Cover of the album being discussed (from its Bandcamp Web page)
According to my archives, the last time I wrote about a Cold Blue Music release of an album of music composed by John Luther Adams was around the middle of this past April. That album presented a two-movement composition for string orchestra entitled Horizon (the movements being titled “Visible Horizon” and “True Horizon”). This past Friday saw the release of the latest Adams offering, a single-movement composition lasting a little more than half an hour entitled “Prophecies of Fire.”
The work is performed by the Sandbox Percussion ensemble, a quartet whose members are (in alphabetical order) Johnathan Allen, Victor Caccese, Ian Rosenbaum, and Terry Sweeney. The best site for this album is a Bandcamp Web page for both physical (CD in a six-panel package) and digital (streaming and download). The site also includes a hyperlink for a “Digital Discography” of all thirteen of the Adams releases available through Bandcamp.
I tend to enjoy percussion performances, because they often introduce me to sonorities I have not previously encountered, even in orchestral compositions that allow the percussion instruments to have their say! The “journey” through “Prophecies of Fire” involves just the right mix of diverse sonorities, tempo changes, and overall amplitude. Mind you, the approach to phrasing is significantly different from what the attentive listener will encounter in most string quartets and symphonies; but Adams has always been an inventive composer, who always finds new ways to speak for himself.
Ironically, some readers may have visited the Tenderloin Museum this past Friday to attend the performance by BEAK, which brought five percussionists together with a “rhythm section” of two guitarists and one bass. Sadly, that did not fit into my own schedule. That said, listening to “Prophecies of Fire” made for more than adequate substitution in my ongoing quests for imaginative sonorities. Where would I be without Bandcamp😄?
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