Siobhan LAMB (b. 1963)
Through the Mirror - Tales from Childhood [36:55]
My Little Wife [3:50]
Suoni Ensemble (Helge Albin (alto saxophone), Gerard Presencer (trumpet), Camilla Toldi Bugge (soprano), Ulla Wittenburg (alto), Christian Damsgaard (tenor), Rasmus Kure-Thomsen (baritone), Gregory Warren-Wilson (violin), Kuno Kjaerbye (violin), Annette Slaatto (viola), Jonathan Slaatto (cello), Lennart Gruvstedt (percussion), Hugh Webb (harp))/Siobhan Lamb
rec. Taastrup Kulturcenter, Høje-Taastrup Denmark
PROPRIUS PRCD 2074 [40:45]
This is an unusual and interesting disc. It is of particular interest
to me since I have known both of the main creators - composer Siobhan
Lamb and librettist Gregory Warren-Wilson - for many years. Curiously,
neither in the primary roles they fulfil here. Siobhan was a very fine
flute player before devoting herself to composition and Gregory continues
to be an excellent violinist; he performs as such as a member of the Suoni
Ensemble here. The music and the performances are very fine and greatly
enjoyable. The disappointment is that elements of the production and presentation
of the music on this disc severely hamper the pleasure.
The many positives first; Siobhan has written a five movement song-cycle
- curiously her website refers to this as a work-in-progress opera - in
a uniquely contemporary idiom aimed directly, but by no means exclusively,
at a young audience based on Aesop's Fables. Gregory has supplied
a very effective libretto by turns witty, poetic and always apt. The scoring
is for four vocal soloists, string quartet, harp and - for want of a better
description - a jazz trio of trumpet, saxophone and drums/percussion.
Normally when one hears a composer's work for the first time it
is all too easy to start allocating 'similarities'. Siobhan's
approach is quite different. It is as if she has taken a huge melting
pot of different musical influences and styles into which she dips as
the music demands from moment to moment while remaining uniquely herself
throughout. A key and central influence is the presence in the group -
pardon the pun - of her husband the excellent jazz trumpeter Gerard Presencer.
Together with alto saxophonist Helge Albin they make the work a fascinating
fusion of carefully structured cycle and improvised jazz. In no way is
this any kind of cross-over album. Neither is it a Jan Garbarek-esque
'Officium'. Away from the overt jazz sections the remaining
players - who are far as I can tell are not required to improvise to any
extent - play music which has elements of minimalism, Eastern European
folk and just about everything else in between including plainsong. To
speak of tonality seems rather redundant, the idiom is modern but not,
contemporary but accessible. The vocal group act as narrators and characters
relating the stories. Although this is a Denmark-based group and the singers
are all Danes the songs are sung in excellent English.
Five of the most famous fable have been chosen and according to the liner
the performers are allocated animals as well as musical roles. Quite why
this should be is unclear - with the exception of Gregory's Violin/The
Grasshopper who plays a wild dance to encourage the earnest worker ant
to give him some grain. There are moments where the music clearly illustrates
the text - the first line of the first poem refers to "the shimmering
pond" and the harp obliges and within those first few bars the easy
brilliance and beauty of Presencer's trumpet playing becomes clear
too . A lot of the time the music derives from quite small melodic/harmonic
motifs which are then expanded - a technique in part dictated, I guess,
by the part-jazz nature of the work. The four singers are often treated
as a chorus commenting en masse rather than being allocated a character
within each fable. In the fourth story; "The Mouse, The Bull and
the Flea", the singers are given 'roles' and it has
to be said that it makes the narrative there easier to follow and more
theatrical. In many ways this is the most instantly appealing section
- genial, witty and skilful. I can imagine this movement in particular
appealing to children - the bull charging into a wall, the flea nipping
away at mouse and bull are wittily illustrated and excellently performed
here. Interesting to note it is this section that is used to illustrate
the work online on YouTube.
With a couple of notable exceptions the underlying pulse of the bulk of
the movements is quite steady - which again seems to allow the improvising
instruments free rein. One of these sections is the aforementioned Grasshopper
Dance and the other is in the second movement 'The Hare and the
Tortoise'. The hare goads the tortoise to "jump" which
unleashes the jazz trio into a riotous be-bopping section that is as fun
as it is brilliant.
