Thelema Trio / Neither From Nor Towards?
Album: Neither From Nor Towards?   Collection:Classical
Artist:Thelema Trio   Added:Oct 2010
Label:Innova Recordings  

A-File Activity
Add Date: 2011-06-12 Pull Date: 2011-08-14 Charts: Classical/Experimental
Week Ending: Jul 3 Jun 26 Jun 19
Airplays: 1 2 1

Recent Airplay
1. Jun 29, 2011: consummate classical
Mazzini: Imprevisto
3. Jun 21, 2011: Bisous Bojoux
Benadon: 5 Miniatures - #5
2. Jun 24, 2011: Gilt: Cantan
Honour: Neither From Nor Towards
4. Jun 14, 2011: Bisous Bijoux
Walczyk: Refractions

Album Review
Larry Koran
Reviewed 2011-06-05
Thelema Trio / Neither From Nor Towards
Innova Recordings

Larry K.
Reviewed 2011-06-03

This trio (Ward De Vleeschhouwer, piano, Peter Verdonck, saxophones, and Marco Antonio Mazzini, clarinets) presents music composed with contemporary composers during the group’s 4-year tour in North and South America.

Rafael Leonard Junchaya (Peru) – Tres Danzas Episkénicas
1. Kordax (3:45). Low sax and clarinet calls, soft piano discords join, and each pursues rhythmically and melodically independent lines, together producing mild dissonance until slowing and fading away.
2. Emmeleia (4:48). Piano tremolos while clarinet and sax play in parallel intervals, piano chords punctuate and horns take off in atonal canon for 2 minutes. Piano offers dry, low percussion while horns meander, then sax and gong-like piano dominate
3. Sikkinus (2:41). Quick, loopy arpeggios by horns at intervals of 4ths and 5ths over the piano’s jazzy bass

HyeKyung Lee (USA) - Shadowing
4. (8:14). Diatonic but dissonant, clarinet and sax duet, with rising melody, growing rhythmically more insistent as the downbeat moves along the melody line, and melodically more intense as pitch rises to mid-track. Then quiet, slow threnody until mid-track intensity returns via melodic canon, growing more rapid, before decelerando and fade.

Keith Carpenter (USA) – The Devil His Due
5. (7:57). The devil stomps on stage blowing a low sax over piano chords. At 1:40 he transitions to syncopated rising line, then dreamy interlude with some brief returns to intro motifs to 4:00. Here, large-interval sax jumps and piano arpeggiated chords take over and proud stomping/strutting returns, with brief dream at 7:10-20, and rapid stomp exit of the devil.

Eric Honour (USA) – Neither from nor towards (ballade)
6. (10:11). Soft, foggy, piano, with persistent few-note rhythmic figure, while single high-pitch clarinet and piano tones intrude, giving way at 3:45 to more extended melodic lines of clarinet and sax, which achieve mild dissonance. Slowing, thinning of texture after mezzo-forte percussive trio climax at 6-7:20, followed by lively interchanges from 7:30 on, communicating action and humor.

Marco Antonio Mazzini (Peru) – Imprevisto
7. (4:04). A wavering high pitch, then alto clarinet 4-note phrase gradually expands and these two motifs alternate, followed by clarinet’s slow, large leaps and slides, with return to opening motifs.

Kevin Waczyk (USA) – Refractions
8. (8:54). High-pitched, playful interplay as the instruments explore atonal melodies and dissonance utilizing repeated notes and polyrhythms, giving way at 2:00 to slower, alto-pitched analogues, then tenor versions with contemplative mood, and return to peppy, humorous interplay at 6:49.

Fernando Benadon (Argentina) – Five Miniatures
9. One (0:36). Breathy, oompahs, atonal
10. Two (0:56). Debussy taken a bit further, quietly
11. Three (1:12). 6/8 pace and melody hearken to Romantic-era dance
12. Four (1:29). Foghorn, sparkle, then clarinet Sherherazade-like tune, to trill
13. Five (1:56). Upbeat riffs by all concerned.

Track Listing
1. Junchaya: Tres Danzas Episkénicas - Kordax   7. Mazzini: Imprevisto
2. Junchaya: Tres Danzas Episkénicas - Emmeleia   8. Walczyk: Refractions
3. Junchaya: Tres Danzas Episkénicas - Sikkinus   9. Benadon: 5 Miniatures - #1
4. Lee: Shadowing   10. Benadon: 5 Miniatures - #2
5. Carpenter (K): The Devil His Due   11. Benadon: 5 Miniatures - #3
6. Honour: Neither From Nor Towards   12. Benadon: 5 Miniatures - #4
  13. Benadon: 5 Miniatures - #5