Alex Vittum Creates A Sound Poem For Drums-Percussion and Electronics on "Prism"

The drum set is not just that noisy contraption that disturbs parents' peace of mind for years at a stretch with barrages of cracks, crashes and ba-booms (and I must admit I was guilty of doing that to my folks while growing up). It is of course a MUSICAL instrument, capable of holding its own (in the right hands) with the violins, pianos, cellos and the rest for toneful invention.

That this is so can be heard especially clearly in drummer-percussionist Alex Vittum's album for traps and electronics, Prism (Prefecture 003). There are eight compositional-improvisational vignettes on the record, each involving singular duet-like excursions with Vittum on drums-percussion in conjunction with interactive electronics software that allows for a dialog, a live give and take between "man and machine."

It's the sort of thing that could sound tentative or unfocused. Prism most assuredly does not. There are times when electronic envelopes of tones project a legato wash that is punctuated by drum phrasings of a sound color sort. Other times there is pulsating interaction between the electronic sounds and Vittum the drummer.

Electronics of course can produce sound complexes that are very complex and thickly layered like an orchestra or more chamber-like in dimensions. Both possibilities are successfully engaged on Prism, as are varying stages in-between.

Whatever the density however, Alex shows himself to be a very creative and sensitive player who thinks through his interactions with a subtle virtuosity and a keen ear for the wash, the speech-like utterance and the rumble of power.

I might venture to say that Mr. Vittum has learned a thing or two from the experimental ventures in drum-percussion-electronic music made since the early sixties and he refines what can be done to a point that here all is rather deliberate and nothing sounds tentative. He seems to know what he is about and proceeds to create some very impressive sound poetry that brings the drummer into a more completely musical realm than he has sometimes been in during the past 100 years.

Prism is on the whole a most remarkable achievement. Listen and you will gain a new appreciation for the drummer-as-musical-visionary. This is a kind of concerto for drums and electronics as it is also an extended improvisation in the advanced sense of the term. Listen and enjoy!

Ensemble Economique's "Standing Still, Facing Forward"

Composer Brian Pyle and his virtual Ensemble Economique give us something quite wonderful on their release Standing Still, Facing Forward (Amish 032). It's part of Amish Records' "Required Wreckers" series which, if this is a typical example, is presenting important work.

Maestro Pyle takes pre-existing recorded samples of orchestral and otherwise instrumental music along with other found sounds and field recordings, and puts them together in the studio to create unique compositions. Standing Still, Facing Forward is his latest and (apparently) most fully realized piece based on these methods, and it is something that brings to your ears a memorable sonic world.

The music functions as a soundscape at times, as a modern classical composition of a more organized sort at other times. It's a fully worthy CD that should be heard by anyone interested in the avant garde today.

Jon Hassell, Reporting from the Moon

Last Night the Moon Came Dropping Its Clothes On the Street (ECM). OK that's the title of Jon Hassell's fairly recent CD. I'll be honest. I really haven't caught his other albums so I have nothing to compare this to. I know he calls his music "Fourth World." That's cool but at least on this recording he sounds like a cosmic space cadet of the soundscape variety mixed with some very mellow, spacey Milesian almost-Funk.

I glanced at a review somebody else did, which I don't usually do, but I was looking for the cover image to drop in on this posting, and that person knew every album and what Hassell has been all about. I don't. In that sense I am playing Frozen Caveman Lawyer here.

It sounds like an ECM album, which will hardly surprise, since that's what it is. But there are more orchestral electronics in parts, so it is in no way generic ECM. Hassell's trumpet is plaintive and like a pilgrim searching, 'tho I do not know for what. Does any one of us know? He often uses a device that doubles his sound and he does it with subtlety, 'tho again if he didn't I am not the sort that would object. And there are all sorts of things going on behind him.

This is brown study stuff, music to send you off drifting and dreaming about things that I would hope are pleasant or profound, or both. Now I want to hear his earlier work. You who already know all about his music wont need me to say any more. I must say I liked this one. Perhaps I'll check in with a later posting after I've heard some of his other recordings.