CLARE COOPER
gut
The NOWnow
cd 003
ALFREDO COSTA MONTEIRO
Rumeur [for solo accordion]
Creative Sources
CS 010
More unlikely instruments than the concert harp and keyboard accordion
for solo improvisations would be hard to find. Which is probably why Sydney,
Australia-based harpist Clare Cooper and Barcelona-based accordionist
Alfredo Costa Monteiro decided to make these CDs.
Organized so that timbres, tempos and pitches unlike the conventional
ones sanctioned for the instruments are on display, either CD would probably
frighten traditionalists. However the Iberian and the Antipodean are trying
to find new solo roles for their respective instruments of choice the
way American Greg Kelley has for the trumpet or Brit Jon Rose has for
the violin.
Throughout RUMEUR's graphically titled five tracks, Portuguese-born Monteiro,
who is also a visual artist, shows how the accordion can be deconstructed
into a sound source. Treating the bellows, treble keyboard, brass buttons,
case and vibrating surfaces separately, he exploits each in turn, sometimes
in different combinations.
At one point, for example, the unvarying chuga chuga of the bellows is
used to produce reed vibrations with foot-tapping energy. Soon, as sonorous
lower tones mix with a higher-pitched counter line, smacks on the squeeze
box's sides reveal a percussion instrument that produces a third overtone
as the tempo accelerates at different pitches.
Two other tracks find him manipulating the accordion's reeds in such a
way that it actually seems if the colored air being expelled is coming
from an oral instrument such as a bagpipe. Shriller-than-calliope notes
arrive in one section as do grainy tones that resemble an agitated rooster
crowing. Stretched squawks suggest heavy breathing, while stop-and-start
rasps presage a replication of waves rolling onto the shore, which take
up part of the final selection.
Here, after earlier passages that posit the idea of dragging abrasive
shards of metal and wood along the ground, shrieks are traded for whispering
rasps and growls, as if Monteiro was ratcheting and shaking undenominational
percussion.
Cooper, who is also a 3-D animator and organizer of a local improvised
music festival, perverts the lush everyday sound of the harp, and its
close cousin, the 25-string Chinese guzheng. Using attachments and preparations
such as sticks inserted horizontally among her 27-strings, she echoes
the gritty textures of instruments such as the Romanian cymbalum, the
Iranian oud and even New musicians' single elongated taut string.
At the same time, the animated tones she produces arrive from both hands
and all parts of the harp, so that polyrhythmic overtones appear at the
same time. With a bow on the harp or the guzheng's plectrum she mutates
some of the strings into double bass territory, bowing vibrated sul tasto
and ponticello tones. With its pedals, sides and bottom surfaces, the
harp also has percussion qualities that she uses to advantage. Not only
can the double-action harp suddenly be transformed into a drum, but by
tapping or resonating lower strings she creates a secondary pitch to polytonally
join with abrasively scraped higher-pitched strings.
Other places the echoing mixture of friction and pizzicato plucks sound
like frailing banjo notes. Then, when the strings are scoured for further
ricocheting tones, what results could come from a steel guitar -- or maybe
it's what dueling guzhengs would sound like in the Chinese Imperial court.
Cooper hasn't completely abandoned textures that resemble conventional
harp music however, as she proves on "Missing a Lip", the final
selection. Here, she races through a series of contrapuntal chords as
glissandi are piled upon glissandi. It's if she's trying to formulate
a distinctive 21st century fantasia for solo harp.
She hasn't yet. But there's little doubt that neither she nor Monteiro
have produced their conclusive comment on solo playing. You can trace
their progress with these CDs.
-- Ken Waxman
Track Listing: Gut: 1. Dribble, not yet dried 2. Pools Soaking Down 3.
Sink Into, Return 4. Not To Surface Slip, Down 5. Catch, Soak, Become
6. She Looks as Though She is 7. Missing a Lip
Track Listing: Rumeur: 1. ... : 2. : : ... 3. ..:::: 4. .. :... 5. ::
:..
Personnel: Gut: Clare Cooper (harp)
Personnel: Rumeur: Alfredo Costa Monteiro (accordion)