Hennies, Nick

Psalms

Label: Roeba Country: USA

"Psalms" is a group of five pieces for single percussion instruments, the first three of which ("Psalm 1-3" for vibraphone, snare drum, and woodblock) were inspired by the latter two: "untitled (1918-2000)" for vibraphone (2001) and Alvin Lucier's "Silver Streetcar for the Orchestra" for triangle (1988). "untitled (1918-2000)" was composed in 2001 when Hennies was an undergraduate at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign after the death of Herbert Brun; the piece demonstrates how performer consistency results in randomly occurring changes in overtones, resonance, and sustain. Lucier's piece, on the other hand, demonstrates the way an instrument's resonance and overtones can change drastically simply by varying the parameters of dampening, striking position, and tempo.

"Psalms" was conceived with these two methods of performance in mind, coaxing strange, new echoes, resonances, and timbres out of the four instruments using only traditional playing techniques. The result is a relentless 40-minute tour de force of percussion music that is both innovative and deeply hypnotic, meditative yet endlessly stimulating. "Psalms" completely reinvents the roles of four traditional percussion instruments, creating a kind of musical jamais vu where familiarity is ever-present but through a heightened awareness of their natural traits, the instruments become something strange and new.

While the music of "Psalms" is meant to be experienced live and cannot be fully captured on recording, an attempt was made to record both the sounds of instruments as well as their resulting echoes and reflections that swirl and jump around the room. Working closely with engineer James Talambas over a six month period, great care was taken to find the right space and mic placement to capture the music as fully and realistically as possible. For best results in playback do not listen on headphones and set the volume of your stereo so that the sound is comparable to hearing the instruments live."-Roeba

Read more about this item

At The Squid's Ear!