Fields

Approfondimenti

Bryce Dessner, Paul McCartney, and others have expanded rock styles into classical realms, but the synthesizer forms of pop are rarer in this regard, even though there are intersections between the sound production of pop and classical electronic works. Thus the concert works of Devonté Hynes, known as Dev Hynes in his pop incarnations, have attracted considerable interest. Classical music was actually Hynes' first field, growing up in Britain, and he has stated that Debussy was among his influences. One can hear that in the works on this 2020 release, but the major influence is Philip Glass. This is especially evident in the chains of arpeggiated figures in Perfectly Voiceless, one of two longer works on the album. Most interesting are the 11 short movements of For All Its Fury, each titled with a single-syllable descriptive title like "Coil," "Hush," and "Gather," with "Fields" the last and longest movement. Here, the players of the Third Coast Percussion Ensemble are combined with Hynes' own synthesizer in various ways, more or less evoking the pictorial titles. The piece is a fresh and distinctive take on minimalism, and it is to be hoped that it will attract new listeners from the pop sphere. That may be a factor that attracted Grammy Award nominators who have put the album up for Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance; it was also nominated for Best Engineering, and in the difficult task of recording percussion instruments with clarity, the engineers of Cedille Records did a wonderful job.
© James Manheim /TiVo