Resonating Universes (review)

Turkish composer Erdem Helvacioglu's Resonating Universes is a sprawling, 60-minute, eight-part electroacoustic work featuring an Ottoman-era harp called the çeng, as well as its Western cousins the concert and electric harps. The harpist performs live, producing a variety of sounds and special effects, which are seamlessly blended into a fascinating piece that achieves much of its intrigue through the use of drones and complex processing techniques. Additionally, the mixture of old sounds and technologies with new ones works well in this piece.

According to the liner notes written by Garret Byrnes, "the work is a lush mosaic of atmospheric sound." The composer first recorded numerous harp samples of single notes, extended techniques, and a plethora of sounds created by using all manner of objects to make sound on the harp. Interestingly, the composer also joined the harpist for various passages, thus creating four-handed harp textures. According to Byrnes, "the composer took part in some of the performance aspects of the work, and the harpist took part in some of the composition; for improvisation is certainly a valuable and justified means of creation." From this statement, and from what I heard, the harpist may have contributed improvised materials that were recorded and subsequently incorporated into the piece. But this seems very different from the harpist actually "taking part in some of the composition."

The variety of sounds and special effects is described by Byrnes in somewhat poetic terms: "in addition to all the standard sounds associated with the harp, there are ticking, tinkling, buzzing and knocking sounds; rattling, chiming, scraping and crashing sounds; warm pedal tones, violent eruptions and everything in between." He goes on to point out that "these intriguing sounds are heard in every part of the composition, and since all source material for the recorded electronic accompaniment, as well as the live electronic components, comes from the harps themselves, a unique and impressive homogeneity runs through the piece." This is certainly true, but it is a double-edged sword, as I will discuss shortly. Byrnes goes so far as to claim that "Resonating Universes really creates a new medium, a new sound-space, in which the harp can exist. It is no longer an instrument to simply play music—it is now a complete universe of sound itself." This organic way of composing is, of course, not new, but the extent to which the composer goes to craft his homogeneity is unusual.

Resonating Universes is ably recorded and mastered by Pieter Snapper, in a way as to emphasize soft, or small, sounds, like putting them under the sonic equivalent of a microscope. The effect, more jackhammer than calligraphy pen, sounds consistently "large" or "close-up," at times harsh, and contributes much to the sense of homogeneity mentioned by Byrnes.

Part I features closely recorded harp sounds against a reverberant backdrop. The plethora of sounds and techniques sets the tone for the remaining seven parts. The pure sound of the harp is layered with prerecorded samples and live electronics, creating what the composer tellingly calls "a brazen audio experience." There are occasional moments of stillness, or relatively sparse textures, but for the most part the composer has mapped his sounds onto a uniformly dense canvas. This is not to say that you won't hear passages that build or dissipate (mostly found at the beginnings and endings of each part), but the degree of difference is all too often rather nominal.

Part II combines clean, amplified (it sounds very close) çeng sounds with various layers including very loud percussive sounds and trails of pre-recorded resonance. At times the piece becomes almost painfully loud, especially in the medium-high- to high-frequency areas of the harp. This harsh, brittle equalization is at odds with the mournful sounds and largely drone-like materials that impart an overall sense of melancholy.

Part III opens with deeply resonant low harp strings, sounding as if they are loosely vibrating, against a low B-flat drone that is present...