Islands: Soundscape Compositions, and: Twin Souls: Text-Based Electroacoustic Music (review)

Islands

Islands is a 2001 collection of sound-scape compositions by Barry Truax. Pacific Fanfare (1996) is a sonic overture and a catchy sampler of sounds to come—brief, vivid, and evocative, with chordal sound-blasts from foghorns. Many of the sounds come from the rich catalog of the World Soundscape Project, the celebrated sonic research project done at Simon Fraser University in the early 1970s.

Pendlerdrom (1997), a "commuter dream around Copenhagen," includes announcers and people's voices freely mixed with fragments of conversation and train station noises. This environmental documentary has an international flavor (or perhaps aural memories of a traveler . . . ).

La Sera di Benevento (1999), "the afternoon at Benevento," brings city noises into a latinized and musically coherent format. This is helped by the upper pedal "whistle," which adds consistency to the musical phrase before dissolving into hissing steam. Granular synthesis was applied to the realization of audio stratas—low pedal points and quasi-grumbling noises well juxtaposed to the high grinding sounds. Occasional children's or women's voices give a touch of humanity to the otherwise noise-filled soundscape. La Sera di Benevento is my favorite on this album.

Dominion (1991) is quite different from the other pieces as it was written for chamber ensemble and tape. Again, foghorns and bells are among the opening sounds. This looped, gentle continuum swells up and down. Taped and instrumental sounds are all blended together quite well into a unified sound field.

Island (2000) uses octophonic watery sounds. One wonders how much of the octophony effect we are bound to lose when hearing this stereo version. A drone quality is prevalent, with repetitive sounds of metallic quality—quite percussive at certain times, and an intriguing contrast to the beautiful liquid sonorities of other patterns. Occasionally we can even imagine seagulls crying and frogs croaking, excited by the onset of a storm. Island creates a tranquil atmosphere, ideal for easy listening.

This compact disc is representative of the various compositional styles of Mr. Truax. The solo tape pieces are superior to those which include instruments. In all these works, the composer shows his mastery of studio techniques, as well as his inventive use of his specialized research on granular synthesis. A highly recommended CD as an introduction to the art of Barry Truax.

Twin Souls

There is a compelling logic in the choices of Mr. Truax's music offered in Twin Souls, also from 2001. The unifying factor is best illustrated by two things: texts that deal with different approaches to personal relationships, and the writing for soloists accompanied by tape.

Wings of Fire (1996) is performed with dexterity and imagination by renowned cellist Frances Marie Uitti, for whom the piece was written. The performance is warm and sensitive, a perfect match for the subtle, varied spoken texts, delivered by Ellie Epp and written by British Columbia poet Joy Kristin. We are told the "lover" is the cello, in a dialogue with its idealized electronic partner—very insinuating and a pleasure to listen to.

Androgyne, mon Amour (1997) uses a similar approach (a double bass interacts with the voice and electronics), but it results in a very different musical composition. The piece is clearly shaped by seven poems of Tennessee Williams and incorporates an elaborate and highly technical part for double bass. Robert Black, an American virtuoso of the contrabass, is the featured soloist. He delivers his part with conviction, presenting well defined rhythms and colorful shaping of textures, harmonics, and double stops. The poems are read by Douglas Huffman in a straightforward manner. The implicit eroticism bounces back and forth between the two partners. While the instrumental interludes bring the piece forward as a performance work, the "theatrical" aspects of the...