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4.0 out of 5 stars
This one really slipped through the cracks, January 6, 2008
This review is from: Chien-Yin Chen: Purr (Audio CD)
This is a disc, excellent in so many ways, that should really be better known. The performances are really top-notch. One can say that although many of the cliches of Post-Minimalist music find their way into this work, they are handled with a sensitivity FAR beyond that of MANY more famous composers. So what's the problem? The almost constant diatonicism and motoric - ness should have made this a trendy hit - if not on New Sounds, at least on Sequenza 21! But I also appreciate that Chen is one of the only composers of this genre whose music, with its chattering gestures and its pitch exchanges, seems to reflect an awareness that a composer like Stefan Wolpe ever existed. Maybe THAT'S the problem...In any case, at the very least, Wogen-Brandung-Wonne for three guitars is some kind of a classic, an acoustical rendering of some of the principles of sampling - at least that's how it sounds to me. Fuse Box, the last piece, is the weakest. Expertly composed, it tootles along without really getting anywhere in particular. But even there, Chen demonstrates a very special ear and sensibility. A Sleeper!
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