Nicholas Chase
Composer@LargeWhen the Music is All Sur-round You…
Morton Subotnick – Electronic Works Vols. 1 and 2
Jean-Michel Jarre – Oxygène: Live In Your Living Room
Cristin Wildbolz – C ollaborations
I’m interested in the idea that surround-sound music recordings may become fairly common place in the near future. There aren’t that many out there and the rhyme and reason for each of the three I’ll talk about here is dramatically different in each case.
Morton Subotnick has released a couple surround-sound recordings on Mode Records, and if you’re interested in having a really superlative listening experience in your living room, these are the ones to buy. The two volumes released so far contain a good retrospective of Subotnick’s work from the late 60s through the 70s, as well as one newer composition. These include A Sky of Cloudless Sulfur, Sidewinder, Until Spring, Touch and Gestures (both featuring Joan LaBarbara). Subotnick’s works were initially conceived as multi-channel pieces and it is only recently that a fair reproduction of the concert experience can be replicated at home. Subotnick’s care and attention to detail are not lacking. These are top-notch and give you a real sense of what the concert experience must have been like. I will qualify that – I have heard Until Spring (Revisited), Subotnick’s re-vision (same content, new technology) of the piece, twice in concert. It’s a gorgeous piece of music and, although it’s wonderful to have it on DVD in surround-sound, it doesn’t match the concert experience – but no recording should. I understand that Mode is releasing a Volume 3, which will feature one of my favorite Subotnick works Four Butterflies - although I’m not certain this will be released in 5.1 DVD Surround-Sound.
How does Jean-Michel Jarre’s classic Oxygène stack up? For those who don’t know, Jean-Michel Jarre began as a traditional composer interested in electronics and actually studied with none other than Karlheinz Stockhausen. His clarity as a composer and respect for the electronic medium was immediately apparent in his early works. Oxyène is a landmark recording because the synthesizers were the orchestra, not an addition, and not a replacement. JMJ wrote for those voices, which hadn’t really been done up to then.
The 30 years in between Oxygène and the re-release, Jarre recorded more albums, all progressively more pop-oriented than the last (without ever really breaking into the mainstream) and not without some wonderful results. It was his live concerts that propelled him to the echelon he occupies in history, lavish shows with lights and pyrotechnics accompanied by massive sound systems. He is known for putting on a great (big) show.
Flash forward 30 years (yipes!). JMJ re-realizes Oxygène as a 3-D visual spectacle in 5.1 Surround Sound on the DVD Live In Your Living Room. The best part of the DVD is seeing the performance – watching the three performers amidst a large bank of old analogue gear make the music. It reminds us how monumental that initial recording was. The 3-D aspect of the DVD is, sadly, pure kitsch. Don’t bother with your 3-D glasses as the video rendering in 3-D is of questionable quality and often times doesn’t translate. The visual presentation in the background too, the computer rendered 3-D animated loops – very kitschy. Knowing what’s out there in the world with all that experimental video going on, it is surprising that Jarre, who is a top-notch guy, didn’t find anything better. Even Subotnick works with a live-VJ when he performs Until Spring (Revisited), and, as engaging as it is, that has its limits too.
The re-recording/new performance of Jarre’s Oxygène feels under tempo too. I don’t know why – I haven’t clocked it to see if that’s true, but there’s something lacking about the energy. It’s a little ‘clean’ compared to the original.
And lastly, the Surround-Sound aspect. I can’t quite figure out if there is anything going on there at all. Certainly there isn’t any intentional spatialization, maybe just a little mixing going on. It is ‘fun’ but not ’special.’ Sadly, I think Jarre really went for the gimmick aspect on this release instead of totally re-conceptualizing the piece, as he should have. It’s fun, but if you’re looking for a good representation of Oxygène buy the CD of the remastered stereo version – the work was conceptualized for dual-channel stereo anyway, so that’s the truer form.
What about newcomer Cristin Wildbolz and her DVD C ollaborations? This is an in-depth documentation of Wildbolz’ K9+1 project, where bassist Wildbolz commissioned composers from around the globe (including recently deceased James Tenney) to write a piece of music specifically for her unique style of recital. Wildbolz has toured the now-two recital strong series internationally for the last several years. What makes these recitals unique is that the individual works are strung together in a theatrical arc so that the recital becomes a dramatic presentation of the music. As one of the composers commissioned, I can say it’s really (and wonderfully) challenging to compose with this in mind – and really rewarding to have a dynamic performer such as Wildbolz perform a series of works like that.
The recording is almost outrageously long, nearly 3 hours, the longest piece clocking in at just under half an hour (composed by Wildbolz herself). In this context it’s hard to get into the works individually. My recommendation is to listen to one or two, then return to the DVD and take in another one or two. Each composition has so many layers – complimented by the Surround-Sound aspect of the recording.
The 5.1 Surround-Sound in this case is intended to approximate the sense of Wildbolz standing there, live in your living room. The 5.1 arrangement offers the listener the room ambience from the space where Wildbolz recorded – with the benefit of a few bonuses. Some composers were asked to compose multi-channel electronics for their pieces and yes, those are presented here in full, sonic 3-D.
