Lost And Found
New Focus, 2023
9/10
A percussion focused listen, the composer Robert Honstein takes inspiration from early memories and experience as a new parent, and he’s got the trio Tigue, the duo New Morse Code and Michael Compitello on hand for the atypical experience.
“An Index Of Possibility” starts the listen with 5 chapters of Tigue’s fluent percussion that’s sometimes bare, other times busy, and illuminates the sounds of everyday life via homemade objects, cheap toys, and a whole lot of imagination.
“Down Down Baby” occupies the middle spot, and allows New Morse Code to incorporate the classic childhood game of the same name to utilize cello and percussion in very inventive ways.
The title track exits the listen, and is a solo marimba piece that is tonally expressive, integrates objects, and manipulates timbre and texture with a dreamy energy.
A highly ingenious affair that encapsulates the wonder, confusion and delight of the formative years of childhood, Honstein makes music where there was none before, and weaves unique sonic sounds out of instruments used in orthodox ways.
Travels well with: Lei Liang- Hearing Landscapes/Hearing Icescapes; Scott L. Miller- Coincident