Anna Clyne - Blue Moth (2012)

Lomljive elegije za 15 živaca spojenih renesansnim koncima.

www.annaclyne.com
soundcloud.com/annaclyne/sets/anna-clyne-blue-moth
www.allmusic.com/album/anna-clyne-blue-moth-mw0002307065

British-born, New York-based Anna Clyne bills herself as a “composer of acoustic and electro-acoustic music,” and collaboration with artists across mediums is her passion. Among those high-profile collaborators and fans are the likes of Björk and Martin Scorsese. For those who are looking to dip their toes into the ocean of new classical and avant-garde music, Clyne’s dramatic and appealing work may well be a good first step. New Yorker critic Alex Ross is a fan, writing that her piece “Within Her Arms” “is a fragile elegy for fifteen strings; intertwining voices of lament bring to mind English Renaissance masterpieces of Thomas Tallis and John Dowland, although the music occasionally breaks down into spells of static grief, with violins issuing broken cries over shuddering double-bass drones.” - flavorwire.com/

Copyright 2012 by Anna Clyne (ASCAP) All Rights Reserved

Now in her early 30s, Anna Clyne was born in London, studied in both Edinburgh and New York, and is currently composer-in-residence with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. The seven pieces on this first disc exclusively devoted to Clyne's music were composed between 2003 and 2011. All involve pre-recorded tape, whether juxtaposed with a solo instrument – cello in Fits + Starts, clarinet in Rapture, baritone sax in Choke – or adding weight to a much richer sound world in the ensemble pieces. It's clear that Clyne is fond of the big, almost apocalyptic effects the electronics allow her music to generate; Rapture builds to a screaming climax, for instance, while Roulette, for string quartet and tape adds neo-romantic gestures and quietly chirruping voices to the mix. But the delicate pizzicato patterns of Fits + Starts, the quiet tickings of the ensemble piece 1987 and the Reich-like tuned percussion riffs and speech samples in Steelworks reveal a more refined sensibility, too; there's something definitely fresh about Clyne's music, a quality that insists you stop and listen. - Andrew Clements

One of two composers-in-residence for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Anna Clyne has been described by no less than Riccardo Muti himself as an artist “who defies categorization and who reaches across all barriers and boundaries.” That description is apparent on her new album, now available on the Tzadik label. Blue Moth is chock full of unorthodox-yet-lush landscapes and sense of musical wordplay.

Nabokovian in nature, the album starts with a hypnotic, haunting, folksy and at times vaguely victorian “Fits + Starts.” The piece hits its steps with primal percussiveness while keeping its heads in an ethereal hurdy-gurdy hurly-burly. Other works live up to their titles with equal aptitude and surprising evocations, such as the following “Rapture,” painting a landscape of desolation angels, broken glass and disjointed static. There’s a sense of irony in such works—Clyne’s “Rapture” doesn’t paint the picture of a heavenly deliverance, rather the apocalyptic aftermath of those left behind.

Similarly, Clyne tackles the seedy underside of the industrial revolution and current economic crisis in a piece like “Steelworks,” which layers interviews with Brooklyn’s Flame Cut Steel employees against steam heat, hammered percussion and gear-turning woodwinds. “If something is working fine and you can keep up with demand, then there’s really no reason for you to change unless the machine breaks down by itself,” one man says at the beginning, leading to a mediation, at times verging on the edge of Baroque, of what it means to not fix something unless it’s damaged.

For no small amount of burlesque in Clyne’s world, however, there’s still some hope. “Beware of beauty,” cautions an otherworldly voice on the synonymous closing track, “Beauty.” At first it seems satirical, cautionary, but then as we’re urged to “look beyond,” flashes of cello, violin and flute come in with winged frenzy, mingling with electronics like moths in a lighting fixture. It’s a brilliant flash that ends at just the right moment, and one that heralds an impressive young talent taking flight - Olivia Giovetti

Videos:

NIGHT FERRY commissioned by Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Visit Clyne’s studio and her process of composition
THE VIOLIN (2009)…sneak preview
WITHIN HER ARMS commissioned by Los Angeles Philharmonic (2008), performed by Metropolis Ensemble
PRIMULA VULGARIS commissioned by Metrolopis Ensemble (2009), performed by Metropolis Ensemble
HYMN TO THE VIRGIN Benjamin Britten arr. Anna Clyne, commissioned by London Sinfonietta (2010)
BLUSH commissioned by Carnegie Hall (2006)
ROULETTE commissioned by Roulette/Jerome Foundation (2007), performed by MIVOS Quartet
STEELWORKS commissioned by TACTUS (2005), performed by students the Mizzou New Music Festival interview and live performance
RAPTURE composed for Eillen Mack, clarinet (2006) with live visuals by Joshue Ott/SuperDraw
FITS + STARTS composed for Benjamin Elton Capps, cello (2003) with live visuals by Joshue Ott/SuperDraw
NEXT.STOP commissioned by Opus21 (2007), recording session with Opus21
ON TRACK commissioned by ASCAP/SEAMUS (2005), performed by Kathleen Supove
WORK IN PROGRESS with Jennifer Koh, violin