OCTET’s Disappointing Album Debut

from the Amazon.com Web page for the album being discussed

OCTET is a New York-based ensemble with nonstandard membership. The group has two keyboardists, Elaine Kwon on piano and William Susman on electric piano. There are also two brass players, trumpeter Mike Gurfield and trombonist Alan Ferber. In addition there is a vocalist (soprano Melissa Hughes), a saxophonist (Demetrius Spaneas), percussionist Greg Zuber, and Elenore Oppenheim on bass.

The group decided to make its recording debut with an album consisting entirely of compositions by one of its members, Susman. The title of the album is Scatter My Ashes, which is also the title of one of the two song cycles presented. The other cycle, Moving in to an Empty Space began as music for voice and piano but was subsequently arranged for OCTET’s resources. The other selections are a single-movement piano concerto in six sections (as well as a cadenza before the final section) and the three-movement suite Camille.

Susman’s music invites the old put-down gag that it fills a well-needed gap. He was clearly influenced by the pioneering work with repetitive structures that had established a new aesthetic over half a century ago. However, Susman seems to be seeking out the sonorities that reflect back on groups like the Philip Glass Ensemble without belaboring the listener with too much repetition. It goes without saying that repetitive structures without extended repetition will probably raise the question, “What’s the point?” My only reply would be, “Exactly!”

One comes away from this album with the impression that Susman created OCTET to serve as a platform for his efforts as a composer. I suppose that, from that point of view, he could be credited for ambition. Nevertheless, his ambition should have been made of sterner stuff.