A review of our latest CD out on Albany Records titled "TIC"

American Record Guide July/August 2007
"The Newest Music"
(Reviewed along with CDs by Verdehr Trio ("Michigan Connection"), Relache ("Press Play", Wayne Peterson, and Claus Ogermann)

Where the Verdehr trio works to build a canon to establish their ensemble on a level with string trios, piano trios, etc., New Millennium and Relache both express a motivation to be a subversive force, reclaiming or redefining chamber music. They are traditional chamber groups, and they are playing music that at its best is written for them as a chamber group rather than as some challenge to the idea of chamber music. TIC is seven works by members of the Common Sense Composers' Collective performed by the New Millennium Ensemble (Pierrot plus percussion). Naming a piece Spam is a gambit; as in the title, Marc Mellits walks a fine line between tongue-in-cheek and irritating in this work, Characteristically rife with speedy square repeated rhythms, the piece is easy to listen to, and the contrasting slow section in the last third is pleasingly unexpected.

Belinda Reynolds's Coming Around is also built out of fast, small, repeated rhythmic gestures, but strings extended melodies over them; the contrasting slow section this time comes in the middle of the piece. Ed Harsh's piece takes a different tack altogether. The sounds of the instruments come to the fore as important elements in the composition; a steady pulse only seldom surfaces. Traditional thinking -- orchestration, motivic interplay, counterpoint -- somehow yields a more interesting, original sound in this case. A tingling peak is created towards the end, with extremely high burbling in the flute, clarinet, and violin.

In S.T.I.C., Dan Becker spins a short phrase out to greater and greater lengths over multiple variations. Some very interesting moments ensue, occasionally creating a sense of stasis despite quivering figures in one or more instrument. His approach to the ensemble is more kaleidoscopic, with sections of repetitive rhythms and figures. Carolyn Yarnell's Lapis Lazuli is quiet, contemplative, slight new-ageish; a steady procession of smoothly connected sonorities, lush and romantic in color and gesture. Strings are long and sustained, piano is often primary, winds color. The program closes with the assertive percussion-infused Vox Pop by John Halle, grooves arising again and again. In all, the release presents less a new direction for chamber music than another demonstration of how one ensemble can sound so different as it becomes the voice of different composers.

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Our concert and workshops with The Robin Cox Ensemble went very well.

Please read the Review.

Thanks!

We have new CD out on Albany Records titled "TIC". Just released this month and once again the result of a collaboration with a dynamic, virtuosic performing ensemble.

The Common Sense Composer's Collective is now entering its second decade, and so far, as a group, we've completed 62 new works, released three compact discs, and perhaps most joyously, have increased our tribe with the addition of six children all born over the last few years.

The pieces contained on TIC were originally written in 1996 in collaboration with the members of the Alternate Currents Performance Ensemble, who will always remain the honored 'birth parents' of this set of pieces. And though Common Sense comrade Melissa Hui was unable to participate for this particular project, the seven remaining works made the rounds, eventually finding a home with the New Millennium Ensemble. A new collaborative dynamic then ensued resulting in many revisions and changes, and so it's now fair to say that our New Millennium friends have become the loving 'adoptive parents' of these works.

The mission of Common Sense remains one of collaboration and community. We workshop and evolve our compositions through a process that one finds more in the theater and dance worlds than in the classical music world. We are thrilled to have been able to work so intimately with the New Millennium Ensemble, whose playing on this recording is nothing less than stellar. Add to that the true and rare pleasure of having recorded these pieces under the keen and watchful eyes (and ears) of Judy Sherman and Jeanna Velonis, and one couldn't ask for more.

This recording is dedicated to the future, through our kids: Andrew, Benjamin, Dorian, Eleanor, Luca, Mara & Nina. We hope you enjoy.

You can purchase the CD from Albany Records or directly from us.
Click here to get TIC!

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(from the TIC liner notes)
Scored for a "Pierrot plus percussion" ensemble, this combination of flute, clarinet, violin, cello, piano and percussion seems ubiquitous in 20th century music. It is even named after the instrumentation accompanying an unhinged expressionistic voice in the landmark 1912 Pierrot lunaire by gnarly new music's patron saint, Arnold Schoenberg. Yet, somehow choosing such an established contemporary music medium is somehow even more subversive. In the first years of the 21st century, which their music composed in the last few years of the 20th predicts, the Pierrot ensemble seems as much a period instrument band as the groups assembled for the other discs. In fact, John Halle goes as far as describing it as a "well-worn" ensemble suggesting "musty, not to say oppressive Viennese associations." So, by creating their own anything-but-musty-or-oppressive music for these forces the members of the Common Sense Composers Collective are somehow redefining and recontextualizing the core sonorities of what new music has been for previous generations, and reclaiming it for future generations.

- Frank J. Oteri

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