DEWAN, B.: Ringing at the Speed of Prayer / Split Staircase / Ages and Ages / HASTINGS, T.: Rock of Ages (Brian Dewan - Thomas Hastings)

Album review

American composer Brian Dewan's thoroughly unconventional album features instruments or objects with bell-like tones, including church bells used for change ringing, alpine bells, and tuned stones. The sonorities of the instruments are one of the main attractions of the CD. The title track, the most substantial work on the album, is a classic incarnation of chance composition. Eight members of the Liverpool Cathedral Bell Ringers were given the instructions to say a prayer, then sound one of the cathedral bells, say another prayer, sound the bell again, and so on, for about 30 minutes. The effect is appropriately random sounding, often sparse, but sometimes surprisingly active, and since recording church bells is an outside event, there is plenty of ambient sound, including airplanes, ambulances, and general urban noises. The bells sound terrific, and for the listener with Cageian sensibilities, the piece should prove intriguing. Split Staircase feature alpine bells, which are gorgeously resonant, but the predictability of much of the piece keeps it from being very engaging. The Musical Stones of Skiddow, tuned pieces of slate, have a wonderful sound that's somewhat like a xylophone, but they are not quite tuned to any discernibly coherent tuning system, so they will either fascinate or annoy, depending on one's appreciation of experimental sounds. Dewan uses the stones to play the most mundane material, the hymn "Rock of Ages," over and over, at decreasing tempos, with enough rhythmic variability to keep the listener from being lulled into any kind of complacency. The album is most likely to appeal to listeners with adventurous ears who are absorbed by eccentric sonorities.
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