Transparent Waves: Selected Compositions IV
CD | Neuma 153 | 13.00
Composer and theorist DeLio holds the maxims of Cage, Feldman, Tudor, et al, dear to his heart, as evidenced by this twenty-nine track work of glorious electroacoustic collage. Though I profess being unfamiliar with the prose of experimental poet P. Inman, DeLio has collaborated via Inman's words and compositional structure, to realize his phrases in sound. The results are all over the proverbial map. The opening ten-minute and of “of” (which should tell you something right there) trades as much in pregnant pauses and hushed silences than in music, the definition of which is surely stretched to the breaking point throughout. Cascading amongst the odd trills, occasional buffeting of mutated voices, cut-up shimmerings, and patchy gyrations, Inman's syntax is sliced, diced, remade, and remodeled, DeLio using a craftsman's touch to bring some real tactility to Inman's truncated phraseology. It's perplexing, absorbing, distancing, and downright strange simultaneously; perhaps an acquired taste for many, but those with wide-open ears will get the impact. Most of the remaining pieces are notable for their minimalist patina of sounds, though the four-part Tangier echoes the namesake of its exotic locale by keeping its meaning close to its chest; it's left to the imagination whether or not DeLio fully intends to situate you in the city's place or non-place. This sense of mystery, the unknown, and the intangible gives this record its colorful “heft” as it reveals its subtler nature to you, you'll find your patience duly rewarded.
Darren Bergstein, Downtown Music Gallery
