Search - Gavin Bryars :: Hommages

Gavin Bryars
Hommages
Genres: Dance & Electronic, Special Interest, Classical

Track Listings (6) - Disc #1
1. My First Homage, for 2 pianos, 2 vibraphones, percussion & tuba
2. The English Mail Coach, for 2 vibraphones & percussion
3. The Vespertine Park, for 2 pianos, 2 vibraphones, 2 marimbas, orchestra bel
4. Hi-Tremolo, for 3 pianos, 2 marimbas, vibraphone & tam-tam
5. Out of Zaleski's Gazebo, for 2 pianos [*]
6. Danse Dieppoise, for euphonium, tuba, vibraphone & piano [*]

CD Details

All Artists: Gavin Bryars
Title: Hommages
Members Wishing: 0
Total Copies: 0
Label: LTM
Original Release Date: 1/1/1981
Re-Release Date: 1/15/2008
Album Type: Extra tracks, Original recording remastered
Genres: Dance & Electronic, Special Interest, Classical
Styles: Techno, Experimental Music, Chamber Music, Historical Periods, Classical (c.1770-1830)
Number of Discs: 1
SwapaCD Credits: 1
UPC: 5024545468021

Synopsis

Album Description

LTM is proud to present a newly remastered CD edition of the lost yet influential album Hommages by acclaimed modern British composer Gavin Bryars. Originally released in November 1981 on Les Disques du Crepuscule, Hommages was recorded in Leicester in February 1981 and produced by noted Belgian new music composer Wim Mertens. The album was conceived as a series of diverse homages to other composers, which include Bill Evans (My First Homage), Ferruccio Busoni and Gustav Holst (The English Mail-Coach and The Vespertine Park) and Percy Grainger (Hi-Tremolo). Featured musicians included Andrew Bilham, Ronald Reah, Andrew Renshaw, Nigel Shipway, Dave Smith, John White and Marie Wilson, as well as Gavin Bryars himself on piano and vibraphone. The album is the only one which documents the important period between Bryars? early experimental music and later works from Medea onwards, as well as his enthusiasm for small composer/performer ensembles. The new 63 minute digital remaster of Hommages now includes two bonus tracks composed and recorded by Bryars during the same period: Danse Dieppoise, and the lengthy piano piece Out of Zaleski?s Gazebo. The booklet features extensive notes by Gavin Bryars on the origin and performance of all six pieces, and preserves the original album cover artwork by Marc Borgers.

CD Reviews

A LONG OVERDUE REISSUE

Kerry Leimer | Makawao, Hawaii United States | 04/16/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"None of my comments concerning "Hommages" will be very objective. This collection of pieces -- along with the Obscure release of "Irma" and "The Sinking of the Titanic" offered me my first exposure to Gavin Bryars' work and all made such a profound impression on the way in which I listen to and think about music that I have felt compelled to follow his work ever since -- for some thirty years now.

The pieces on Hommages, including the two "bonus" pieces, are fairly homogenous and focused, nearly minimalist in their discipline. Contrasting arpeggiated lines serve to elegantly frame single notes. Harmonic contrasts build shifting patterns of tension and release without the more typical sense of overstatement or artificial drama. Occasional dissonances shade the generally agreeable harmonic clusters to create a lushness not typical of music resulting from such carefully mapped constraints. In fact, there is an unforced "naturalness" about this music that remains refreshing to this day. Transitions derive from inherent structural decisions, contrasts are often times slyly humorous and subtle.

Mostly built from elements of existing works by other composers -- Bryars sites his break with improvisational jazz and his study of Duchamp's work and ideas leading to creating these completely "synthetic" compositions by basing the works on "found material" -- or to use Duchamp's term, readymades. As such, rich veins of references to Busoni; Bill Evans; Ramsey; Satie; and many others in both music and literature provide the basis for departures that strike me as none-the-less belonging almost entirely to Bryars. These threads run all the way from his early ensemble works up to and including his more recent reinvention of Medieval lauds and the manner in which he considers acoustical spaces in the most recent "Listening Room" suite.

With Hommages Bryars helps take many pivotal early 20th Century ideas about originating works of visual art finally and importantly into the sphere of music. His distinct sensibilities about authorship, the composer's role in origination and respect for the accomplishment of other artists in the broader context of human expression in a postmodern world makes Hommages a singular and significant accomplishment."