Not so long ago if one wanted to do interesting electronic music things one needed a studio full of enormously expensive equipment, access to which was likely restricted to a fortunate few.  Now with a few relatively inexpensive mikes, a laptop and some speakers one can create all kinds of cool stuff and perform it in almost any venue.  The recording ‘m going to talk about here was made a few years ago but it’s good and pretty typical of what I’m talking about.

Nadia Sirota’s Baroque is a sort of homage to that period but the music is all new and it features electronics in various ways as well as Sirota on viola.  Judd Greenstein’s In Teaching Others We Teach Ourselves features real time viola over multiple recorded backing tracks.  The backing tracks are very busy and the “melody” line switches between lyrical and, again, very busy but without losing the sense that it is the main event.

Shara Worden contributes From the Invisible to the Visible where there’s a lovely melody for the viola over a much more obviously electronic accompaniment.

Missy Mazzoli’s Tooth and Nail is one of the more complex pieces.  There’s a lot going on.  It starts out with the viola playing short, abrupt phrases ove a “chattery” backing in an almost hypnotic way then the viola morphs into something more continuously complex.  Pretty impressive.

Nico Muhly’s Étude 3 perhaps evokes the baroque more than the other tracks though in a tongue in cheek way.  The viola is backed by an electronic drone that is weirdly reminiscent of a Muzak version of Pachelbel’s Canon.  The viola gets very busy, virtuosic phrases.  It’s strangely “baroque”.

Paul Corley’s piece Tristan da Cunha has an almost tectonic quality with a low, doomy, rumbly electronic bass line while the viola builds from very quiet to a complex, lyrical melody before becoming more fragmented  and bus in a doom laden sort of way.

Finally, Daniel Bjarnason contributes a fairly long piece: Sleep Variations.  It starts with scoopy, scratchy viola playing against what sounds a bit like an electronic piano before the viiola gets more complex and lyrical with a lot of multi-tracking and complex electronics which at times evoke bells.  It’s almost like a concerto for viola and weird orchestra with melodic development leading up to a gentle resolution.

So, six quite varied pieces that showcase what I wrote about in the intro.  It’s available as a physical CD and digitally as MP3 and FLAC.

Catalogue information: Bedroom Community HVALUR17