Maintenance Hums, from Carrier Records, out September 4, 2020.
Stream or download: http://ianpoweromg.bandcamp.com
Soundcloud stream for reviewers:
Ian Power · Maintenance Hums
Artist: Ian Power
Formats: CD and download
Catalog Number: 053
Release Date: September 4th, 2020
Price: $18 for CD’s, $10 to download
Contact: [email protected]
Website: www.carrierrecords.com
Artist Contact: [email protected]
Artist Website: https://ianpoweromg.tumblr.com/
Mailing List: eepurl.com/g7sLYT
1. for *current* resonance - 10:12
Brian Archinal, percussion
Antoine Francoise, piano
2. aspirapolvere, sega, spettro, tenere, possedere - 12:22
Luca Piovesan, accordion
Amit Dubester, alto saxophone
Maarten Stragier, electric guitar
3. BUOY (after Laurence Crane) - 18:33
Ian Power, electric organ & appliances
Maintenance Hums––composer Ian Power’s second album––features three intense works for solo, duo, and trio. The pieces create warm, suspensive atmospheres derived from the drones that surround us in our daily life, providing brief comfort in their insistence.
In for *current* resonance, a pianist plays with a percussionist playing small instruments inside the piano as well as the piano frame and strings themselves. The players are in exact coordination throughout, moving from obstinate tonality to ecstatic percussive repetition to a final flourish on a perverted overtone series. The work is all momentum, all downbeat yet never settling into a groove.
In aspirapolvere, sega, spettro, tenere, possedere––which translates to vacuum cleaner, saw, ghost, hold [as in keep], hold [as in possess]––sees an accordion as a nearby cicada, pushing against an alto saxophone in a chainsaw duet. An electric guitar slips in, hauntingly, halfway through, and the piece culminates on lush chords, buzzing, warming, wailing.
BUOY is for electric organ and household appliances–– blender, mattress inflator, fan, vacuum, food processor, etc––operated by the performers feet sing power strips as controls. The piece is built slowly from dense, low organ chords, buttressed by whirring, harmonic appliance combinations. The appliances gradually take control of the narrative, on, off, on, off, on...
Dusted describes Ian Power as “a force guiding the rapid-fire development of instrumental syntax and its expressive components... a boundary-breaker” and the New York Times describes his music as of “resolute ooze and elemental graininess”. His music is distinctly bare and brash, pushing every sound to the foreground, creating a space of both severity and warmth. The album, recorded in Berlin, Treviso, and Baltimore, features performances by members of Ensemble Nikel, L’Arsenale, and the composer himself.
Bandcamp, Facebook, Soundcloud, Twitter: ianpowerOMG
for *current* resonance
Recorded December 1, 2019, at UFO Studios, Berlin, Germany.
Engineered and mixed by Aaron Holloway-Nahum.
aspirapolvere, sega, spettro, tenere, possedere
Recorded December 4, 2019, at Magister Recording Area, Preganziol, Italy.
Engineered and mixed by Alessandro Rorato and Luca Piovesan.
BUOY
Recorded February 21, 2020, at the Wright Theater, University of Baltimore, Baltimore, Md.
Engineered and mixed by Anastasia Kupstas.
Mastering: Murat Çolak
Design: Carrie Epps-Carey
This project was made possible in part by the University of Baltimore, the Klein Family School for Communication Design, and the Peggy & Yale Gordon Trust.
Special thanks to Chaya Czernowin, Mallory Bernstein, Shawn Savageau, Amnon Wolman, Yaron Deutsch, Owen Gardner, Martin Iddon, Jennie Gottschalk, and especially to Aida, Aydın, Mom, Dad, and Caitlin