Spring Shadows
Ravello, 2020
8/10
A composer and educator, Anne Neikirk is fluid in both acoustic and electroacoustic ideas, and with Spring Shadows she relies on saxophone, flute, harp and percussion to illuminate her creative vision.
“Balloon Man” starts the listen with cautious tenor saxophone from Andrew Allen in the contemplative delivery where the underlying melody is infectious, and “Flicker” follows with flute acrobatics from Wayla Chambo, as the tune quivers with background electronics as well as popping and crackling.
The back half of the listen offers the dreamy harp prowess of Elizabeth Huston on “locoMotives”, where ambience is key as inspiration from the Philadelphia Regional Rail Train unfolds, and “Lung Ta” ends the listen with 5 movements as Adam Vidiksis displays his percussion chops across sparse moments of bells to swells of almost spacey ideas and plenty of exploratory manipulation that gets booth soothing and turbulent.
With spring right around the corner, Spring Shadows invokes all the feelings of the coming season with its sense of rebirth and rejuvenating, as the core elements of earth, wind and water are all very rooted in this nature focused experience.
Travels well with: Etereo- New Music For Flute; Peter Greve- The Palace Of The Dreamking And Other Works