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(Major Music Guide)

Review of Shadow Quartet (Innova 631) by Blair Sanderson

Because his music shows of minimalism, electronic music, alternative pop, fusion jazz, and avant-garde performance art, the versatile composer Neil Rolnick can't be squeezed into easy categories. However, one can't help noting the punchy, punctuated rhythmic style that runs through almost all of his works on this 2005 Innova release; this mannered pointillism will either annoy one to distraction or have a nearly hypnotic effect. Rolnick's fondness for open textures, short melodic fragments, and staccato attacks may be linked to his work in computer technology — the similarity of his acoustic effects to electronically produced sounds is more than coincidental. But there is more to Rolnick's work than just manipulations of sounds. Shadow Quartet, crisply played by the New York-based string quartet Ethel, is the most personal statement of the album, written in memory of the composer's father and celebrating his love of Texas swing. Also worthy of mention are The Real Thief of Baghdad, humorously declaimed by Tyrone Henderson, and Body Work, dryly recited by Joan la Barbara; both pieces make their witty points through clever arrangements of spoken words over Rolnick's free-form accompaniments. The sound quality is exceptional, though on the loud side.