Search - Roger Reynolds, Mark Menzies, Hugh Livingston :: Process and Passion

Roger Reynolds, Mark Menzies, Hugh Livingston
Process and Passion
Genres: Dance & Electronic, Jazz, New Age, Classical

Track Listings (23) - Disc #1
1. [Part 1] [Stereophonic Presentation]
2. [Part 2] [Stereophonic Presentation]
3. [Part 3] [Stereophonic Presentation]
4. [Part 4] [Stereophonic Presentation]
5. a tenuous trembling [Stereophonic Presentation]
6. [Part 6] [Stereophonic Presentation]
7. a traversal of sighs [Stereophonic Presentation]
8. ghostly, evanescent, elastic [Stereophonic Presentation]
9. luminous mumurs [Stereophonic Presentation]
10. [Part 10] [Stereophonic Presentation]
11. [Part 11] [Stereophonic Presentation]
12. [Part 12] [Stereophonic Presentation]
13. Focus a beam, emptied of thinking, outward ..., for cello [Stereophonic
14. [Part 1] [Stereophonic Presentation]
15. [Part 2] [Stereophonic Presentation]
16. [Part 3] [Stereophonic Presentation]
17. [Part 4] [Stereophonic Presentation]
18. [Part 5] [Stereophonic Presentation]
19. [Part 6] [Stereophonic Presentation]
20. [Part 7] [Stereophonic Presentation]
21. [Part 8] [Stereophonic Presentation]
22. [Part 9] [Stereophonic Presentation]
23. [Part 10] [Stereophonic Presentation]
Track Listings (23) - Disc #2
1. [Part 1] [Binaural Presentation]
2. [Part 2] [Binaural Presentation]
3. [Part 3] [Binaural Presentation]
4. [Part 4] [Binaural Presentation]
5. a tenuous trembling [Binaural Presentation]
6. [Part 6] [Binaural Presentation]
7. a traversal of sighs [Binaural Presentation]
8. ghostly, evanescent, elastic [Binaural Presentation]
9. luminous mumurs [Binaural Presentation]
10. [Part 10] [Binaural Presentation]
11. [Part 11] [Binaural Presentation]
12. [Part 12] [Binaural Presentation]
13. Focus a beam, emptied of thinking, outward ..., for cello [Binaural Pre
14. [Part 1] [Binaural Presentation]
15. [Part 2] [Binaural Presentation]
16. [Part 3] [Binaural Presentation]
17. [Part 4] [Binaural Presentation]
18. [Part 5] [Binaural Presentation]
19. [Part 6] [Binaural Presentation]
20. [Part 7] [Binaural Presentation]
21. [Part 8] [Binaural Presentation]
22. [Part 9] [Binaural Presentation]
23. [Part 10] [Binaural Presentation]

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CD Details

All Artists: Roger Reynolds, Mark Menzies, Hugh Livingston
Title: Process and Passion
Members Wishing: 0
Total Copies: 0
Label: Pogus
Original Release Date: 4/27/2004
Release Date: 4/27/2004
Genres: Dance & Electronic, Jazz, New Age, Classical
Styles: Electronica, Chamber Music
Number of Discs: 2
SwapaCD Credits: 2
UPCs: 760342103226, 803680587003

Synopsis

Album Description

A special 2 CDs for the price of 1 deal ? with CD 1 (stereo) music encoded for CD 2 (binaural ? headphone only listening), the listener gets their own personal surround sound-for-the-head version ? the same music ? but different!!! This is a recording that explores the "extra"-ordinary potential of the CD not only as a carrier of traditionally recorded instrumental sound (CD 1), but also offering a different view through binaural encoding of the same materials spatialized (CD 2). First you are presented with two solo compositions?Kokoro and Focus a beam, emptied of thinking, outward??and the duo Process and Passion, in an acoustic recording, albeit with each instrument deliberately confined to one side of the stereo field. Then all three pieces are presented with extravagant sound processing, using spatialization concepts and binaural encoding, revealing unsuspected depths and energies within the sound of each of the pieces' ideas and unfolding. "Architectures of sound"?meaning how things sound?form the shape of the compositions' emotional traversal. For the two solo pieces, this is a relatively simple idea: Kokoro (the violin solo) has twelve sections that are in every way timbrally/sonically/articulatively unique from one another. Focus a beam, emptied of thinking, outward? (the cello solo) provides an organic unfolding, nevertheless revealing the dynamic potential of its basic material development?contrast grows out of the unfolding. But the duo Process and Passion draws further complexity to this world, partly by being a stated collage of the two solo pieces' worlds, but also by having an outside, visceral?even scary?narrative gravitational pull. Poetic text excerpts are drawn from Reynolds? explorations of the Oresteia, but they are left out of the final score. It is hoped that the binaurally encoded disc included in this set will suggest to the solitary listener, in the comforts of his or her own headphones, how powerfully a choreographing of musical lines and gestures can dimensionalize musical experience. This realm and its satisfactions are only now coming into reach.

CD Reviews

Virtuoso strings and cutting edge electronics

R. Hutchinson | a world ruled by fossil fuels and fossil minds | 06/13/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"PROCESS AND PASSION is a unique presentation of the music of Roger Reynolds, using binaural encoding, which produces the spatialization of sound. There are two discs, the first in conventional stereo, and the second containing the same three works, but binaurally encoded, which requires headphones. The conventional version would be great, but the enhancement makes it that much better!

The core works are two solo pieces, originally written for Irvine Arditti (violin) and Rohan de Saram (cello) of the Arditti Quartet. "Kokoro" for violin and "Focus a beam, emptied of thinking, outward..." for cello were originally recorded on the COCONINO disc by the quartet (see my review). PROCESS AND PASSION includes reworked versions of the solo pieces, and a third composition, "Process and Passion," which is a duet for violin and cello, which takes material from the solo pieces and pits them against one another along with a third electronic voice. There is an explicit symbolic content to the work, based on Greek tragedy, taken from Reynolds's RED ACT PROJECT, an operatic work that addresses violence, retribution and justice.

The virtuoso performers are Mark Menzies on violin and Hugh Livingston on cello, both of whom studied with Reynolds at UC-San Diego. They worked extensively with Reynolds's complex scores, and with his permission, collaborated with him in reworking them to make them more effective based on their knowledge of the instruments and his structural aims, so Menzies and Livingston are now co-authors of the works in their new versions.

This is another fine recording of the music of Roger Reynolds. When will THE RED ACT PROJECT be recorded? When will Mode release the promised set of orchestral works? The Reynolds Deficit must be addressed!"