8-Track

Album review

Cellist Ashley Bathgate steps into two major contemporary traditions here. Her program concludes with Steve Reich's Cello Counterpoint, an immensely influential work for one cello played live and recorded seven more times. (Hence the album's 8-Track title, which has nothing to do with the old car stereo tape format but will bring a smile for listeners of a certain age.) That work spawned a variety of works for solo instrument and tape, but Bathgate's selections are fresh and invigorating. She is also part of a performance tradition; she is the successor in the Bang on a Can All-Stars to Maya Beiser, for whom Cello Counterpoint is written. Composer Fjola Evans deploys the cello-tape combination to provide a drone-plus-Icelandic folk melody combination, while Emily Cooley's Assemble moves Reich's ideas in a Romantic direction. Alex Weiser's Shimmer is aptly titled, with melodic motifs coalescing slowly out of an indistinct background. All of the music is precisely played, with a lyrical layer, and those interested in the postminimalist tradition may well find it an essential release.
© James Manheim /TiVo