By Ian Quinn
American Record Guide

Strange Imaginary Animals - Eighth Blackbird

The young Pierrot-plus-percussion ensemble eighth blackbird has released its fourth great disc in four years. These are mostly first recordings of pieces by young composers. (Mackey’s piece, the exception, is 20 years old and has been recorded before, but he was at least young when he wrote it.) Like the band itself, all the music is fresh, vibrant, exciting and slightly addictive—a younger version of Bang on a Can.

Among all of this great music, the clear standout is David M. Gordon’s Friction Systems, a work of gritty, grinding passion and raw ritualism that draws on Ligeti and Lang but puts them in a blender that’s all Gordon’s own. And speaking of putting music in the blender, the group also deserves adulation for asking Dennis DeSantis, a dance-club DJ and a fine “straight” composer, to make a club-style remix of all the pieces on the program as a sort of envoi. (I think that I’d be just as wild about these pieces if Gordon weren’t a former student of mine and DeSantis weren’t a good graduate-school friend, but I’ll disclose those relationships all the same.)

I don’t know what eighth blackbird has planned for the future, though they’re circulating a video performance of Pierrot on You-Tube. Whatever comes next, their track record strongly suggests that it will be great.

Copyright © 2007 American Record Guide