Romano Crivici: Flat Earth (2001)

Australian composer Romano Crivici (b. 1953) has achieved something very rare here; the slash and burn of inspired improvisation coupled with the disciplined nuanceing of cold-blooded, calculated composition. The themes (melody and harmony) are rich, mining major and minor veins simultaneously and sometimes capturing segments, in a sampler operated by a footswitch, in dense layers amid the nimble, charged interaction with percussion, didje and bass. There are gorgeous spatial troughs - meandering piano and hand percussion, or solo violin and evocative atmospheric sections, strings bowed through effects. There is fragile beauty, tenderness, even romanticism in the tunes, and so they’re a universe apart from dry intellectual minimalism. Five stars, this is a masterpiece of form and performance.

Check out the compositions The Rolling Force and Nightshift. They rock! :)

Track list:

1. On the Rebound
Violin, viola, sampler and percussion (improvisation)
2. Ebb and Flow
String quartet, percussion and vibes
3. Flat Earth
String quartet, didjeridu and percussion
4. Passing Thought
Piano and percussion (improvisation)
5. Whirligig
Violin, viola, sampler and frame drum (improvisation)
6. The Rolling Force
String quartet, sampler and percussion
I. Introduction
II. Poco Allegro - Groove (violin II solo improvisation)
III. Chorale
IV. Poco Allegro - Terminal Groove (viola solo improvisation, then full ensemble improvisational hysteria)
7. Kooriwadjula Talking
Piano, didjeridu and frame drum (improvisation)
8. Subterranean
Violin, viola, sampler and percussion (improvisation)
9. Nightshift
String quartet, sampler and double bass
10. Calling
Solo didjeridu x two (improvisation)
11. After the Haze
String quartet, sampler, didjeridu and percussion
12. The Ecstasy of Clouds
Violin, viola, sampler and percussion (improvisation)


Read more about Romano Crivici here.

Download Links:
Part 1
Part 2

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3% recovery record is included.





More contemporary American and European music is available at my blog.