Last night while downloading this month’s allotment from eMusic it dawned on me that my tastes have profoundly shifted in the last four months or so as a good amount of the albums I picked up fall under the “Classical” moniker, well, more accurately it is a sort of experimental Folk meets avant-garde Classical. I’m not really sure what to make of it but in the past year or so I have been finding myself increasingly drawn to acoustical music that sort of falls into the category of minimalism or drones–think Gamelean played on a piano or guitar.
It started late last summer when I stumbled onto Glenn Jones sublime Against Which The Sea Continually Beats, which was the tipping point where I slowly teetered until I tumbled into Steve Reich and David Lang this past December–a strange transition for certain. Usually when I’m out shopping for new music I have a list to work from of artists and albums that were recommended by friends or the media but lately I have been buying in a more free association manner and maybe this is why I’m listening to music so different from my “established taste”.
Free association listening is a liberating experience in that my itch for new, different, and novel is being scratched much more thoroughly. There is something to be said for shutting out the noise of the world, closing your eyes and letting your heart and ears guide you. Some of my most recent discoveries have been so counter-intuitive and have broken me of some deeply held musical prejudice.
Micheal Harrison’s Revelation, as well as being aptly titled, is a perfect example of the breaking of some long held views. Dave Lewis of allmusic writes,
Harrison is regarded as an expert and creative mind in the field of tuning and the possibilities inherent in “just intonation” where the distance between pitches is derived from mathematical formulas rather than from the familiar system of equal temperament used in the tuning of most pianos.
A year ago I held a dim view of alternate tuning schemes and held twelve-tone in a contempt rooted in ignorance. Honestly, I know nothing about tuning beyond a smattering learned in music theory classes I took some sixteen years ago. That combined with my parent’s fervor for the compositions of Bach, Handel, and Mozart ingrained in me a belief that if certain musics do not adhere in some manner to the “Western Canon” that it is potentially flawed or misguided. It is more gray and malleable than it sounds but it boils down to a knee jerk response to hearing instruments commonly associated with Western music working in micro-tonalities and alternate tunings. While I’m being completely honest, I own a copy of Jorgensen’s Tuning which I had bought to complete my ruse of being knowledgeable about the field. Seriously, I have never done more than flip through it. Color me an asshat.
So what is blowing my mind at the moment? The above mentioned Revelation is one. At first listen the piano sounds brittle and woefully out of tune as if it had been sitting neglected in some abandoned schoolhouse being warped by rain, sun, and snow. However, after sinking into its dense clouds and textures I found myself in a place where it made sense. The harmonics that Harrison conjures are at once alien but familiar and as I continue to listen “just intonation” begins to make as much sense as equal temperament.
Following the path of piano music I am currently enamored with Hauschka who I’ve mentioned in passing before. The Prepared Piano is an earlier piece but it too has served to break me of the long held prejudice regarding “prepared” instruments. Before hearing Bertelman’s work my perception of this style was that it had more in common with a bag of hammers and wrenches tumbling down a flight of stairs than with what might be referred to as “music”. I was wrong. This album, along with last year’s Room To Expand is quirky, hypnotic, and beautiful and bears no resemblance to what I thought a prepared piano would sound like.
Additionally, I’m looking forward to digging into Ethel’s Light which at first pass was raw, romantic, and playful as well as getting deeper into Steve Reich’s work with Drumming performed by So Percussion. Maybe these albums will open my mind further and see my ears drift deeper into sounds I have never experienced.
