Glaciers in Extinction

Resenha do Álbum

Italian flutist and composer Roberto Fabbriciani's Glaciers in Extinction is in six movements (which are not strongly differentiated from each other in musical character), written for hyperbass flute and tape. Otherwise, the title tells you almost everything you need to know about the piece. Its movements are highly effective as evocations of glacial landscapes. Natural sounds -- the wind, gulls, creaking ice -- are suggested without being literally mimicked. The music serves as a metaphor for glaciers; it's slow moving, spacious, without clearly identifiable symmetry, and with a surface, which, except for minute details, seems unchanging. It's difficult to tell where the hyperbass flute sounds begin and where the tape sounds end. There are occasionally clues -- tapping keys or breathy exhalations -- but generally the flute is seamlessly integrated into the fabric of the sounds of the tape. The CD should be of interest to listeners who enjoy savoring intriguing sonorities subtly shifting at a glacial pace.

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