New Michael Byron Album from Cold Blue Music

from the Amazon.com Web page

One week ago this site reported the release of two new recordings from Cold Blue Music. That article discussed one of those releases, Michael Jon Fink performing his twelve-movement suite Celesta. The other album presents two compositions by Michael Byron separated by an interval of 45 years. The title of the album is Fabric for String Noise, which is also the title of a two-movement composition that Byron completed last year. The earlier composition is “Dragon Rite,” completed in 1973.

As titles go, “Fabric for String Noise” serves as an excellent model for “truth in advertising.” The piece was written for the violin duo String Noise, whose members are Conrad Harris and Pauline Kim-Harris. The music itself provides about as thick a polyphonic experience as one is likely to encounter from only two four-stringed instruments. Furthermore, the rhythms are equally complex, almost to the point that any sense of pattern arises more of the repetition of pitch sequences than from the durations of any of the individual notes. By all rights, the “weaving of this fabric” must have demanded meticulous attention to the finest of details; yet the overall experience is one of an almost ecstatic approach to jamming, not unlike the wildly free improvisations that John Coltrane could unfold when he started pursuing religious topics for his compositions towards the end of his life. (Think, for example, of “The Father And The Son And The Holy Ghost” from his Meditations album.)

While “Fabric for String Noise” requires both violinists to play extremely high-register pitches, “Dragon Rite” was composed for four basses. The piece was dedicated to the poet Philip Lamantia; and, while the textures woven by the four parts are again thick, there is much less of a sense of tension. This is due, to a great extent, to a more homophonic approach to the contrapuntal techniques that are deployed. There is also a greater focus on harmonic bowing techniques, some of which involve quarter-tone inflections. In contrast to “Fabric for String Noise,” the homophony of “Dragon Rite” does not establish a sense of voices in polyphony playing off against each other. To the contrary, the performance on this album has bassist James Bergman playing all four parts for a multi-track recording.

It would be fair to advise those interested in experiencing this album, however, that the entire duration is about half an hour. “Dragon Rite” is only about eight minutes long; and the rest is devoted to the two movements of “Fabric for String Noise.” Nevertheless, quality always counts for more than quantity. There is so much on this album that is likely to expand just about anyone’s scope of listening experience that it would be churlish to quibble about overall duration!