|
Site review by ramesh September 2, 2008
|
|
This is a surprisingly enjoyable disc of four avant-garde/modern compositions for various ensembles of bagpipes and percussion. However, if you're considering buying this release as a present for great-uncle Arthur, happily ensconced in his retirement home with early dementia, buoyed by his comforting wee memories of playing merry ditties from bonny Scotland in his highland pipe band-- hold on. Only the two shorter pieces strikes me as having a Highland melodic and rhythmic lilt to it. Unsurprisingly, one was commissioned by a university pipe band. However, the composer states that his inspiration for this piece wasn't Scotland, but a combination of yacht sailing and South Indian classical singers!
What we have on this SACD are unmistakably modern compositions, devoid of nostalgia and folk pastiche, yet approachingly melodic, without the forbidding obscurity of much current avant-garde compositions.
'Being and Doing', the 30 minute opening suite, is composed for four bagpipes, tabla and cymbals. The 15 minute 'Luffness', in the words of its composer, 'introduces drone extensions to the bagpipe in the form of pexiglass tubes which fit between the drone sections. The extensions lower the drone pitch a full tone, thus changing the relationship of the chanter to the drone. The mode is perceived as A flat Ionian'. The other instruments in this work are a set of three taiko drummers, with another musician playing either the Japanese shakuhachi or the Australian Aborigine didgeridoo. The third pieces has an even more eclectic orchestration with two bapipes, various Asian drums, 'Tibetan cymbals', snare drum and didgeridoo. The final piece, the composer writes, 'is loosely based on the highland piping form known as march, strathspey and reel. The instrumentation of four bagpipes, snare, tenor and bass drums is a cross between the bagpipe quartet and the mini-band'.
Hence, it's evident that what we have here is a form of world music, borrowing instruments from all corners of the globe, deracinating them from their usual cultural contexts, utilising their individual tonal qualities and limitations. As is the case with much global fusion, the risks of the ensuing product being kitsch and cacophony are high. In the case of the current disc, these pitfalls are avoided. The compositions, both individually and as an entire album, are innovative, generally approachable, and certainly worth listening to more than once, if one can set aside preconceptions as to how bagpipe ensembles should sound.
The 24bit/88.2 kHz recording is open and immediate, although the volume of sound from the pipes means that I had to play this disc at a lower amplification level than usual, and details from some of the percussion and didgeridoo weren't audible, at least on my system.
|
|
Sonics: 
