New Recording of Gene Pritsker's Chamber and Electronic Music

Composer, guitarist, musical iconoclast. Gene Pritsker has one constant about him. No two. First he cannot be pegged. Modern concert music, classical-style classical, rock, hip hop. . . he can and will go wherever the spirit moves within a work and in his overall oeuvre. The second is that whatever he does, he does it with distinction.

The newest recording devoted to his works is the second such volume in the Composer's Concordance series, namely The International Street Cannibals Present. . . the Chamber and Electronic works of Gene Pritsker (Composers Concordance Records). It covers much ground, from the somewhat conventional piece for string quartet, "Credit System of Truth", to a chamber work combining bass clarinet, cello and electric guitar ("Poem #1"), to purely electronic/electro-acoustic music ("inside"). (See my other blogsite at www.gapplegatemusicreview.blogspot.com for a review of the first volume. See this site for additional coverage of various other Pritsker releases.)

Some of this music has a kind of 20th century expressionist sound to it and/or a sort of New Americana point of view. The electronic pieces are the more unconventional, using a variety of sampled and electronic sounds to create a vibrant mini-universe.

In sum the Chamber and Electronic Music goes in a number of different directions. But it ultimately succeeds in giving the listener a well-performed cross-section of the composer's work in the smaller ensemble mode, and a tantalizing glimpse of the purely electronic side of the Pritsker opus. Those unfamiliar with Gene's music might do better to start with the first volume of the series (which covers several of his works and those of other new composers) or his Innova recording of "The Varieties of Religious Experience Suite." Those who know Gene P's music will not be disappointed in this one. Nor will those who favor the chamber mode of expression, I would think.

Composer Chris Dench: Chamber Works

January 15, 2009—Modern concert music remains vividly alive and filled with a healthy vitality. The rigid formalism of the serialist and post-serialist days seems to be gone, the wacky eccentrisms of later Stockhausen and Cage are perhaps not as central now as they were around 1985. What has happened can be looked at on a number of levels. There seems to be a more informal, music-first, words-about-the-music second approach. Innovation is perhaps downplayed for various sorts of sonority. Much of the acoustic-electric and instrumental language is of a flow, a lucidity that communicates with a directness. The sound of jazz-derived free improv and the modern concert piece can be similar on the surface. Both camps have learned something from one another. The improv folks have gotten something of the use of space and sound from the concert people, the latter have been influenced by the spontaneous fluidity and timbre pallet of the improv people. This is a drastic simplification, but good enough for the purposes of this morning’s blog. And in the realm of electro-acoustic and minimalist musics, there are other factors in play too.

With all that in mind we turn to British ex-pat, Australian based composer Chris Dench and his CD of chamber pieces, Beyond Status Geometry (Tzadik). This is a welcome addition to the repertory. Four pieces are represented. The earliest piece (1985-6), a percussion quartet that gives the title to the disk, has a delightful bombastic quality. The two later chamber works, “Light-Strung Sigils” and “Permutation City” have a more conventionally concert oriented sound but are marked by solid invention and inspired levels of performance. The final piece, a solo piano excursion, has a wistful yet robust expressionism that somehow manages to suggest and transcend the piano sounds of Ives and Cecil Taylor while remaining in a world of its own. Dench is well worth your attention and I look forward to hearing more from him.