Darkness and Scattered Light

Chronique

The music of John Luther Adams (not to be confused with John Adams) evokes vast landscapes, not surprising for a composer who lived for some years in rural Alaska. His music, with its open consonances and slow harmonic motion, is sometimes uneasily classified as minimalist, but really, it is sui generis. It doesn't come much more minimal, however, than the works on this album, two of which are for a solo double bass. The opening Three High Places was originally written for a solo violin, and the titular Darkness and Scattered Light is for five double basses, all of which are played by the soloist here, Robert Black. The single-instrument setting isn't typical of Adams, many of whose works are orchestral, but the music here can still be recommended to Adams newcomers, for it boils his language down to its essentials and tunes the ear, so to speak, to its small details. In Three High Places, the double bass is tuned to open fifths and contains no stopped notes; everything the listener hears that is not the principal notes are produced by harmonics. Even with this restriction, the music is reasonably evocative of high places. Darkness and Scattered Light also draws on harmonic and subharmonic series in its evocation of day and night in two places, La Jolla, California, and Fairbanks, Alaska. The Three Nocturnes are based on the subharmonic series and were first performed by Black outdoors in the Utah canyonlands. Essentially, Adams fans will find here what they're used to in the composer's music. What is surprising is that new listeners will also find an intriguing slice of Adams' unique universe. This album earned a Grammy Award nomination for Best Classical Instrumental Solo in 2023.

© James Manheim /TiVo