Pareidolia
New Focus, 2022
8/10
The Turkish composer Eren Gümrükçüoglu brings us 7 of his inimitable works for chamber ensembles, and it makes great use of several groups and artists that help cultivate a rhythmic, abstract and uniquely harmonic body of work.
“Pandemonium” starts the listen with media electronics, where timbral manipulation and three dimensional soundscapes are met with a very unusual delivery, and the title track follows with the JACK Quartet, as brass, drums and fixed media emit an atypical rhythm, syncopated textures and quivering strings for the organic versus synthetic swells.
Further into the unconventional landscape, “Ordinary Things” recruits the Deviant Septet for an iconoclastic mashing of brass, winds, percussion and strings that even mixes in excerpts of speeches from the leader of Turkey, while “Lattice Scattering” benefits from the Ensemble Suono Giallo’s flute, piano and media, where the pair of acoustic instruments and the electronics make for a dense and unorthodox album highlight.
The final track, “Asansör Asimptotu”, is just electronics, and it’s as exciting as it is unusual, glitchy and groove filled, but not in the traditional sense.
Gümrükçüoglu’s background in jazz is present here, as are plenty of cinematic ideas, and the research he’s done on the dynamics of electronics and live instruments is put to great use for our appreciation and fascination.
Travels well with: Movses Pogossian- Hommage à Kurtág; Greg Stuart- Subtractions