Imagine that you've got a cleaning rag in hand and you're dusting off the
keys of a piano, pressing them down as you wipe, starting at the bass range
and moving on up to the treble. Suddenly, from the random smudges of notes,
bits of Stravinsky and jazz leap out at you.
That's what it felt like listening to the beginning of "Digits," a new
piece by Neil Rolnick. It's the opening cut on his new CD, also titled
"Digits" (Innova), that contains four major works all written during the past
few years. A longtime professor of music in the arts department and iEAR
Studios at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Rolnick is prolific with CD
releases - this is his eighth solo disc. While his "Shadow Quartet' recording
of last year assembled a collection of pieces that felt light and too
obviously clever, the works on "Digits" are more substantial and worthy of
repeated listening.
Some of the blur of trills and tone clusters in "Digits" come from the
famous athleticism of pianist Kathleen Supove, but there's also a computer at
work. That's typical of Rolnick, and all the pieces here blend electronic and
acoustic forces.
The contrast between human-made and computer-made sounds is especially
stark in the song cycle "Making Light of It." The vocalist is Peter Eldrige,
who's voice is modest, highly personal and a bit depressive. The
self-reflective poetry by Philip Levine adds to the slow moody folksiness of
the vocal line. In contrast to all this is Rolnick's whirling, buzzing and
glowing electronic accompaniment, which seems as if it were beamed down from a
spaceship.
In "A Robert Johnson Sampler," Rolnick takes computer samples of the early
blues master and stretches them out like taffy. It gets rather ghostly, as if
Johnson is playing for us again through a dark veil.
Best of all is the lively "Plays Well With Others," performed by the Paul
Dresher Ensemble with electronics. The title refers to the ideas of
collaboration and improvisation, which are inherent in the impish and
wide-ranging music. But it also speaks to the selfishness and tantrums of
"Georgie" and "Dickie," two little kids in the spoken text, a political screed
by Rolnick.
"Digits" is produced by Innova Recordings, the label of the American
Composers Forum, located in Minneapolis. For more information visit
http://www.innovarecordings.com or http://www.neilrolnick.com.
Joseph Dalton is a local freelance writer who contributes regularly to the
Times Union.
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