Applebaum, Mark

Sock Monkey

Label: Innova Country: USA

"Dada and Darmstadt are only a few entries apart in the encyclopedia but these opposing art icons-bizarre lunacy and severe complexity-are both equally abundant in Mark Applebaum's world. The pages of dense black dots that typify scores by composers such as Brian Ferneyhough and Elliott Carter are here interspersed with irreverent off-the-wall performer instructions, lending a distance as well as an endearing quality to this post-conceptual music.

Applebaum is the prolific Stanford composer who might show up with his amplified odds-and-ends contraption known as the Mouseketier, or with sheaves of complex musical notation for some of today's most undauntable new-music performers. Often both, in fact."Sock Monkey," his tenth innova release, is every bit as cuddly and mischievous as the title suggests. The title track is an orchestral transcription of his 18-month-old daughter Charlotte running around the house (carrying, of course, the pink sock monkey). "Variations on Variations on a Theme by Mozart" was originally for piano but is played here on a prepared one (with paperclips and bolts stuck in between the strings), overdubbed eighteen times. While the keystrokes may be the same for the player the result is a charmingly distorted view of the past.

The other pieces on the disc are perfectly calculated to hover between the brain's cerebral and humor cortices.The performances from some of the Bay Area's finest, are never less than dazzling; inspiring incredulity and whimsy. From the Paul Dresher Electroacoustic Band, Meridian Arts ensemble and sfSound to the Stanford Symphony Orchestra, there is no stop left un-pulled.If the sock monkey ever grows up to be a composer it will have had a most stimulating musical education."-Innova