Asylum

Modern classical / improv by Stanford professor/composer. Best Mark Applebaum album I’ve heard. Sounds largely improvised, not the stagnant ivory tower electro-acoustic music of some of his other releases. The liner notes are absolutely ridiculous interesting and thorough. Looks like these pieces would be really fun to see live. I’m happy that the music *sounds* interesting even though the composition methods are very conceptual.

*1. Improv piece for the “mouseketier” (an instrument/sound-sculpture made by Applebaum – see the liner notes for details) and electronics, with a composed accompaniment with flute, clarinet, cello, piano, and percussion. Awesome and fun.
*2. Virtuosic guitar piece with extended techniques. Tuning changes throughout the piece.
*3. Violin, cello and piano – extended techniques and weird vocals! Great. Starts slow, gets more active.
4. Percussion. Grooving. My least favorite track.
5-9. “A work that aspires to illustrate psychological disorders in sound.”
5. Funny that the first track sounds like noise – bird sounds and squeaky string sounds. Doesn’t really go anywhere but is good for a while.
*6. Nicely incoherent modern classical-sounding piece. Winds, brass, strings, and typewriter.
*7. Similar to 6 but with more vocals – the gutteral female grunts are nice.
8. Starts quiet, is fairly mellow throughout. Lots of different percussion instruments, with some flute/clarinet in the middle of the track. Sounds improvised, very tight.
9. Soft fluttery percussion first 1:30, then wind/brass/strings come in all frenetic. Last 35 seconds groovy solo percussion. Ends 5 seconds early.