mix); military genius (furious fanfares and a wild, Ivesian victory-march).

Pone enjoyed extended stays in Venice, and his brilliantly orchestrated La Serenissima, Seven Venetian Portraits (1979-1981) presents kaleidoscopic imagery of a day in the city, from morning shadows to afternoon waters, evening chatter and night fog: spectral Venice, in addition to the Arch of Paradise, the mouth of the lion and a meeting with the messenger of death. I found La Serenissima’s discordant impressionism – a vividly expressive amalgam of Debussy and Alban Berg – riveting listening throughout.

Serenade: I Miss You
Nicolas Hurt
Independent (nicolashurt.bandcamp.com)

Texas guitarist/educator/composer Nicolas Hurt showcases his creativity in this “short but sweet” under 25-minute release. During the 2021 COVID isolation Hurt commissioned three of his Austin musician friends for a solo guitar piece. Hurt was so inspired that these, along with his own composition, became the soundtrack to the 2023 film he directed, produced and performed on screen, with each tune introduced by composer commentaries. His EP liner notes encourage listeners to “find the film online and give it a watch”.

Zeke Jarmon’s Lemonade is not classical per se, though tonal with contrasting detached repeated notes and melodic sections, calm lower pitches and slower brief rock, pop, folk and jazz quenching one’s musical thirst. Justice Philips’ Serenade, I Miss You is more contemporary. Love the romantic feel with subtle atonality, short melodic fast to slow sections, chords, plucks, strums and higher soft melodies. Hurt’s three part The Springs is inspired by his beloved swimming locale. Minimalistic repeated descending lines and gentle brief high-pitched notes with occasional atonality emulate rippling water in 1. Hillside. The guitar becomes a percussion instrument with Hurt’s soft guitar taps to loud hits with resonating strings in 2. Ubiquitous Drum Circle. Slow meditative sounds in 3. Under Deep Water (after Satie). Claire Puckett’s Lantern is intense yet calming. Short soft single note sections alternate with melody, silences and colourful chords.

These four stylistically diverse works are just as stellar without the visuals. Performed with inspirational musicality and technique by Hurt, the musical charm increases with each subsequent listen.

Farahser
John Kameel Farah; Nick Fraser
Elastic Recordings ER010 (elasticrecordings.com/farahser)

In this collection of musical dialogues between two virtuosic and creative musicians, Nick Fraser and John Kameel Farah provide some answers to Fraser’s question: “Where does improvisation end and composition start?” The opening track’s ambiguous opening sequence is like a musical voicing of the question; Fraser and Farah answer it with inventive exchanges that explore their shared, diverse musical influences.

Based in Toronto, Fraser is a Juno-winning drummer known for stylistic breadth and progressive playing, earning him respect in the international improvised music community and a key role in Canada’s new jazz scene. Farah is a Canadian composer and pianist living in Berlin whose adventurous improvisatory performances include keyboards and electronics, incorporating aspects of baroque and early music, contemporary classical, jazz and modal melodies evoking his Palestinian heritage.

Fraser suggested the collaboration when the pair reconnected 20 years after their first meeting. They started in the studio with 26 improvised duets; from this raw material, they selected some ideas or approaches which became the eight tracks on the album. The ambient mood of the opening track, Flatland, gives way to different energies such as a sequence featuring Farah’s trademark sinewy melodies in Insect Mountain. Dirge featuresa hypnotic walking bass over which unfolds beguiling melodies, all interrupted by a flurry of activity from drums and synths. The closing track, Elevator, showcases Farah’s pianistic prowess with rippling upward motifs, while Fraser gives us a masterclass in brushwork. 

Even listeners who might be hesitant about experimental improvisation will find things to delight them on this album. Recommended!

Traces
Will Régnier
Independent (willregnier.com)

Will Régnier is a Montreal drummer, composer and producer who has played in progressive rock and jazz bands over the past 15 years while finishing bachelor’s and master’s degrees in jazz performance and composition. Traces is his first album and reveals a calm sophistication, infused with catchy riffs and melodies, with some edgy fusion thrown in for spice. 

The title track demonstrates Regnier’s diverse influences, beginning with a folk-rock arpeggiated guitar intro which then moves into a solid piano melody (doubled with guitar), then some counterpoint between drums and bass; midway through Marcus Lowry performs a beautiful guitar solo with classical undertones. Lights Out opens with a delicately funky bass line and then a subtly distorted and complex guitar melody. Throughout the album there are multiple examples of sophisticated interplay between piano and guitar. The pieces in Traces move effortlessly across styles aided by the accomplished and inspired playing of Régnier, Lowry, Yannick Anctil (piano) and Alex Le Blanc (double bass). Each song mixes composed and improvised sections which showcase evolving narratives. Traces is an excellent debut album and is always compelling.

Listen to 'Traces' Now in the Listening Room

Bien ensemble
Mimosa
Cellar Music CMF060623 (mimosamusic.bandcamp.com/album/bien-ensemble)

French/English Vancouver-based jazz quintet Mimosa is celebrating its 25th anniversary as a band in 2024. Their fourth release, Bien ensemble (Good Together) is self-described as being “about connection through friendship and music.” Mimosa’s members’ different backgrounds, personalities and languages inspire unique music from each other, along with jazz, Brazilian sambas, French 60s pop and Cabaret music influences. Mimosa is Rebecca Shoichet (vocals, accordion), Anna Lumière (piano, accordion, Fender Rhodes, organ, Moog, vocals), Karen Graves (sax, flute, vocals), Conrad Good (bass) and Bernie Arai (drums). Special guests here are Heather Anderson (trumpet, flugelhorn) and Susana Williams (percussion).

