Jessica Pavone
Lull
When giving Lull a deep listen, the ears became very attuned to fine details in the performance. The wood of the string instruments, resonating deeply. How loud upright basses can be when two are bowing together. The way all eight players create a flowing sound even if they're each playing one single note. The way Brian Chase's amplified cymbal goes in and out of phase as it moves after he strikes it. Finally, there are several moments when each string player's part can be heard distinctively among all the others, even as they blend together to create a bigger sound.
Jessica Pavone - who composed the four-section piece and plays viola on it - wanted to explore the way sounds affect emotions, and drew on the work of sound healers to figure out how certain combinations can work together. The music can be jarring when certain combinations of notes are repeated over and over by the two violins, for instance. But the repetition never lasts too long before another instrument is added or the overall shape of the sound changes. "Indolent" begins that way, with the upper strings playing two clashing notes back and forth for 90 seconds. At that point, other strings join them, almost overpowering the initial clashing sounds and creating faster movement in the lower register. At one point, the strings stop sounding like string instruments and more like a droning organ, if only for a moment.
Along with the string octet (violinists Aimée Newman and Charlotte Munn-Wood, violists Pavone and Abby Swidler, cellists Christopher Hoffman and Meaghan Burke, basissts Shayna Dulberger and Nicholas Jozwiak), two additional players pop up in surprising places. Brian Chase (of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs) opens "Holt" with a series of random whacks on a closely miked snare drum, which, like his later cymbal work, allows for close scrutiny of the resonance that occurs when hitting the skin on the outer edges of the head.
Trumpeter Nate Wooley adds some splatter to the final minute of "Holt" together with Chase. He stays for "Ingot," adding sustained tones that create some lush overtones with the strings. The performance feels in some ways like a continuation of Wooley's Seven Storey Mountain VI from last year, albeit with a little less storm. This piece eventually morphs into some scrapes and steady bowing before stopping with little fanfare. "Midmost" alternates between unsettling bits where everyone bows together - either in quick pitches or longer crescendos - and long beautiful drones, before the whole thing comes full circle, with the violins wrapping things up.
Lull is not an easy listen but part of the allure lies in figuring out where the music is going. The clashes of pitches and rigid delivery feels abrasive at first blush but this music should be given time, largely due to the fact that nothing else sounds like it. There are moments that might recall the tranquility of post-rock or the repetition of a composer like Morton Feldman but rarely do both of those elements come together in one work, if at all.
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