Search - Alvin Curran, Daan Vandewalle :: Alvin Curran: Inner Cities

Charming, maddening, annoying, gorgeous, funny, thoughtful,

svf | 01/07/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"At first glance, this 4 CD/4.5 hour solo piano marathon might bring to mind other epic keyboard compositions by J.S. Bach, Alkan, Messiaen, Sorabji, La Monte Young, and Frederic Rzewski. Well, maybe in some ways... turns out this is something of an accidental colossus, starting out as a single modest piano piece and over time becoming the massive cycle presented here in its entirety by Belgian pianist Daan Vandewalle, a convincing advocate for Alvin Curran's unique vision. Like the Well-Tempered Clavier, these pieces weren't originally designed to be performed or listened to all at once, or even necessarily in numerical order: it took me four sittings to make my way through the entire set for the first time (if only I were paid to listen to 20th century piano epics...) But however you manage it, this "Long Distance" journey (yes, that's the name of the record label) is one well worth taking...



You begin at a leisurely, amiable pace with a single repeated note accompanied by occasional major triad chords, gradually growing more complex and straying further from "home"... In fact, much of this music glacially moves along one note or chord at a time in a vaguely unresolved (but not agitated) harmonic haze, sort of a Morton Feldman meets Satie's Vexations kind of effect... which can be interesting, but not really that engaging after awhile (which you know if you've tried to listen to a long Feldman piece and/or Vexations)... AND THEN: just as your mind starts to wander, the music will morph, erupt, dissolve, or suddenly shift into something completely different and unexpected... You will be met with torrents of pounding perfect fifths, a loungey fragment of "Body and Soul," manic Tatum-meets-Nancarrow riffs, Liszt-meets-Cecil Taylor improvisations, plaintive chorale-like chord sequences, dissonant mechanical rhythmic jolts, tinkling toy piano melodies, rumbling harmonic clouds from The Well-Tuned Piano drifting by, an awkward yet lovely waltz sequence, starkly abandoned floating jazz harmonies... It's somewhat like walking across a desert: amid the seemingly endless sandy expanse, you may encounter a pristine oasis, a blooming cactus, a stinging scorpion, a tribe of Bedouins, an abandoned blue Chevy...



All of the sections bear dedications to Curran's friends and colleagues (including Steve Lacy, Margaret Leng Tan, Lou Harrison, Trisha Brown, Rzewski, and Vandewalle himself for the nearly hour-long Inner Cities 10), and the overall effect of this work is that of a composer examining his own art... his influences, his process, his piano, the notes and scales themselves, the sound of sound...



Ultimately, then, this is some of the most deeply personal and frankly sentimental (in the best possible way) music I've heard in a long time. It is by turns charming, maddening, annoying, gorgeous, funny, thoughtful, reckless, tedious, dull, stunning -- a fully realized sonic portrait... and a long distance journey you will savor..."