At St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Manhattan, the bone fragments of every of the twelve Apostles reside in a sealed reliquary. These holy relics, like others within the cathedral, act as tangible connections to the saints and martyrs of the previous, enhancing the religious expertise for believers. Composer Clara Kim presents a contemporary twist on this idea in her new album, our little matches (New Focus Recordings). Slightly than merely venerating or critiquing the relics of Western classical music, Kim transforms them into dynamic, symbolic objects, every with the potential for change. By way of her masterful collaging method, she weaves collectively quite a few canonical fragments, creating her personal soundworlds that invite listeners into alternate realms of each unsettling sentimentality and industrial depth.
The themes of our little matches encapsulate problems with subjugation, alienation, reminiscence, and sacrifice. With seven tracks that draw connections between the oppressive legacy of Nazi Germany, delicate types of fascism, hostile architectural practices, and the social marginalization of trans people, Kim’s sonic language explores the complicated layers of concealment, management, and struggling. This album will not be a straightforward hear; nonetheless, partaking with it’s immensely rewarding. It boasts sturdy aesthetics, a cohesive narrative, and profound emotional depth. Kim’s work is each veiled and enigmatic, efficiently steering away from obscurity.
One standout piece, located halfway by way of the album, is the terribly replayable piano quartet titled reliquary. This piece showcases 4 performers, together with Kim on piano, who transition by way of numerous classical fragments, seamlessly integrating unique materials. Nevertheless, reliquary is much from a mere compilation of classical hits; Kim’s transitions exude easy agility as she glides from Prokofiev’s Piano Sonata No. 7 to Beethoven’s Kreutzer Sonata, then to Brahms’ Piano Quintet No. 3, Debussy’s “Feuilles mortes” Prelude, and Bach’s Cello Suite No. 2—all inside simply 30 seconds. The result’s a piece that feels each reverent and regularly stressed.
Guided by Kim’s expressive piano enjoying, the quartet skillfully shifts between numerous efficiency kinds, deftly navigating from sharp up to date strategies to Baroque detachment, and the emotional weight of Romantic music. At occasions, the musicians enable spontaneous sounds—like errant hits, random plucks, and accented harmonics—to emerge, questioning whether or not the customary deference in direction of canonical composers has change into overly constricting. The ensemble finally retreats completely, forsaking a scorching microphone that captures their footsteps fading away.
In lots of respects, reliquary serves because the album’s core, establishing a foundational idea from which the opposite tracks emerge. It grapples with the concept the “classical canon” is commonly reduces to a commemorated relic or an “anachronistic remnant,” merely present as a result of its affiliation with the glorified figures of the previous. This attitude results in music dropping its creative advantage, changing into mere objects that uphold delicate energy, as elucidated within the liner notes.
One other compelling piece is letters to a display, which options clarinet, voice, and glued electronics. This monitor expands upon Kim’s exploration of the previous with a poignant interpolation of Strauss’s Metamorphosen—a piece lamenting the devastation of German tradition post-World Struggle II. Though Strauss distanced himself from Nazi ideology, his romanticized view of a cultural legacy steeped in fascism illustrates how oppression can lurk beneath cultural and nostalgic facades. In letters to a display, Kim artfully represents the pressured isolation of political prisoners by way of the layering of three ranges of communication—actual performances, recordings, and synthetic MIDI-generated interpretations. Because the depth escalates, the isolation of those disparate layers turns into alarmingly evident, culminating in an abrupt and unceremonious conclusion as all parts are rapidly unified right into a cacophony.
This album exemplifies the essence of electroacoustic composition. Regardless of its clashing dissonances, each ingredient is meticulously positioned to reinforce the collective idea and emotional trajectory. All through, Kim integrates recurring motifs, one in every of which is the haunting “waves of doom”—a whalesong impact that permeates tracks like eldorado, extinguishing dance, and how heat a little bit match can be. Even the purely acoustic items, reminiscent of reliquary, albumleaves, and stations (palimpsest), seamlessly coexist inside Kim’s expansive soundworld, proving her mastery of mixing totally different mediums.
In stations (palimpsest), a string quartet juxtaposes two conflicting sonic narratives: the classical canon and the gritty textures of New York Metropolis’s Port Authority Bus Terminal. This composition serves as a commentary on hostile structure, designed to repel the homeless and different teams deemed undesirable. As a substitute of incorporating area recordings instantly, Kim slowed down precise sounds from the terminal and transcribed them for string quartet by way of the strategy of spectral evaluation. Whereas the unique materials is probably not simply identifiable, the ambient bus terminal-inspired segments stand out in distinction to the quoted works of Sibelius and Beethoven. Among the many most hanging moments happen when the strings emulate automobile horns by way of crisp, synthetic harmonics. Kim employs an identical method in albumleaves for solo piano, that includes spectral chords drawn from recordings of a bell tower in Chautauqua, New York.
our little matches invitations continuous exploration and revisitation, revealing new insights with every hear. At its core lies a profound wrestle to reconcile the dichotomy offered by its relics. Kim’s resonant voice compels listeners to confront that very same problem.
