I don’t think I’m speaking out of turn by saying that across the board the writers at W&H love what LTM are doing with their programme of CD releases of both fondly remembered and long forgotten pioneers from the music scene in the 70s and 80s. They’ve certainly filled many gaping holes in my musical knowledge and provoked welcome re-evaluation of talented artists who at the time were either derided or ignored but who were in hindsight only guilty of making great music in the wrong place at the wrong time.
So it’s with a tinge of regret that I find myself stumped by BLAINE L. REINIGER and STEVEN BROWN and their CD ‘Live in Lisbon 1989’. The two protagonists are founding members of the avant-garde post rock group TUXEDOMOON, whose early career releases were on THE RESIDENTS’ Ralph label.
This live CD from 1989 is essentially violin and piano with the occasional addition of other instrumentation. The quality of recording and playing is near faultless and there is much within that impresses, but the overall effect leaves me unmoved. The music is neo-classical in style with strong suggestions of other genres, particularly jazz and even prog. On opening track ‘Iberia’, ‘Les Odalisques’ the ambient drama of the pieces allows the melodies to register more clearly and the playful ‘Liquorice Stick Ostinato’ benefits from the violin taking a back-seat to the oboe. Around these tracks and the Satie-esque solo piano tracks (e.g. ‘Fanfare’ and ‘The Waltz’) the sparse instrumentation is effective and there is a sense of drama and tension as well as of space and setting.
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However, too many of the other tracks sound clever and tricksy and the combination of piano and plaintive electric violin becomes monotonous in tone and texture. There is a lack of contrast in the music to balance the ideas and the virtuosity of the playing and it’s difficult to connect in any emotional sense. At times the music sounds dwarfed by the theatre setting (which looks impressive from the photographs) and there are moments in the proceedings when it’s hard to resist using the skip button.
Art to admire and intellectualise over rather than to empathise with and cherish.
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