The overture for the evening was the random, staccato beat of raindrops on an umbrella, a sound that somehow made for a reassuring counterpoint to the sloshing of footfalls on wet concrete. Coming upon Market Square and its rectangles and knife edges of multi-colored light, the rain-rhythm subsided, now replaced by voices of varying intensities, their location made mysterious and unknowable by the effects of rain-drenched air. As I turned into the darkened alleyway that leads to the Square Room entrance, I paused slightly to take in the Hopper-esque image of a man wiping a table through the Tomato Head window. It was at that point that I felt oddly elated by the feast of rising and falling analog sensations I had experienced up until now. With intended destination at hand, I turned off the distant voices, motors, raindrops, and footfalls; I clicked the door latch and entered.
My destination for that Saturday evening was to be the Nief-Norf Knoxville Concert Series: Fresh Ink at the Square Room. No new tattoos were spotted, but the evening definitely contained the fresh ink of new works, and a fresh breeze of music encounters—a fresh breeze of rising and falling analog sensations that defied black and white and zeroes and ones.
Cellist Ashley Walters opened the evening with a 2018 work by Trevor Bača: Nähte, in which the solo cello takes on an analog percussive role, softened by the textures of string friction. The composer’s own notes state “…the music is about the joining of body, movement, color and time…the relentlessly fast coordinative movements of the cellist’s bow and body are modulated by the inventory of tempo types that structure the music.” By “color” I assume the composer means a gamut of noir tonal impressions “stitched” together—tones, harmonics of tones, non-pitches, and friction—a feast by that definition.
After Nähte, Walters was joined by saxophonist Allison Adams for Sofia Gubaidulina’s Duo Sonata for Alto Saxophone and Violoncello. Originally written in 1977 for two bassoons invariably paints the work in a new light, since the two parts have distinctly different roles. Adams’ sax roamed through extremes of pitch and texture, while the cello attempted moderation through insistent monotone passages.
Giving Walters a short break was an engaging and humorous performance of Jessie Marino’s Rot Blau, a concept piece of synchronistic inquiry, taken by Nief-Norf’s Abby Fisher and Alex Richard. With the character-pair clad in contrasting, but otherwise identical, red and blue wigs and gloves, the work operates almost episodically, governed by table lamps that switched on and off mysteriously. During the dark episodes, mouth lights and squeaky voices were amusingly eerie. Hand/arm movements introduced the complications of rhythmic clashes of hands and cups with other sounds, all presented by Fisher and Richard in dead-pan stares.
Nief-Norf’s Andy Bliss on percussion and Walters on cello finished off the evening with the world premiere of Bogen und Kehre by Lewis Nielsen. The presence of a conductor defining time for the two added a rhythm against rhythm undertone that pulled and tugged at the listener. In addition to contrasting rhythms, the idea of pitch contrasting with non-pitched sound offered a hint to the title’s translation, “Bow and Sweep,” and to a listener’s involvement.
So, yes, Nief-Norf’s “Fresh Ink” continued the fun and enlightening analog adventure of the evening that Mother Nature had so rudely begun. Tune into further adventures with Neif-Norf’s involvement with the 2019 Big Ears Festival, March 22-24—several performances that feature the music of ambient pioneer, Harold Budd.
Nief-Norf: http://www.niefnorf.org
Big Ears Festival: https://bigearsfestival.org/big-ears-festival-announces-a-bold-and-inventive-lineup-for-2019/
