When Dark Sounds Collide
New Focus, 2022
9/10
Listen to When Dark Sounds Collide
The Pathos Trio outfit brings us 5 newly commissioned works here, where 2 percussionists and piano birth a very atypical version of contemporary classical sounds that makes an indelible impression on this debut album.
Evan Chapman’s “fiction of light” starts the listen off with quivering keys, repetitive percussion and a glow of electronic warmth, as both beauty and playfulness comprise the 10 minutes, and “Prayer Variations” follows with a very minimal, mysterious landscape of strategic keys and electronic manipulation.
The middle spot belongs to Alyssa Weinberg’s “Delirious Phenomena”, where a fuller presence of unconventional textures and tinkering percussion makes quite an impact, while “oblivious/oblivion” is perhaps initially the most bare selection, and emits a stark demeanor, but about halfway through bursts into a frantic display of crashing sounds and frantic instrumentation.
Alan Hankers’ “Distance Between Places” exits the listen, and brings firm, nearly chaotic rhythms, dense rumbling and a very iconoclastic form of chamber nods that few could replicate.
Marcelina Suchocka (percussion), Felix Reyes (percussion) and Alan Hankers (piano) make up Pathos Trio, and their collective strength makes for a diverse affair that points at alt-rock, synth wave and cathedral music on this fascinating effort.
Travels well with: David Liptak- Brightening Air; John Aylward/Klangforum Wien-Celestial Forms And Stories