Post-Minimalism: Trace Label (2007)

Posted by Williamson in Reviews on 08 22nd, 2007 | one response |

Post-Minimalism: Trace Label (2007)Music is happening all around us. In the kitchen, the living room—even in the garage and outside. I often notice the way my hanging banjo resonates, with laughter or private singing. And when there is one voice, there are other voices that start to join in. This is basically what is happening in Producer Hervé Zénouda’s 2-disk, multifaceted instrumental anthology which unites the work of 19 composers from 4 countries.

“In the beginning of the 1960’s, minimalism’s focus on the elementary units of musical language brought once again to the forefront such elements as the beat, tonal attraction, and the perception of (and communication with) the listener.

Despite some neo-classical drifts, minimalism was a progressive movement that brought to light several important issues for contemporary musicians: the relationship between academic and popular music, between occidental and world music, and between technological and instrumental music. Minimalism also pointed to a new relationship with time.

What is the picture today, forty years later?

We asked several musicians from different countries (we contacted them through their respective « myspace.com » websites), to compose a work showing the legacy.

Here they are.” – Trace Label

Perhaps it is the effect of just having read Joan Didion’s The Year of Magical Thinking, but the song-cycle makes me feel as if I were on the most personal journey of life and death in an operating room. I hear scalpels, stainless steel sinks, ghosts, painkillers, trance-inspiring pulses that take me to an earlier world, and unexpected shocks that bring me back.

This intimately epic music, which evokes drones of Brian Eno and the musical dissonance of Maurice Ravel—among others, is generally high-impact, employing everything from electric guitars and kitchen utensils to strings, horns and timpani. This is vivid, soul-searching and probing music that takes the listener where most listeners have never been.

I am particularly drawn to the orchestral tension of the pieces by Belinda Reynolds and Dan Becker, as well as the divining melodies found in the pieces by Alphonse Izzo, Istvan Peter B’Racz and Hervé Zénouda.

Zénouda, who is a staggeringly-talented composer, arranger and recording artist, became acquainted with many of the musicians on this disc through Myspace Music. In assembling this album, he made a testament to the power of listening.

CD 1
1 – Eric Schwartz – Thunk… A ghost story – 8:43 – USA
2 – Steve Peters – Ancestral Memory – 8:14 – USA
3 – Nick Didkovsky/Kevin Gallagher (arr.) – I kick my hand – 2:59 – USA
4 – Belinda Reynolds – Over and Out – 5:05 – USA
5 – Yan Jun – kitchen performance 2 – 3:52 – China
6 – Ryan Brown – Banksy – 8:32 – USA
7 – Pierre Yves Macé – Trio – 4:33 – France
8 – Alphonse Izzo – Shibuya crossing – USA
CD 2
1 – Marco Oppedisano – Steel Sky – 6:18 – USA
2 – Dan Becker – Gridlock – 6:36 – USA
3 – Istvan Peter B’Racz – Decantur – 4:28 – USA
4 – John King – Rubai.13 (from Book of Rubai’yat) – 3:04 – USA
5 – Fathmount – Rendering Harmonics – 4:46 – China
6 – Olivier Pé et Yannick Frank – Piragua – 5:01 – Belgium
7 – Dean Rosenthal – Underpinnings – 5:55 –– USA
8 – Hervé Zénouda – Mercredi 19 Janvier, 8 h 30 – 3:35 – France
9 – Josh Millrod – Dracula Dreams – 6:12 – USA

Posted by John R. Williamson

(Full disclosure: I stumbled across Izzo and B’racz on myspace and have been in correspondence with each of them. B’racz has recorded piano and keyboard tracks for my upcoming “nimbus” cd.)

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1 Comment »

  1. avatar Dean Rosenthal Says:
    September 3rd, 2007 at 9:48 pm

    Great stuff, John! I think Hervé became acquainted with all of the musicians on this Cd set through MySpace – a real coincidence. All the best – Dean Rosenthal

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