What Brings You In is an album of music for violin and electronics that consists mostly of work that was composed for performance as part of an art installation or a site specific performance or as therapy rather than a conventional concert hall experience.  It features violinist Leslie Ting and various collaborators on percussion and live electronics.  It’s one of the most “experimental” records I’ve listened to.  There are five tracks and I’m going to describe each piece as best I can.  Conventional music vocabulary; melody, harmony, rhythm etc isn’t much help!

Linda Catlin Smith’s Dirt Roads (movements 4 and 5) is scored for violin, percussion and electronics with Germaine Liu joining Ting on percussion.  The opening really sets one up for what is to come.  For almost three minutes Ting holds a note witj just a little vibrato while occasional gong like sounds play over the top.  Then silence followed by wood blocks with about four minutes of intermittent violin drone transitioning into something  abit more melodic for violin and gongs and a “rumbly” finish.

Ting and Liu are also involved in the improvisatory What is the most yourself you can be (with another)?.  Squeaky, insistent violin plus percussion leads to a passage of earthquake like percussion with sparse violin notes; both bowed and plucked.  Then the viloin gets more drone like and the percussion sounds like a demolition site before lapsing into something with a fast, steady beat.

Soundplay, another improvised piece, involves Liu using a close miked sandbox while Matt Smith joins in on electronics, with Ting on violin of course.  The sandbox noises are intriguing; tearing sounds, whooshing, banging.  It evokes the seashore and an avalanche and cul;minates with what sounds like an earthquake.

Rose Bolton’ Beholding has Ting on violin and the composer on electronics.  There’s lyrical violin over what sounds like furniture shifting.  Then the violin “shimmers” evoking water, becoming more insistent as it combines with whispered words and gong like sounds.  Then there’s a heavy drum beat, chords on the violin and an electronic drone echoing the beginning.

Julia Mermelstein’s folds in crossing with Ting on violin and the composer on electronics is almost orchestral in texture..  There’s multi-tracked violin and water sounds plus some very busy and carefully spatially arranged electronics.  The violin and electronics integrate to create a really complex soundscape.

The recordings were made at Canterbury Music in Toronto and, unusually, there are two versions f the recording on the CD.  There’s a conventional stereo mix as one might hear it in a concert hall and there’s a binaural mix which, while still only being two channels, places the listener in the middle of things.  Even on speakers the binaural mix is clearly preferable with a more clearly articulated soundstage and much more detail.  The difference is even more marked on. headphones.  To give on example right from the start of the record, the opening violin note sounds absolutely even n the stereo mix while in the binaural mix there’s clearly some incredibly subtle but deliberate vibrato.

The album will be released March 1st 2024 as either 2 CDs (one stereo, one binaural) or digitally plus the usual streaming services.  There’s an excellent booklet included.

Catalogue information: People Place Records PPR045