So Percussion (Evan Ziporyn - David Lang)

Album review

So Percussion's debut album is an exciting venture, and it promises many good things to come if this dynamic ensemble can achieve the fame of another group on Cantaloupe, Bang on a Can. So Percussion consists of four members -- Adam Sliwinski, Douglas Perkins, Jason Treuting, and Todd Meehan -- and they are augmented on the first track by Robert Esler and David Schotzko. All these musicians display remarkable group cohesion and individual virtuosity, and musicality to spare. Their tight coordination is evident even in the scattered rhythms of Evan Ziporyn's Melody Competition, which seem unsynchronized but are held together through deliberate pacing on a large time scale. Ziporyn's piece is reminiscent of both Javanese and Balinese gamelan music, the former in its gentle cycles in the opening and closing sections, and the latter in its rousing middle portion. David Lang's three-part work, the so-called laws of nature, is a dense network of rhythms colored with wood sonorities in Part I, bell tones and drums in Part II, and soft combinations of metallophones in Part III. Both works are ambitious efforts by composers who display intimate knowledge of percussion techniques. The recording is well-balanced between highs and lows, so there are no sudden jolts to startle the listener.
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