Names and prayers
Music by
Victoria Jordanova,
reviewed by
PATRIC STANDFORD
Innova innova 614
|
|
Described as 'composer and performer' and the creator of 'graceful and surreal expressions of haunting beauty' Jordanova is an American, born in the former Yugoslavia, with degrees from Belgrade conservatory and Michigan State, and a past holder of a Langley Fellowship to New York University. She plays the harp as well as the piano, and made a Requiem for Bosnia in 1993 which apparently aroused some enthusiastic listener response.
A decade later comes this follow-up composition, Outer Circles, a 'sound sculpture' in seven sections, inspired by the '9-11 Commemorative Net' broadcast around the world on the second anniversary of the tragedy by amateur radio operators. The collage of names and prayers in many languages follows the belief that by whispering these, communication can be made with the departed.
The work lasts about 40 minutes (though some track timings are quite inaccurate) and could, in the right frame of mind, be appealing
[listen -- track 1, 0:30-1:27].
But by half time the appeal is fast diminishing
[listen -- track 4, 0:00-1:00].
There is an additional shorter work, also a computer creation, described as a coda to Outer Circles. Le Campane is the sound of bells, assisted by harp harmonics to evoke an image of a 12th century church at the centre of a small Italian town
[listen -- track 8, 0:00-0:37]
receding into the background as the wind and sea take over
[listen -- track 8, 5:09-6:10].
But outside incidental theatre or film sound, this is all very empty both technically and artistically.
|
