GLASS FARM ENSEMBLE - IN FOUR CD

SKU/Barcode: 726708670023

The Glass Farm Ensemble is based in Manhattan and led by pianist Yvonne Troxler, who teaches at the Bloomingdale School of Music in New York in addition to composing. The Glass Farm takes its basic instrumentation from the chamber piece Hout of Louis Andriessen, which is scored for the unusual combination of saxophone, electric guitar, piano, and percussion. In Glass Farm, Tamur Sullivan holds down the reeds' chair, Oren Fader serves as electric guitarist, and Matthew Gold pitches in the percussion. While the group has been active on the New York scene since 2000, Innova's In Four appears to be its first outing on disc; it does provide some insight into the artistry of this interesting group and the repertoire they have developed through commissions. The disc begins with a rendering of the Andriessen work; it is nicely tempered in terms of tempi. While it is sprightly and energetic, Glass Farm Ensemble's Hout never races and flows very naturally. This might be because the musicians are playing from memory and do not suffer from the awkwardness that can result in playing such subtly modulating, pseudo-minimalistic music from a score. The balance of the disc is made up with post-2000 works -- Andriessen's Hout dates from 1991 -- written for Glass Farm Ensemble by emerging composers. Peter Herbert is an Austrian-born bassist and composer who divides his time equally between jazz groups, improvisation, and classical composition. His Deafening Silence (2005) is certainly jazzy, but a little predictable, sort of what Oregon might sound like if Ralph Towner picked up an electric and the band moved to Brooklyn. Nevertheless, this is certainly not a bad sound and those with an interest in progressive might find this additionally engaging. Elizabeth Hoffman is director of the Washington Square Computer Music Studio at New York University. Hoffman works closely with Glass Farm Ensemble and, on his own, Sullivan has recorded her Three Short Stories (2002). Hoffman's Holonyms (2005) demonstrates a curiosity in placing sounds in an environment that is structured along lines analogous to the development of linguistics. While it is interesting, eventually Holonyms wears out its welcome; it does not have the same sense of inexorability that might typify, say, a similar piece by Elliott Carter, but it is still a little too formal to break free of its moorings. German composer and percussionist Wolfgang Heiniger's In Four is definitely the most rock-inspired music in this set, although it has a halting, stop-and-start quality that deprives it of a coherent groove. Nevertheless, Fader gets into some wicked jams on the piece, and that makes it a highlight, along with Troxler's own Kaleidoskops of little, short fragmentary pieces that are built out of her understanding of the capabilities of her group; these short pieces are charming. While Innova's In Four is a little less than a perfect debut, one has to start somewhere, and this serves quite well as introduction to Glass Farm Ensemble, a vital entry in the quest to evolve new forms of chamber music.