In the interview that is part of the YouTube presentation Siobhan makes
it clear that this music is intended to be inclusive and accessible to
all. Her great triumph - together with Gregory - is that it is just this.
Neither music nor lyrics patronise their audience but neither do they
alienate listeners. I am always a little uneasy at the concept that any
programme of Art needs adjusting for a particular audience. Perhaps rather
idealistically I would like to think - with the possible exception of
length - good Art well performed will appeal to anyone with an open mind.
Before moving on, a further comment on the poems themselves. They are
printed in full in the booklet and are worth reading in isolation, excellent
though they are when set. Gregory finds an impressive balance between
poetic and illustrative imagery. The vocabulary is evocative but wholly
comprehensible to most children. Its rhyme schemes have interesting internal
rhythms of their own. He can turn a nice couplet too; "The Hare was
fast, but galloped too late. No-one can ever run faster than fate"
given a Sondheim-esque setting. The liner mentions that this is a recording
of a live performance - although it would appear to be a different
one from the YouTube video - the harpist there is definitely not the excellent
Hugh Webb. Performance standards are high from all parties and audience
noise barely noticeable. After the cycle we are given what is termed a
bonus track; a short voice-led setting of a nonsense poem cum limerick
"My Little Wife". Pulling another influence from her musical
bag this has the feel of a Lambert-Hendricks-Ross jazz vocal arrangement
with the singers singing in canonic close harmony. It’s great fun,
but a lot harder than it sounds I suspect.
So if the music and performances are so fine why am I not wholly delighted
with this disc. The recording as such is perfectly good - instruments
and voices caught truthfully in a pleasing acoustic. Post-production balancing
has resulted in a major misjudgement. Far too often in a narrative/text-led
work such as this the words are swamped by the ensemble. This is not
a comment on the clarity of the singers simply one of balance. Even over
headphones there are significant passages where the words are inaudible.
Siobhan is listed as producer of the disc - so sorry, we hear things differently.
Similarly, the presentation is poor. I suspect it is because it seems
to spring from a Jazz aesthetic where liner-notes and information are
not at a premium. So many questions posed by this music are unanswered.
The liner contains nothing except the excellent texts, a recording venue
(no date) and some thanks. The cover of the disc gives the title as "Through
the Mirror Tales from Childhood" and then coyly adds "... where
everyone has a part to play..." (the three dots on either end are
theirs). What does this mean? What is the actual title of the work? There
are pictures of animals but no context. When you visit the YouTube website
it suddenly becomes clear that in fact these are pictures of headpieces
worn in performance. Again, rather beautiful but it in turn throws up
the question why does a certain player always wear - say the fox hat -
when they are not particularly associated with that animal. Also, why
the deliberate anachronism of traditional bow-ties and black jackets but
comic hats? Other careless annoying things - track 3 is listed as 12:06
- in fact it runs for 6:28 - careless proofing. So, if you want to buy
the disc what to do? Amazon has it listed at full price £14.88 -
rather steep for a disc that runs to just over 40 minutes - why not release
this a CD single with price-point to match or wait until there is other
repertoire to record. This is the third Proprius disc (Meditations
PRCD2068 and The
Nightingale and The Rose PRCD2068)
dedicated to Siobhan's music - I rather like the consistent design
that is used - so they are clearly committed to her as a composer. However,
if you try and buy it through the Proprius
website the result is comical; "Do you want to buy this record?"
a box asks. Clicking this brings up a pop-up for non-Swedish customers
that redirects you to Swedishmusicshop.com. There, the page appears usefully
in Japanese. Clicking translate on my PC produced something - literally
- pornographic. What a shame that something fundamentally so good is limited
with this kind of presentation and promotion.
Certainly, this makes me want to hear the other two discs which, from
the information on the Proprius website, seem to follow the same goal
of fusing contemporary classical disciplines with the freedom of jazz.
For those seeking a seriously light-hearted new work that appeals to the
head and the heart this is an easy recommendation but, come on Proprius,
don't scrimp on that ha'p'orth of tar.
Nick Barnard
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