Comix Trips

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Based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Relâche is a new music ensemble which for thirty-five years has maintained an international reputation as a leader in commissioning and performing the innovative music of our time. Relâche has a unique sound — eight musicians with variable instrumentarium : in Comix Trips, flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, viola, piano, bass and percussion —, and performs works that are neither classical, nor popular, but somewhere in between — a melding of Western classical traditions with jazz, rock, electronica, world music, and more. Among the oldest continuously operating, non-profit organizations and chamber ensembles dedicated to contemporary music in the United States, Relâche boasts a touring-ready repertoire of over 50 pieces and a repertory library of over 400 works. Nearly 200 of these are Relâche commissions, including works by Robert Ashley, Kitty Brazelton, John Cage, Uri Caine, Fred Frith, Kyle Gann, Philip Glass, Fred Ho, Michael Nyman, Gavin Bryars, Pauline Oliveros, Bobby Previte, George Russell, Somei Satoh, and Lois V Vierk, as well as the three living composers featured on this album.
Paul Lansky is one of America’s best-known pioneers for his innovations in computer-assisted music, however he returned to real instruments, even receiving praise from the NY Times and others for his acoustic compositions, like Comix Trips.
Commissioned by Relâche, the four-movement Comix Trips (2008-09) is fun and extremely virtuosic, and inspired from some of America's great cartoon and fictional characters like Little Orphan Annie (“Leaping Lizards!”), Captain Marvel (“Holy Moly”), Peanuts (“Good Grief”), and Alfred E. Newman (“What, Me Worry?”). The character of each movement roughly reflects the sense of the utterance. Lansky's music makes the eight players in Relâche sound truly orchestral.
Released in February 2014, the album “Comix Trips”, titled after Paul Lansky’s masterpiece, contains new commissions from three of America’s most exciting, living composers today. With Canine State of Mind and its electroacoustic barking Randall Woolf makes us wonder who is walking who, who is wagging the tail with the loudest bark ; Galen Brown’s masterful Waiting in the Tall brings the listener to an animated wonder of rhythmic complexity and color ; then just to sprinkle in another chuckles, Relâche includes fresh arrangements by Darin Kelly of Raymond Scott’s most memorable, looney tunes. Get ready! (Qobuz)