Adam Rudolph - Morphic Resonances (2017) {Meta Digital Download, Bandcamp 16-44.1}

Listeners should be advised that Adam Rudolph doesn’t play a beat on this album; it’s a gathering of recent compositions performed by various others, including members of his own New York-based Go: Organic Orchestra. The clear standouts are the first two tracks, in which the Momenta String Quartet gives incisive readings of “Morphic Resonances” and “Syntactic Adventures”—the latter piece dedicated to Rudolph’s mentor Yusef Lateef. Rudolph’s background as a percussionist manifests itself in the use of what he calls “ostinatos of circularity,” layered polyrhythms that create the effect of one part blending almost imperceptibly into another. On the aptly titled “Morphic Resonances,” the sound generated by the violins, viola and cello often brings to mind a backwards tape loop, with individual note attacks camouflaged by subtle shifts in timbre.

The remaining tracks don’t leave as lasting an impression, but that’s due less to any particular weakness on their part than it is to the strength of those string-quartet pieces. Best of the bunch is “Orbits,” played by the four-piece Odense Percussion Group of Denmark. Its low vibraphone washes and orchestral bass drum rumbles ring out like the dawn of a Varèsean doomsday. John Ehde’s questioning cello is the highlight of a take on “Coincidentia Oppositorum” by Kammeratorkestret Ensemble, another Dutch group. Flutist Kaoru Watanabe and guitarist Marco Cappelli close out the program with the stark “Lamento,” which suggests a cross between themes you might hear in a Japanese noh play and the quiet intensity of a Delta blues field recording. If you enjoy exploring the territory where through-composed and improvised music meet, this could be for you.

Tracklisting & personnel:

Compositions by Adam Rudolph

1. Morphic Resonances (2013) 13:18
Momenta String Quartet
Emilie-Anne Gendron, Violin
Alex Shiozaki, Violin
Stephanie Griffin, Viola
Michael Haas, Cello

2. Syntactic Adventures (2016) 13:12
in Memoriam Yusef Lateef
Momenta String Quartet

3. Garden, Ashes (2017) 8:55
Kaoru Watanabe- C flute and Noh kan flute
Marco Cappelli - acoustic guitar and electronics

4. Strange Thought (2016) 2:45
Sana Nagano - violin

5. Orbits (2014) 10:30
Odense Percussion Group
Kasper Grøn - Percussion 1: vibraphone, orchestral bass drum,
tom toms, cup gongs, low tam tam
Joakim Olsrud - Percussion 2: slit drum,tom toms, cymbals, crotales
Natasja Dini - Percussion 3: slit drum, snare drum, tom toms
Rasmus Clemens - Percussion 4: snare drum, tom toms, cymbal, tam tams triangles, cowbells

6. Coincidentia Oppositorum (2014) 3:59
Figura / Kammeratorkestret Ensemble
Kammeratorkestret:
Jakob Davidsen: piano
John Ehde: cello
Jakob Munck: trombone
Figura Ensemble:
Signe Asmussen: vocals, violin
Anna Klett: clarinets
Frans Hansen: percussion, musical saw
Karl Husum: trumpet
Jesper Egelund: double bass, voice

7. Lamento (2017) 3:50
Kaoru Watanabe - Noh kan flute
Marco Cappelli - acoustic guitar and electronics


Recorded mixed and mastered at Orange Music Sound Studio, New Jersey by James Dellatacoma
Orbits recorded at The Danish National Academy of Music by Peter Hellesøe
Coincidentia Oppositorum recorded at The Village Recording Studio, Copenhagen, Denmark by Thomas Vang
Compositions copyrighted and published by Migration Music BMI

Produced by Adam Rudolph
Special thanks: Bill Laswell, Mas Yamagata
Dedicated to our dear families: Those here, those gone, and those still to come.