Mark Ellestad
Discreet Angel
Boomkat Product Review:
Another Timbre keeps them coming - "Discreet Angel" is a selection of three pieces composed between 1988 and 1994 from Canadian composer Mark Ellestad. Haunted frozen loveliness using classical guitar, pump organ, hardanger fiddle, violin and cello.
On the title track 'Discreet Angel', guitarist Christián Alvear paces his graceful plucks carefully but soulfully over 20 minutes. It's a meditative work that sounds avant-garde tonally, but also catches a tailwind from the Medieval world, bringing to mind European lute or harp music of the Middle Ages. There's little flourish in Ellestad's composition, and Alvear harnesses this emotional coldness without sacrificing momentum.
'Sigrid' is the shortest track, but points most obviously to the past. Here Ellestad himself plays both pump organ and Hardanger fiddle a violin-like instrument with sympathetic strings that's considered the national instrument of Norway. Driven by the pump organ's rhythmic thuds, it's a wonderful opportunity to hear the unique tonal qualities of the fiddle, as Ellestad squeezes out metallic harmonies, connecting folk traditions with the 20th century drone experiments of Catherine Christer Hennix or La Monte Young.
The most generous composition is the 45-minute 'In the Mirror of this Night', performed by Apartment House's Mira Benjamin and Anton Lukoszevieze, who dance around each other's scraped tones using cello and violin. Like the title track, the mastery here is in the pacing and spacing - it's an opportunity to consider the composition, the instruments and the history of their uses in the Western canon. Without the ornate baroque prettiness of the Austrian/Italian/German school, it's folk and early music that sings through loudest of all.
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Boomkat Product Review:
Another Timbre keeps them coming - "Discreet Angel" is a selection of three pieces composed between 1988 and 1994 from Canadian composer Mark Ellestad. Haunted frozen loveliness using classical guitar, pump organ, hardanger fiddle, violin and cello.
On the title track 'Discreet Angel', guitarist Christián Alvear paces his graceful plucks carefully but soulfully over 20 minutes. It's a meditative work that sounds avant-garde tonally, but also catches a tailwind from the Medieval world, bringing to mind European lute or harp music of the Middle Ages. There's little flourish in Ellestad's composition, and Alvear harnesses this emotional coldness without sacrificing momentum.
'Sigrid' is the shortest track, but points most obviously to the past. Here Ellestad himself plays both pump organ and Hardanger fiddle a violin-like instrument with sympathetic strings that's considered the national instrument of Norway. Driven by the pump organ's rhythmic thuds, it's a wonderful opportunity to hear the unique tonal qualities of the fiddle, as Ellestad squeezes out metallic harmonies, connecting folk traditions with the 20th century drone experiments of Catherine Christer Hennix or La Monte Young.
The most generous composition is the 45-minute 'In the Mirror of this Night', performed by Apartment House's Mira Benjamin and Anton Lukoszevieze, who dance around each other's scraped tones using cello and violin. Like the title track, the mastery here is in the pacing and spacing - it's an opportunity to consider the composition, the instruments and the history of their uses in the Western canon. Without the ornate baroque prettiness of the Austrian/Italian/German school, it's folk and early music that sings through loudest of all.
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