As Bob Gilmore mentions in his informative booklet notes for
this release, Northern Irish composer Ed Bennett’s musical language
“looks across the water, towards England and continental Europe
in one direction, and to the east coast of America in the other.”
This is an aspect of contemporary music which will make the
gliding glissandi and repetitions of a piece like Stop-Motion
Music familiar to those who have an acquaintance with, for
instance, the Dutch ‘minimalist sound’ of the 1970s and 1980s.
It’s a sound associated with ensembles like De Volharding which
were wind and percussion led, with the sturdy foundation of
an electric bass guitar to keep the harmony as well as the rhythm
punchy and grounded.
Bennett likes his glissandi, and the strings of Slow Down
play these against the sustain of a piano to create an atmosphere
of landscape and reflection. The strings of the piano are sometimes
plucked or struck with something other than the hammers of the
instrument, changing the colour of the notes and generating
changes in the harmonic relationships between that and the strings
in intriguing ways. The movement of the shifting sustained notes
occasionally create traditional harmonies as if by chance, and
the brain attaches itself to them like precious landmarks.
As its title suggests, Cartoon Music uses the imagery
and associations of cartoons of the Road Runner type as the
starting point for a work which is in fact more serious than
mere parody. There are plenty of technical high jinks from saxophone
and percussion, the former sometimes acting like the voice of
a character, the latter implying chasing sequences and slapstick
thwacks. The piano adds some harmonic interest but is almost
relegated to the function of a continuo part in comparison to
the other instruments.
The sheer expressive sonority and weight of the bass clarinet
personifies a Monster in its own right, and this piece
pits the soloist against an electronic treatment of his own
playing which may have you wondering if your playback equipment
is functioning correctly - such are the jittery fragments which
emerge. Voices in German also emerge from the electronic backdrop,
making non-sequitur remarks and ‘adding to the cinematic ambience.’
This piece is fully notated but has an improvisatory feel, indeed
including some sections which allow for deviation from the score
and some wild performing from Paul Roe. There is some nice ambient
texture with a sustained electronic tone further on in the piece,
but I’m not convinced by the addition of those ‘orchestra hit’
effects.
JF is a string quartet which succeeds in wresting the
ensemble from its cosy 18th and 19th century
traditional function, placing it through a technical filter
which creates effects of distortion more associated with rock
guitars. Aptly put by Bob Gilmore, “the ’conversation between
four gentlemen’ is here replaced by a wild shouting match”,
generating a consistently energetic and lively dose of shrill
aversion therapy.
The title track, My Broken Machines is also the earliest
of the pieces in this programme. This takes as its starting
point the composer’s memories of amusement arcades and their
bizarrely exotic machines. The sinister elements in this collection
of apparatus, ’laughing policemen, mechanical fortune tellers,
tests of strength, ghost trains…’ was heightened by the decay
and abandonment which set Bennett’s imagination alight as he
would pass the closed up building. The percussion-heavy score
is marked ‘Calm with interruptions’, summing up a mood of silence
which is broken by a “crazy carnival continuing inside while
the unsuspecting public continued about their daily lives.”
This leads on nicely to the final work, Ghosts, for amplified
viola d’amore, which recreates another nocturnal interior, that
of the Irish Cultural Institute - “a place with a long history”
we are told. The sympathetic strings of the viola d’amore are
amplified, spotlighting these unusual acoustic effects and re-balancing
the sound to create what at times seems in effect to be an almost
entirely new instrument. There are aspects of the writing which
are folk-like, the performer creating a hardanger-fiddle effect
at times. These Ghosts are often obstreperous and argumentative,
but also have a sentimental side, recalling past musics and
moaning softly on occasion, and disappearing finally into the
ether - beyond the range of hearing.
This is a fine collection of pieces by a composer with a clear
vision and a healthy dose of talent. All of the performances
and recordings are excellent, and NMC’s presentation is beyond
criticism. In general all of the works have their own sense
of conviction and few weaknesses, though I can’t say any one
of them in particular hit me between the eyes and made me lament
what I’d been missing for the past few years. Much of what you
hear on this CD may seem new, but this programme fits neatly
into what most of today’s musicians would categorise as contemporary
mainstream.
Dominy Clements
Decibel (*), The Fidelio Trio (Slow Down), Paul Roe – bass
clarinet (Monster), ConTempo Quartet (for JF), Garth
Knox – viola d’amore (Ghosts) 
