Label: Cold Blue

16歳で作曲を開始、1971年にジェームズ・テニーとリチャード・タイテルバウムに師事したロサンゼルスのコンポーザーMichael Byron。デヴィッド・ローゼンブームやフィリップ・コーナーの古い作品にも参加している大ベテランであり、本作はミニマルな作曲に勤しんだ1970年代の楽曲を中心とした音源[Halcyon Days]。Jim O'RourkeやThurston Moore、Fred Frithとの共演で知られる百戦錬磨の米パーカッショニストWilliam Winantと、氏が率いた打楽器集団The William Winant Percussion Groupが演奏を担当、ポリリズムの騒々しい連なりと豊かなハーモニーが最高過ぎる名演となっています。







Michael Byron’s “Halcyon Days” is unique percussion (marimbas, xylophones, vibraphones, glockenspiels, tubular bells, maracas) and keyboard music that’s both wild and pensive, played by an all-star group of new-music performers that includes William Winant, the William Winant Percussion Group (Winant, Tony Gennaro, Michael Jones, and Scott Siler), Lisa Moore, Vicki Ray, and Aron Kallay. Except for the final track (a piano solo written in 2016), these pieces are from a previously under-documented period of Byron’s work—the mid-’70s, when he composed unique and remarkable minimalist-styled music. This album treats us to clangorous clouds of polyrhythms and simple, direct, quiet works, both of which explore rich harmonies and bespeak a sense of transcendent motionlessness.

Byron comments about the album, “Poet Anne Tardos wrote that ‘Time doesn’t pass. We pass.’ Most of the pieces on this CD were composed in the 1970s. It seemed like everything was beginning then. Lifelong friends were made, and improbable ideas were shared; composing neither began nor ended. This CD features virtuoso percussionist, and my oldest friend, Bill Winant. Over the last 50 years he has performed and premiered every percussion piece that I’ve ever composed.”.

Michael Byron’s music tends to be harmonically rich, rhythmically detailed, and virtuosic. It’s often praised for its ability to create dense constructions out of relatively limited materials. His works have been performed and recorded by such new-music champions as Sarah Cahill, Joseph Kubera, William Winant, FLUX Quartet, Kathleen Supové, and Thomas Buckner. The Wire’s Julian Cowley has written that Byron is “one of those contemporary composers who can justifiably be classed as crucial. . . . Byron’s music dances with tremulous iridescence.” (Byron’s music has appeared on seven previous Cold Blue Music albums.)

“One is reminded…of the mobiles of Alexander Calder, which are both fixed and moving. And, like Calder’s work, Byron’s music is immediately comprehensible and beautiful, while it remains experimental.” (“San Francisco Bay Guardian”)

“Byron’s music, like Ligeti’s, is instantly recognizable, perceptually challenging, beautifully proportioned and deeply satisfying.” (“Paris Transatlantic”)

“Percussionist William Winant has been the avant-elite’s go-to percussionist for more than 35 years.” (“SPIN” magazine)

“Winant is a dazzling virtuoso but also a catalytic presence in adventurous music, a percussive dynamo generating rhythms, colours and textures that blaze life into visionary scores.” (Julian Cowley, “The Wire”)