A Hard Rain

Album review

The Weather Systems I title of this release by percussionist Steven Schick indicates the beginning of a series of recordings in which Schick will present new interpretations of some of the percussion works with which he has engaged most deeply over the years. It's a promising start, and although Schick is well known to percussionists, there is much here to interest general listeners as well. The works by Cage and Stockhausen, and perhaps Morton Feldman's The King of Denmark, may have been encountered by general attendees of contemporary music concerts, but the rest of the pieces are likely to be new, and they stretch sonic boundaries. Consider the Ursonate, composed between 1922 and 1932 by Kurt Schwitters, which includes a delightful vocal part composed of vaguely Germanic nonsense syllables. This was one of the first modernist solo percussion works, and despite its experimental quality, it was a Sonate, with a traditional four-movement form and recognizable classical sonata forms. Here, the work is adorned with electronics from Shahrokh Yadegari, and Schick's series promises more fundamentally new interpretations of existing works. Even this single volume is that rare example of a specialist release that's intriguing for the general public.
© James Manheim /TiVo