MARINO FORMENTI (b.1965): Night Studies.
Catalogue Number: 11N102
Label: col legno
Reference: WWE 1CD 20299
Format: CD
Price: $18.98
Description: These 29 little pieces form the soundtrack for an installation by Florian Pumhösl in the form of a 35mm film consisting of images related to a 1943/44 painting by the Russian constructivist artist, and pioneering graphic designer, Alexander Rodchenko, from his later career when he turned to a Pollock-like abstract expressionism, emphasising organic shapes and texture. The booklet consists mostly of quasi-abstract images of tree branches and other natural patterns, which bear a striking resemblance to 'drip paintings' and are presumably stills from the film. The music is withdrawn, introspective, glacial, and mostly slow and meditative, with an almost Feldmanesque sense of lingering over the nuances and overtones of single notes or simple combinations of notes. The material, at least where identifiable, is drawn from works by Ives, mainly, with some motifs running through the series, and more explicit quotations in a couple of pivotal pieces. The music probably worked better as part of the installation than listened to in the conventional way, and the composer's suggestion in the booklet that it be treated as the aural background to an 'installation' of one's own, involving day-to-day activities, seems appropriate. Marino Formenti (piano).