MATA Festival Program 2, Passport to
Brooklyn:
, Brooklyn Lyceum New York City
21.03. 2007
(BH)
Kalna Katsoum:
Hydro-World (2003-2007)
Hideki Kozakura:
Shoraj (2004)
Chris McIntyre:
stuplimity no. 3
(2007)
Ned McGowan:
Tools (2003)
Fredrik Thordendal:
Soul Burn (1995)
Ned
McGowan:
Second City
(2007, world premiere)
K-Kalna, Voice and Electronics
Shige Moriya, Video Artist
Ned McGowan, Flute
Chris McIntyre, Trombone
Hexnut:
Susanna Borsch, Recorders
Stephnie Büttrich, Voice
Gijs Levelt, Trumpet, Voice
Ere Lievonen, Piano and
prepared piano
Ned McGowan, Flute and
Contrabass Flute
Imagine sitting in a chilly,
high-ceilinged space with the tiled
remnants of a former bathhouse all
around you, with a two-story tall
video screen in front – the perfect
setting for idiosyncratic artists such
as Kalna Katsoum (a.k.a., K-Kalna).
As the room darkened, trancelike
electronic loops erupted from her
laptop computer, combined with her
breathy
Björk-like
vocals. Later a version of
“Somewhere” from
West Side Story
appeared. Images by Shige Moriya
filled the huge screen: abstract
patterns mixed with flocks of birds.
Near the end, Katsoum reached down
into a box and grabbed some small
objects that she began tossing out
into the audience. They turned out to
be dozens of small plastic balls,
crystal-clear, with facets that made
them bounce in odd directions all over
the floor.
Next was Hideki Kozakura’s Shoraj,
an eclectic display of extended
techniques for flute, played with
force by Ned McGowan. The title
refers to the rustling of the wind
passing through pine trees, although
Kozakura’s timbres are more varied
(and perhaps more lively) than that
description might imply. Whether
singing, humming, sputtering or
tapping, McGowan was a veritable
master class in contemporary flute
tone production, including passages
using the faint clicking, percussive
effect of the keys. And he got extra
points for showing no signs of
irritation when faced with slight
sounds bleeding through the back of
the stage from the space next door.
Chris McIntyre, a young composer and
trombonist who is also the festival’s
curator, offered stuplimity no. 3
for trombone and interactive
electronics. Coined by Sianne Ngai, a
literary theorist, the title is a mix
of “stupefy” and “sublime,” and refers
to “the machine or system, the
taxonomy or vast combinatory, of which
one is a part.” After what sounded
almost like a chorale – an electronic
roar at the opening -- McIntyre’s
trombone tones swirled around in the
space, the sound doubling back on
itself, creating echoes and gentle
tides, all helped by the slightly live
walls. And further kudos to McIntyre,
to whom we owe thanks for the
festival’s range, along with festival
directors Lisa Bielawa and James
Matheson.
After intermission came Hexnut, a
brash and talented young quintet from
Amsterdam, with influences sprouting
from Andriessen, Cage, and pop sources
(e.g., metal), and these were only the
ones I could immediately place.
Headed Mr. McGowan, they began with
his Tools (from 2003), that
combines alarmingly seductive noise
with Webern-like succinctness: two
adjacent parts titled “Pneumatic
Screed Extension Handle” and
“Pneumatic Screed Extension Handle
Cover” are approximately 3.5 seconds
long, each. (And no vocals, aside from
a scream at the end of “Dual Track
Grinder.”)
Gijs Levelt is exuberant as the
ensemble’s trumpet voice, and Ere
Lievonen is their brave pianist,
forging a new sound from disparate
components.
The group followed this with an
arrangement of Soul Burn by
Fredrik Thordendal of Meshugga, which
combines thumping chords, slightly
silvery from a prepared piano, and the
hypnotic vocals of
Stephnie Büttrich, gazing wild-eyed at
the audience and eerily spitting out
the lyrics by Tomas Haake. Often I
was torn between watching her and
Susanna Borsch, whose arsenal included
a contrabass recorder, perched next to
her music stand like a very large
grasshopper. The group’s raucous
conclusion came with the world
premiere of McGowan’s
Second City,
with texts from the Bible (Ecclesiastes)
and Robert Glick. Ricocheting tempi
combined with sometimes acrid,
piercing sonorities to conclude some
of the most satisfying music of the
night.
Hexnut’s excellent players come from a
new generation of contemporary music
performers: they bill themselves as a
mix of “classical, jazz, improv and
metal,” and as odd as it sounds it
works surprisingly well. I would bet
that many of the participants in this
program (and the entire festival)
might be found practicing Boulez by
day but can easily be found in a rock
club by night, either as listeners or
onstage. For
years the MATA Festival has encouraged
these types of iconoclastic young
composers at the beginning of their
careers, and this year’s line-up (plus
the atmospheric venue) reminded me of
the early days of Bang on a
Can. I was only able to attend one of
the four intriguing evenings, but MATA
offers the excitement of the
unpredictable: a star-in-the-making
one minute, followed by someone who
could use more tinkering. But that is
the exhilarating, ultimately
gratifying risk.
Bruce Hodges
