Pasa Tempos
Music by William Basinski, George Frideric Handel, and John Christopher Smith
WILLIAM BASINSKI
The Deluge (2062/Temporary Residence Limited) In the 20-minutelong title track of composer William Basinski’s new recording, a bright, cheery piano riff comes to rest on a solemn note. The sequence repeats, is distorted, and gradually decays, taking the listener into an ever-shifting sonic labyrinth. By electronically manipulating loops of reel-to-reel tape, Basinski layers the piano over itself, creating overlapping tones that sync up for momentary crescendos and then dissolve. After a while, the piano sequence is scarcely recognizable, transformed into a disorienting swirl of drones and reverberations. The composition fades slowly, like an autumn sunset, leaving an impression of lengthening shadows and a melancholy, reflective tone. A similar feeling pervades the pair of shorter pieces that round out this release, with the concluding “Cascade” revisiting the taped piano of the first track. Guided explorations of looped soundscapes are the composer’s specialty; over the past few decades he has assembled an extensive catalog of hypnotic works created with similar techniques. Basinski’s The Disintegration Loops is his signature achievement. The 2002 opus, spread over four discs, documents the decay of analog recordings of his own music. As he digitally archived a batch of old tapes, iron oxide particles detached from the tapes’ plastic backing, leaving silent stretches where there had been sound only moments before. The cumulative effect is like staring at a painting that slowly crumbles away, leaving only specks inside the frame. — Jeff Acker
JULIAN PERKINS
Smith & Handel (Chaconne) Devotees of George Frideric Handel may perk up their ears at the mention of John Christopher Smith — or rather, the John Christopher Smiths. There were two, father and son. The father was Handel’s college friend in Germany, and he followed his famous colleague in emigrating to England. There he served as Handel’s secretary and music assistant, a role he transferred to his son beginning in the 1730s. While working as Handel’s amanuensis, Smith Jr. (1712-1795) was a busy composer in his own right, scoring particular success with his music for The Fairies, a concoction based on A Midsummer Night’s Dream that David Garrick mounted at the Drury Lane theater. His scores sit mostly silent today, but Julian Perkins does honor to his forgotten memory through this recording of young Smith’s Six Suites of Lessons for the Harpsichord, Op. 3, published in London in 1755. Much of the music is in trickle-down Handelian style, though not as compelling as the harpsichord transcription of the overture to Handel’s opera
Riccardo Primo, which opens the recital. But a number of the movements reveal a surprise: Smith was obviously passionate about Domenico Scarlatti. We tend to think of Scarlatti as a stand-alone genius without followers, but time and again Smith’s quirky, virtuosic ideas belie his indebtedness to the Italian master. In those expanses, Smith truly shines. — James M. Keller