Transparent Waves: Selected Compositions IV
CD | Neuma 153 | 13.00
Composer and theorist DeLio holds the maxims of Cage, Feldman, Tudor, et al, dear to his heart, as
evidenced by this twenty-nine track work of glorious electroacoustic collage. Though I profess being
unfamiliar with the prose of experimental poet P. Inman, DeLio has collaborated via Inman's words
and compositional structure, to realize his phrases in sound. The results are all over the proverbial
map. The opening ten-minute and of “of” (which should tell you something right there) trades as
much in pregnant pauses and hushed silences than in music, the definition of which is surely
stretched to the breaking point throughout. Cascading amongst the odd trills, occasional buffeting of
mutated voices, cut-up shimmerings, and patchy gyrations, Inman's syntax is sliced, diced, remade,
and remodeled, DeLio using a craftsman's touch to bring some real tactility to Inman's truncated
phraseology. It's perplexing, absorbing, distancing, and downright strange simultaneously; perhaps
an acquired taste for many, but those with wide-open ears will get the impact. Most of the remaining
pieces are notable for their minimalist patina of sounds, though the four-part Tangier echoes the
namesake of its exotic locale by keeping its meaning close to its chest; it's left to the imagination
whether or not DeLio fully intends to situate you in the city's place or non-place. This sense of
mystery, the unknown, and the intangible gives this record its colorful “heft” as it reveals its subtler
nature to you, you'll find your patience duly rewarded.
Darren Bergstein, Downtown Music Gallery