The Laws of Nature
Andrew Staniland
Leaf Music AS2025 (andrewstaniland.com/thelawsofnature)
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A new release on Leaf Records features the latest developments on a new musical instrument, called JADE, developed over the last decade by the multi-faceted composer and musical theorist Andrew Staniland. He has won many awards in Canada throughout this century and was the TSO Affiliate Composer in 2006. A professor at Memorial University St. John’s Newfoundland, he founded their ElectroAcoustic Lab where, with his cross-disciplinary research team, he has been developing the JADE concept. This is a radically new digital music instrument and one of its innovative features is that it will respond to direct brain impulses transmitted through a band worn on the head.
The sounds of JADE seem to have limitless potential and it contains myriad musical voices, textures and environments that constitute these pieces. There are six compositions that at first can elide into one another, and there is a six-movement piece called The Laws of Nature, which is intended as a single piece although there is still great variety in the different sections that make it up.
The actual substance of the sounds used still seem to have been collected from reality in an impressive array of sampling techniques. Staniland has created a wide variety of new voices and effects, in a basically tonal setting. The ambient soundstage is an illusion of JADE, which gives the music an atmosphere to resound in. The effect is of being in a complex musical environment, and the listener is mostly unaware that the music is entirely electronic, although some sections are clearly electronically derived.
Since it is so rich and varied, this CD can be listened to as a stimulating journey through seemingly endless new vistas. Although this music was developed as an accompaniment for the Kittiwake Dance Company, it also stands as a piece in its own right, but you will not necessarily go away humming the tunes.
