Sweet is not an adjective generally associated with percussion recitals, but it's the first descriptor that comes to mind listening to this album and reading its program notes. That's not to say there isn't plenty of vitality and rhythmic energy and virtuosity on display here, but these pieces don't exploit the angst-inducing and nerve-jangling possibilities of which a modern percussion battery is easily capable. Most of the works are solos, but Michael Lipsey is joined in several by other players to create a small ensemble. The album's aesthetic (if not stylistic) spirit is exemplified by Feldman's The King of Denmark, one of two pieces not written specifically for this recording. Using "lots of stuff from all over," Lipsey's realization of the score is especially colorful and extroverted, maybe not quiet enough for a Feldman purist, but effective and engaging nonetheless. Other works are more rhythmically incisive, and the selections include an attractive stylistic range of pieces. Several of the works use electronics, most of them including spoken text. The most impressive of these is Mathew Rosenblum's Words/Echoes, based on a recording of a 1937 BBC interview with Virginia Woolf juxtaposed with a modern reading of a text by Gertrude Stein. Woolf's text and the sound of her voice are engrossing, and while Rosenblum's manipulation of it is so circumspect and his musical additions so wisely reserved that the voice remains fully center stage, the piece is a completely engaging listening experience. In David Rakowski's Mr. Trampoline Man, a talking drum provides the springiness that effectively evokes a trampoline, as well as the ground for a passacaglia against which a tabla line is juxtaposed. His Framer's Intent for solo dumbek exploits the drum's timbral variety and has the sound of a genial, intelligent improvisation. River Guerguerian's 17/8, which opens the album, is especially lovely, with strong melodic as well as rhythmic interest, and it makes terrific use of the long resonance that gongs are capable of producing. Lipsey's performances are technically polished and spirited and have the easy freedom of being played at friend's houses (which most of them indeed were) rather than in the high-stress atmosphere of the recording studio. The sound, though, is consistent and excellent throughout, with great clarity and presence.
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