Lumière composes most of Mimosa’s music. She also collaborates with band members like title track Bien ensemble with Shoichet. Calm opening jazz piano and French vocals develop into faster colourful instrumental solos above a snappy drum backdrop. English vocals return to slower closing. Lumière’s High in the Sky is classic instrumental jazz with quasi backdrop English vocals. Tight ensemble supports many instrumental solos, especially the outstanding trumpet solo. Mimosa’s Graves sings Birds at 4 am, her English composition co-written with B. Murphy. Slow depressing lack of sleep storytelling with piano/drums backdrops to hopeful decrescendo cymbals and piano ending. Guests Anderson and Williams join Mimosa in the closing Lumière track Trouble. The sax solo followed by a subtle accordion solo adds colour and then loud piano chords. Love everyone singing at the ending!  

This release achieves its celebratory purpose as musicians, vocalists, composers along with excellent production, create perfect music!

Accolades of Time
Ruth Saphir
Orchard of Pomegranates (ruthsaphir.com)

With lyrics that poignantly reflect on identity and relationships as they transcend the passage of time, an expressive band that fits this elegant thematic tapestry and a consistently goosebump-inducing vocal performance from Ruth Saphir, Ancestral Shadows is a musical odyssey that feels immensely rewarding with each listen. 

Revolving around the central quartet consisting of Ruth Saphir (voice, flute), Kate Wyatt (piano), Adrian Vedady (bass) and Mili Hong (drums), it truly feels like each musician’s contributions are valued and paced perfectly throughout the album. The incredible one-two punch of Where Do Dreams Go? and Hand-Me-Down-Clothes feature Vedady’s bass as the most prominent instrument in the mix, with the warm breadth of his tone and tasteful nature of his bass lines making every pause in the melody feel full of vitality. This careful, concerted dance between ensemble and songwriter continues in magical moments such as the gradual foray into double time following the effortlessly graceful way Saphir stretches the phrase “I know you wanted to” during Lost at Sea, a swinging number if there ever was one. When we’re in the flow I feel the undertow intrude feels directly addressed to a rhythm section that sits so on top of every beat it practically anticipates it, yet invokes feeling in a very unsuppressed manner.

 Autobiographical in one instant and familiar in the next, this music makes for a truly ecstatic listening experience.

Moon Over Lake
Roddy Ellias
KWIMU Music KW-007 (roddyellias.bandcamp.com/album/moon-over-lake)

When inevitably transfixed and immersed in the sheer lushness that emanates from Roddy Ellias’ guitar, it is easy to forget you’re listening to a collection of songs, rather than one self-contained piece. When faced with such a dizzying array of odd pulses, phrases without clean endings, and several texturally rich sections where Ellias sounds like he has cloned himself, there can arise a temptation to overanalyze, attempting to grasp a firm hold of all that feels increasingly less tangible. To give into these urges keeps the listener at a distance, which stands at odds to the vulnerability of Ellias’ creative endeavour. 

Short, imagery-laden track titles complement the spacious, meditative feeling of listening to multiple voices interacting within one instrument, punctuated by the occasional audible breath (such as the one in Flower) and chord that reverberates through a physical space. Hope deals in resonances, finding hidden melodies within its chordal elements while allowing the inner voices to color much of the mood, each sustained tone lingering as if to convey a sense of yearning. Chant rides an intricate groove through its entire runtime without belabouring it, but always implying it through blissful syncopated runs and occasionally reintroducing its titular refrain in fragments before the triumphant outro. 

Nary a composition here overstays its welcome – the overall listen is quite brisk – but they are all intricate parts of a fulfilling, harmonious whole.

Wintertides
Sam Wilson
Studio 204 (samwilsonmusiq.bandcamp.com)

The state of the Canadian guitar in the key of jazz has never been in such good shape as it is today. You only have to consider the contributions to jazz literature made by such masters as  Ray Norris,Diz Disley, Ed Bickert,Lorne Lofsky, Nelson Symonds, Lenny Breau, Oliver Gannon, Sonny Greenwich, and from Bill Coon to Reg Schwager and Jocelyn Gould. You could fill an entire library of jazz music with those names alone.

To that roster you would have to add the name of Sam Wilson. The young east coast composer and virtuoso instrumentalist displays skill and mature judgement in the performance of her original works. She puts on an exquisite musical display on her fourth recording Wintertides, a homage to the landscapes of the two disparate coastlines of Canada. 

Weaving ornate tapestries featuring wonderfully colour-laden notes and phrases Wilson – together with bassist Gordie Hart and drummer Jen Yakamovich – offer subtle, often striking, interpretations of Wilson’s superbly-crafted and affecting miniatures.  

Despite meditating on the single theme of relocating “bi-coastal” landscapes to a canvas of soundscapes the settings of each of the ten works couldn’t be more different. Melodic lines are eloquently ornamented. Slowly unfolding harmonies are stimulating, heightening the impressive, sweeping canvases from earth to sky. Dancing urgency of rhythms dapple the music as if adding curved brushstrokes to these musical canvases. The Moon Song and Wintertides are masterpieces.