My three greatest criticisms of this ambitious project is – well, it’s ambitious! This is a mammoth project and well deserving of attention. However it is daunting in its scope. Secondly, the inclusion of experimental video is questionable. One friend noted that, ‘it’s an eye-candy reward for listening to challenging music’ which is aptly put. Notably, only one video artist was commissioned to create video for all 18 cuts, while 18 composers are represented. That seems lopsided and you can imagine the result is, at times, flimsy. Video artist Christina Della Giustina really had her work cut out for her, but manages to come through with some deep concept (and result) – bearing in mind that, none of these compositions was composed with a video component in mind. Last, I wonder if some of the works don’t suffer from New Music Cautiousness, as is problematic with premiere performances and recordings. There are moments when I wonder if Wilbolz isn’t just slightly self-conscious with the material.
Still, Wildbolz’ energy is definitely ‘there’ – there is no question about that and as far as solo recordings go, this is a landmark among them. A project this size and scope has never been done before and the results are well worth noticing. Unfortunately for us, the DVD is available in very limited markets in the US (my own distribution is flush out of them) but is available in Europe. And, parenthetically, a stereo mix of my own composition from this project will be available on my label this year.
If anyone knows of any other surround-sound music recordings, I’m very interested to know what’s out there – drop me a comment!
Kronos and Glass do Dracula
I realize that this is hardly breaking news. Phil Glass and the Kronos Quartet released Dracula ages ago in about 1999. The original Hollywood Dracula starring a haunting Bela Lagosi was released in 1931, ten years before soundtracks were even considered and, iconically/ironically, opens with the theme music from Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake (!). The first film scores began appearing in the 40s, I believe Lon Chaney Jr.’s The Wolfman (1941) was the very first to utilize background music to underscore (sic) the possibilities of using music to add to the cinematic narrative. Who knew it would turn into a major industry and a specialization? Early film Soundtracks were often composed by concert-music composers. Morton Feldman and Aaron Copeland were among the many in the 50s/60s to be commissioned for cinematic music.
Fairly recently Philip Glass has taken to writing more main-stream film scores. He, of course, achieved notoriety with the Godfrey Reggio collaboration of the ‘Qatsi Trilogy, so he is no stranger to accompanying-cum-driving moving image. His soundtrack to the documentary The Thin Blue Line also shook some foundations as he supported content with his minimalist arpeggios.
How does Dracula fare in this line up? Firstly, Glass chose wisely when seeking an interesting film to score, and even more wisely by choosing an early, but not silent film, as is so popular these days. The obvious choice to execute such a fine task is the Kronos Quartet. Glass and Kronos are more or less contemporaries who come from that stream of artists-cum-popstars that were created in the 80s, in a hey-day of NEA supported American Art. The aesthetics are complimentary and the edges are all finely worn off, making the project suitable and suitably executed for popular consumption. That’s a double edged sword, and if you know me, you know that I mean that without judgement. These artists are very indicative of that time.
In a recent conversation with the violist, Hank Dutt, he told me that Kronos’ mission from the outset has been to further the notion of Contemporary Music by giving excellent performances to new work. Any of us who have committed themselves to the creation of new concert work knows that this is an invaluable MO! Most often, at least in the USA, new compositions are given minimal rehearsal (often fewer than ten, regularly fewer than five rehearsals!) and then a single premiere. This provides about as much insight into a piece of music as, oh, looking at a bowl of cake batter and understanding it as a cake. The ingredients are there, but the cake hasn’t really been baked, and there are no finishing touches.
Obviously, a recording offers much in the way of forgiveness, however, as the old recording engineer’s maxim goes, “crap in, crap out!” The Kronos are highly skilled at what they do, and in many ways rival even the Arditti Quartet for sound, although I suppose it’s an unfair comparison – the repertoire is vastly different (a critique of the Kronos will appear elsewhere!) Furthermore, recording of this particular piece proves doubly problematic as that ‘performance’ should more or less synch up with the film without any special cuing or monitoring. And that it does. It’s not completely fool proof (naturally providing the impetus to see the work performed live if you have the chance), there are a few funky cues. But ultimately, you can put the CD on and start your DVD of the original Dracula simultaneously – and watch the film with Philip Glass’s sound track from beginning to end without fuss. I have to say, as someone who relishes the least bit of interactivity and interplay between media, and any opportunity to listen in a new context, this was really and simply fun.
Bonus – the soundtrack is really effective. I’ve listened to the recording on its own for a long time. I like Glass’s works and I think that they hold up, he is still exploring an idea and I think he’s found some interesting things within that idea. This is certainly one of those moments where the idea comes across strongly and effectively. On the downside, and this is unusual for me, I did find that toward the last 10 or 15 minutes (the whole film is barely over one hour long) my ears did get tired of hearing Glass’s repetition. That is honestly unusual for me. I haven’t been able to put my finger on the ‘why’ of that, and I wouldn’t offer it here anyway. Perhaps he relied too much on leitmotiv and brought back that one idea just one too many times. Or it may be just one of those things, maybe it was me, I got bored (I do pretty quickly).
If I got the chance, I’d see it live for sure. It would be novel, the music as a soundtrack is continuous and takes the Dracula film to a new level – it does become a more musically-oriented experience (maybe that’s why my ears got tired) and even approaches a sort of operatic feeling. If you’ve seen the film already, you know that it suffers from long, anti-climactical pauses in dialogue that make it come across silly in this day and age. Glass ‘fixes’ that and oddly enough, makes the film retain a relevance that one doesn’t expect.
Where the He!! Have You Been??
Madly working on Ngoma Lungundu (Voice That Thunders), the recording of the concert I toured last fall and will be touring the next few months. Yes, there is new material on the way too, but one thing at a time!
Meanwhile I’ve become hopelessly addicted to Graham Norton… Graham, take me away! (No, really, Graham – take me away!)
Coming soon: Philip Glass and the Kronos Quartet – Dracula
