Modern and Contemporary

Rainbow
LMNL
People Places Records PPR | 062 (peopleplacesrecords.bandcamp.com/album/rainbow)

Rainbow is the debut release by LMNL, a new experimental collective project led by Canadian multi-instrumentalist performer/composer Jerry Pergolesi. Here Pergolesi plays percussion, trumpet and electronics with Louise Campbell on clarinet and electronics. They both created and facilitated Rainbow,

a 60-minute post-modern ambient treatment of Judy Garland’s Wizard of Oz classic performance of Over the Rainbow, a song whose symbolism deeply resonates within the queer community and beyond. 

Garland’s deconstructed fragments were used to create a notated, text-based score and fixed audio track written for any instrumentation and any number of performers, regardless of their musical style, literacy, and/or performance and improvisational experience. 

From calm to tense, this is music for everyone. Opening and closing held single notes envelope the meditative soundscape. Garland’s vocals resound throughout in short sung repeated “minimalist flavoured” takeout phrases, accompanied at times by instrumental and electronic held notes and lines at different pitches and volumes. The full electronic washes mixed with the clarinet are colourful. Ringing percussion and low held clarinet add intrigue to the vocals. Nice contrasts between tonal and more atonal sections from classical, contemporary, experimental, rock, pop and improvised styles add to the diversity. The vibrating electronics keep the intriguing vocals and music grounded.

Pergolesi’s innovative musicianship creates spectacular electroacoustic tracks. His instrumental playing is supported by Campbell’s lush clarinet sounds. Repeated listening and/or playing along with Rainbow is a memorable experience.

Berio - Complete String Quartets
Quatour Molinari
ATMA ACD2 2848 (atmaclassique.com/en/product/berio-complete-string-quartets)

Serial winners of awards often tend to give something back. Quite often that means donating money to a deserving cause and – to all intents and purposes – being done with it, and that’s not nothing. 

In the case of the much-celebrated Quatuor Molinari, giving something back is a continuation of their collective lives, of the philosophy that has governed every day since 1997 when they first dedicated those very lives to breaking musical ground in “devoting themselves to string quartets of the 20th and 21st centuries.” This endeavour continues with Intégrale des quatuors à cordes, (The Complete String Quartets) of Luciano Berio (1925-2003). 

From the (complete quartets) of R. Murray Schafer, the repertory work of Bartók, Berg and Britten, Gubaidulina and Ligeti, Penderecki, Schoenberg and Webern this quartet – so named after the legendary Canadian painter Guido Molinari – has lit a crackling flame for the avant-garde. Their Kurtág cycle which won them the Ecko Klassik Award (now Opus Klassik) in 2017 is one of many prestigious international awards to adorn their proverbial mantlepiece,

Sparks fly when Quatuor Molinari – Olga Ranzenhofer (first violin and artistic director), Antoine Bareil (violin), Frédéric Lambert (viola) and Pierre-Alain Bouvrette (cello) – take to the stage, challenged by Berio. His work would push musicians with even the most sublime technical skill to the limits, with his love of the theatrical, fascination with the voice, and his constant willingness to engage with art of the past –Monteverdi and Dante – and the present – jazz and electronic music. His unique “future-past” musical sojourns certainly define these seemingly omnivorous works. 

The expressive breadth of Berio’s music is beautifully captured in these sumptuous performances. The dazzling semantic and musical labyrinths concocted by each work demand pyrotechnical skill from the Molinari. The miraculously lucid performance of Notturno is the highlight of this fascinating disc.

Walter Boudreau - Chaleurs
Quasar
Independent (quasar4sax.bandcamp.com/album/chaleurs)

Rupture
Quatuor Nelligan
Centrediscs CMCCD 32823 (cmccanada.org/shop/cmccd-32823)

The Quebec hills are alive with the sounds of saxophone quartets: Quasar and Nelligan are both based in that province and both have new and exciting releases. 

Quasar was founded in 1994 and has performed instrumental music, employed improvisation and used electronics. They perform as an acoustic quartet, but have also “plugged-in,” have been accompanied by an orchestra and have commissioned many pieces while continuously working for new music experimentation. Walter Boudreau’s Chaleurs was originally written in 1985 (predating the formation of Quasar by nine years) and was somehow forgotten until rediscovered in the Concordia University archives in 2019! This piece was originally “inspired by Paul-André Fortier’s choreography and his dancers’ work.” Boudreau revised Chaleurs for the tenth edition of Festival MNM in 2021 and Quasar premiered this new version at Salle Pierre-Mercure. It is a long, meditative piece of 50 minutes, and travels though many moods from quiet, sinuous and overlapping lines, to sections with playful interactions and onto more tentative and exploratory nuances. 

Quatuor Nelligan was also founded in 1994 (apparently a banner year for sax quartets) and has been committed to championing both classical and contemporary repertoire. Rupture showcases the work of four Quebec composers and their different takes on quartet repertoire. Yoel Diaz Avila’s Concerto en 6 préludes contains several exciting sections which showcase lively ensemble playing. This piece is reminiscent of much standard saxophone quartet repertoire but with modern tonalities and sharp rhythmic departures. Alexandre David’s Essences begins with a quiet blending of the instruments and then opens up with individual flourishes and edgy statements before working back to a softer and thoughtful ending. Victor Herbiet’s Danse des Dragons begins slowly with intertwining melodies and then adds a percussive section with much pad clicking which appears to wake up the dragons as a vibrant dance section emerges containing Celtic influences. Rupture ends with Robert Lemay’s Verticales, the longest and most experimental piece which includes abrupt rhythms, subtle multiphonics, squeaks and quick dynamic shifts. This is my favourite piece on the album because it contains so many changes and surprises.

Nick Storring - Mirante
Nick Storring
We Are Busy Bodies (nickstorring.bandcamp.com/album/mirante)

Composer and cellist/multi-instrumentalist Nick Storring has numerous recordings to his credit, but his latest solo album Mirante (Lookout in Portuguese) has a beauty and complexity that is transfixing. Storring’s compositional skills are matched only by his imagination; the fine balance of nature, acoustic instruments and multi-tracking is a specialty of Storring’s, but this luscious, pulsing album brings in a more personal tone with field recordings from his second home of Brazil.  

Track one, Roxa, is dreamy and enticing; you are being hypnotized to follow the sweet ocarina calls, the percussion, the handclaps… (are they handclaps?). Just give in, and you’ll be smoothly led to track two, Roxa ll. The xylophone, drums, flute, chimes…. There is no fighting the call. 

Track three Mirante’s gentle swaying of the breeze, the birds and kites over the water… unknowingly you will be transformed, brought gently into town with vocals, drum beats, cowbells. You’ll find yourself dancing through narrow stone passageways, and along the beach and back. Children play, water washes over you… will you swim, sleep, or take a walk? Here, the ocarina will sing to you, the flute, the drum, the whistle will call. Roxa lll is the most melancholy of the tracks; rich, textured, filled with heavens and skies, teaching you to be patient. It will be worth it. 

The whole album organically draws you in further and further until you find yourself surrounded by people… walking, pausing, walking, swimming, dancing, Storring gently takes you by the hand into a world of music and wonder that is almost indescribable, and before you know it, you’ve passed through the whole travelogue and are pressing repeat. This album is even better savoured with headphones to appreciate the expert mastering and Storring’s delicate layering. 

I had to look up a few of the nearly 50 instruments in use on the album. The amount of listening and editing involved in such a solo project would be overwhelming for most, but Storring is right at home.

(At one point I was searching the list of instruments for the perfectly timed kettle whistle I was hearing, until I realized it was my own.)