Reviewed by Mike Silverton
Fanfare Magazine Issue 19:5 (May/June 1996)
DASHOW Morfologie, Punti di Vista No. 2, Reconstructions, DELIO anti-paysage, Of, Though, so again, on again, of again, • NEUMA 450-90 (Distributed by Albany.)
This excellent Neuma CD is a must-have for the collector who takes a particular interest in new music's electroacoustic possibilities. Both James Dashow and Thomas Delio are consummate computer-studio craftsmen and imaginative artists of sharply contrasting temperaments. As concept, term, and practice, minimalism is in its dotage, its post-post stage. To paraphrase another's remark (can't remember who), a typical, first-generation minimalist work is upholstered to bursting with maximums. To begin, then, on a note of aesthetic leastness, we've these six Thomas DeLio items which, iota for iota, sum to fifteen seconds, say, of prime Reich or Andriessen. The long and pungent silences may be Cage's contribution. The nitty-gritty is DeLio's, and where and when it falls on the ear comes to a luscious experience—in the cerebral sense; you'll find no pomegranates here. From DeLio's notes: “My approach . . . involves the reduction of [surfaces] to a few disjunct sound events [pushed apart] by large quantities of silence; sound events pushed into isolation. Moreover, I find myself reducing [events] to only the barest essentials, anti-paysage (1990), [for] flute, percussion, piano, and computer-generated tape . . . constitutes [an extensive exploration] of discontinuity and non-linearity. I [incorporate] enormous spans of silence . . . without losing the coherence of a single musical evolution.“ Trust a composer to say it just so. This listener reports a handsome outcome. The traycard has it wrong: Through (1993) is for solo piano, not tape. The remaining, succinctly titled pieces are for tape alone, the core aesthetic obtaining throughout. Wonderful, palliative stuff for these sound-soaked times.
Now for the pomegranates. The acoustic half of James Dashow's Morfologie (1993) consists of an homage-laden trumpet, Miles Davis and Chet Baker its objects of esteem. One needed to see the notes for names; the cool-jazz demeanor would be obvious to a geranium. As always, the magic resides in electronicacoustic interaction, and few do it better than Dashow, an expatriate living in Italy. In Reconstructions (1992), a timbrai kinship between harp and its lustrous electronic counterpart, the latter filling the broader stage, serves as frankly beautiful material for a remarkably subtle, elegantly crafted piece. Again, few do it better. Dashow wrote Punti di Vista No. 2 (Points of View, 1976, revised 1990) for composer-pianist Frederic Rzewsky, as one of a series of works for specific performers. The pieces take their subtitles—in the present instance, Montiano, a small hill town where Rzewsky once lived—from views and vistas the music's dedicatees propose. It's an interesting idea filled in the doing with Dashow's peculiarly wonderful way with stressed colors and fleeting moods. Excellent performances throughout in good recorded sound. Go for this one.