Search - MATTHEW BURTNER :: PORTALS OF DISTORTION

Some of the most eerily evocative electroacoustics ever

weinham | 05/06/1999

(5 out of 5 stars)

"PORTALS OF DISTORTIONMusic for Saxophones, Computers, and Stonesinnova 526While in Canada, I spent much time watching and photographing the ice formations on the Banff River, observing the changes of various weather and lighting conditions on the ice. Deep slabs of ice, split and creaking, revealed glimpses of darkness and running water beneath. These frozen gateways offer an aural analogy: portals of distortion, cracks in the fabric of the sonic world. Beyond, we catch an elusive glimpse of the turbulent music of the imagination. -Matthew BurtnerThere is weather in his compositions, as well as landscape: open, brooding, sometimes ominous, often wintry...His compositions have a way of insinuating themselves into your mind. Listen to them enough and you begin to think and take in the world as he does. You hear a gust of wind or the far-off sound of machinery and you think "that sounds like something from a Burtner composition".-Dale Keiger, Johns Hopkins MagazineThis recording features six works by the Alaskan composer Matthew Burtner written between 1996 and 1998. The pieces fuse recent developments in music technology with aesthetic principles inspired by natural sonic environments. Primitive musical sources such as stones are juxtaposed with instrumental writing influenced by techniques of digital audio synthesis. Computer generated sounds are inspired by the compelling expressiveness of natural materials, further melding ancient and newly forged elements in a unique and harmonious sound world. A native of Alaska, Matthew Burtner (b. 1970) spent his early childhood in a small village on the Arctic Ocean. In 1986 Burtner left Alaska to live in Australia, travel through Japan, and then to study philosophy at St. Johns College in New Mexico. He began studying music formally at Tulane University in New Orleans in 1990 (BFA 1993 summa cum laude). After graduating, he moved to Paris where he studied computer music at Iannis Xenakis's Center for Mathematics and Automation in Music (CeMAMu). He returned to the United States to study computer music and composition at Johns Hopkins University's Peabody Institute (MM 1997). Between 1996 and 1998, he was composer-in-residence at the Banff Centre for the Arts, Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, and the Phonos Institute in Barcelona.Currently he works at Stanford University's Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA) as a doctoral fellow in composition.Included on this recording are the works "Split Voices" for amplified saxophone (tenor/soprano) and computer-generated tape, "Mists" for computer noise controller and stone trio, "Incantation S4" for amplified tenor saxophone and computer-generated tape, "Fern" for computer-generated tape, "Glass Phase" for polyrhythmicon / electronics, and the title track, "Portals of Distortion" for nine tenor saxophones. In Burtner's work imagination and environment merge to create music that conveys a strong organic sense, music whose properties are as diverse and dynamic as the stark Alaskan wilderness where the composer spent his youth."

Music Beyond Melody

weinham | Portland, OR United States | 09/28/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Album: Portals of Distortion
Artist: Matthew BurtnerI am enjoying this CD on many levels and listening to it regularly. I've stumbled onto a familiar yet totally new kind of music. The tracks aren't really songs or melodies, they're more like translations of nature. I find it soothing, Portals of Distortion strikes a resonant chord within me. Periodically I'll hear a part of a track and feel like I've felt (more than heard) that same sound or feeling while out in nature somewhere. The way this soothes me is uncanny and pleasing, familiar without being erie. This is why I'm moved to write a review. And while I'm listening to this album, enjoying the sounds, I regularly find myself impressed with the mind behind the sounds. I don't really understand "electroacoustic", the "polyrhythmicon", or the new technology behind it. But I know this, Matthew Burtner has created something beautiful. I'm impressed by his mind, capable of both the programatical logic neccessary for the polyrhythmicon and the compositional savvy able to structure sound in such a realistic manner. When friends or coworkers hear this playing at my desk they usually hang out and listen for a bit, even if I'm just working away. They've all felt moved by it too. Not life changing, it's only as impressive as anything good is. It's like clarity, realizing you knew something and had merely forgotten it until reminded. You won't walk away singing a tune, but you'll hear sounds in nature which hearken to this album.If you're wondering whether or not you should get this album, you should get it. You probably don't have anything like it, but that's only because it is, I think, a new style. Own it, play it for a while, and you'll like it. Listening to a sample track didn't impress me but interested me. Hearing the album on and off for a few weeks now has left me with no doubt that this CD has earned a regular spot in my playlist.- Nathaniel Weinham -"