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The recorder virtuoso Genevieve Lacey has compiled a beguiling programme of solo music to titillate the ear and sharpen the minds of auditors in her latest disc for ABC. Many were written specifically for her and to all of them she brings her accustomed hypnotic tonal allure and amazing technical equipment. She’s called upon to act the multi-instrumentalist as a look at the particular instruments will show and there are instances where samplers, multi-tracking and computers are employed.
 
Steve “Stelios” Adam has written et døgn a rich seven minute tapestry of bird and other calls for sopranino, Ganassi in C, treble and tenor recorders and computer. The density of the avian tropicality induces sweat droplets to form. The album title track was written by Liza Lim in 2007. It was originally written as a solo for Lacey but later incorporated into Lim’s opera The Navigator. There’s a copy of an email from Lim to Lacey about this recording which says; “This particular interpretation is quite free but I like the expressivity of it so let’s not change anything…” It’s quite an intense piece with arduous and technically demanding arabesques to surmount. Brett Dean and Bob Scott have composed an enjoyable tribute to Lacey that moves from languorous near impressionism to fluttering flurry strong on “bass guitar” or gong-like percussive emphases.
 
These few examples should indicate the breadth of the music on offer. There are others. Arvo Pärt’s  Pari intervallo was written between 1976 and 1980 and evokes a kind of Tarkovskian tintinnabulation in its two minute duration. Meanwhile the two recorder-and-tape Confessions of Damian Barbeler are reflective studies. In No.2 the recorder circles over scuzzy tape beneath and in No.3 there’s ruminative, rumbling tape noise before the loquacious recorder appears. John Rodgers contributes some brief enticing bird studies – deft, insistent, full of whimsical song. Birdcall also permeates Jason Yarde’s A Midnight Dream of Summer with its electronic drones adding strongly to its evocative drama. Max de Wardener didn’t write Minutia for Lacey but it fits her perfectly; he hopes that this unadorned version will have something of the effect of a “lost field recording.” I agree – it’s got that old fashioned, front of the porch vibe, which makes it one of my favourite pieces here.
 
But there are good things everywhere we turn – the long cool lines of the virtuoso John Surman’s In the Distance – based on one of his own improvisations - and the colourful lyricism of Sculthorpe’s Maranoa Lullaby. To end we have the bizarre charms of Moritz Eggert’s Alien, an imagined meeting between an alien and a human. This one is full of funky sampled vocals, beat box insinuations, and rapid switching between instruments. Good fun.
 
The sound quality throughout is superb and I mustn’t neglect to praise the book-style CD and images by Nicola Cerini.
 
Jonathan Woolf

Details of instruments played
et døgn: sopranino, Ganassi in C, treble and tenor recorders and computer
weaver-of-fictions, In the Distance, The Butcher Bird: Ganassi in G
Miss Genevieve's Nocturne: tenor and bass recorders and electronics
Pari intervallo: descant, treble, tenor and bass recorders
Confession 2: descant recorder and tape
Confession 3: treble recorder and tape
Jackie Winter and Friends, The Grey Thrush, Little Brown Honeyeater: sopranino recorder
The Magpie: descant recorder
Minutia: sopranino, descant, treble, tenor, bass and contrabass recorders
A Midnight Dream of Summer: sopranino, descant, treble, tenor and bass recorders, effects and tape
Maranoa Lullaby: descant, treble, tenor, bass and contrabass recorders
alien:garklein, sopranino, descant, renaissance-alto recorders (1 player),effects (harmoniser, chorus, octaver), sampler, three microphones

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