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.