Saturday, April 25, 2015

Recording: Contact Contemporary Music

Artist: Contact Contemporary Music

Song: Professor Bad Trip (Lesson III) [composer: Fausto Romitelli]

Recorded at The Music Gallery, April 18, 2015.

Contact Contemporary Music - Professor Bad Trip (Lesson III)

It appears that Contact Contemporary Music has moved towards putting on fewer events, but making sure each of those has a larger impact. This performance of Romitelli's spectral/psychedelic triptych was in that camp with an immersively lysergic lightshow and dozen-deep ensemble. The piece featured woozy clouds of strings and winds, an artfully askew cello solo (performed with brio by Rebecca Morton) and increasing destabilization, especially in this final part, by some rock'n'roll energy. That element was provided by Rob McDonald's electric guitar and Joseph Phillips' electric bass — and the latter was perhaps the secret star of the piece, moving from e-bowed buzzes to angry plucks to the fuzzy heartbeat thumps at the end. Romitelli died young of cancer a decade ago, but it seems like there's further lessons to be drawn yet from his work.

No comments:

Post a Comment