Nathan Bogert, Michael Shults, Nick Zoulek and Drew Whiting are the four members of Coalescent Quartet, a saxophone quartet based in Wisconsin.
The Wall Between Us offers us the chance to explore five post-minimalist musical universes constructed by as many of today’s composers. Zack Browning’s “Unrelenting Universe” lives up to its title, bubbling with pulsating energy. That said, Browning incorporates many extra-musical influences, such as feng shui and astrology, as well as musical nods to various significant elements associated with ‘Johns’: plainchant with the religious character of St John, folk with the traditional song “John Henry,” and jazz with references to John Coltrane. All this is skilfully interwoven, resulting in a rather short but exciting sonic adventure lasting less than six minutes. We like it a lot.
This is followed by a bona fide “Quartet for saxophones” in seven movements by Evan Williams. Here again, post-modern eclecticism describes the essence of the language and tools used by the composer to construct his edifice. From Ligetian sonic extravaganzas to minimalist groove and neo-Romanticism, Williams uses a wide range of effects and architectural and expressive ways to offer an attractive, stimulating and often propulsive polytheistic work.
Distance Can’t Keep Us Two Apart by Chen Yi is based on a poem from the Tang dynasty (7th to 10th centuries) and was originally written for choir. It is presented here in an arrangement for saxophone quartet by the composer herself. The lilting nature of the music is conveyed in the arrangement, taking advantage of the lyrical and undulating capabilities of the saxophones. A very pretty piece, calm and introspective.
Martin Bresnick’s “Mending Time” refers to Robert Frost’s poem Mending Wall. In this poem, Frost evokes the role of walls as a means of separation and protection, but also as a meeting place between two worlds, when gaps in the wall allow people to pass through. A place where, ironically, we can speak to each other. Allegorically, “Mending Time” is a temporal meeting place. The music oscillates between pulsating beats and sardonic atmospheres, between convincing affirmation and restraint tinged with mystery. Four movements, four disparate characters, like so many othernesses that are bound to intersect.
Ireland’s Emma O’Halloran rounds off the programme with “Night Music,” a piece the composer says evokes the beaches of Miami and the Cuban pop music heard there, a place she knew for a time. As Miami nights are not those of a quiet village on the edge of a forest, the music is agitated by rhythmic repetitions that will remind imaginative minds of some performance from the great era of Miami Sound Machine, a post-minimalist version. A fine sample of contemporary post-minimalist saxophone music.
