Another (+++) Métier release offers even-more-rarefied single-instrument sound. It includes eight 21st-century pieces – all written between 2020 and 2023 – for quarter-tone accordion, an instrument whose sound requires even more openness to unusual aural experiences than does that of a violin pushed to its sonic limits. Lore Amenabar Larrañaga has quite clearly mastered this accordion and its quirks, so the question for listeners will be whether they will enjoy or be moved by the sounds emanating from the instrument – whether it sounds like an ordinary accordion, as it does in some of these pieces, or like something more otherworldly, as it does in the works that exploit quarter-tone capabilities to a greater degree. The CD’s first work, Fleeting Puddles by Claudia Molitor (born 1974), is comparatively straightforward aurally; Barafostus Dreame by David Gorton (born 1978), on the other hand, goes out of its way to highlight this accordion’s sonic abilities. My Time Is Your Time by Donald Bousted (1957-2021) has some attractively bouncy quick-step material that, however, is repeatedly interrupted by silences and somewhat foghorn-like sounds. Feast by Mioko Yokoyama (born 1989) wants the accordion to be a percussion instrument: persistent struck woodblock-like sounds are intermingled with a somewhat dancelike rhythm. Permissible Self-Expression by Michael Finnissy (born 1946), at 17 minutes the longest work on the disc, also uses percussive elements and extended silences, while having the accordion itself sound more like electronics than a wind-and-keyboard instrument. Die Stimme der Stadt by Christopher Fox (born 1955) features extended atonal chords forming a kind of sound cloud. Crystalline Air by Electra Perivolaris (born 1996), in contrast, uses individual notes in an extended line that is much-interrupted by silences. Finally, L’eaurelle by Veli Kujala (born 1976) – the shortest work here, running less than five minutes – uses a more-conventional mixture of chordal elements and individual notes, but within a context of atonality as well as the employment of quarter-tone capabilities. The accordion itself is an acquired taste for many audiences, and the quarter-tone tuning makes it even more so. But actually, the works here are by and large typical of contemporary single-instrument music in their exploration of what can be done by a solo player in a modern compositional world where most rules, if not all, have been twisted and reinterpreted, if not discarded. No work on this disc stands out as particularly impressive or worthy of multiple rehearings, but Larrañaga’s playing makes it clear that she respects and appreciates all of them; and for listeners already interested in up-to-the-minute compositions, and with a taste (or an ear) for solo playing on a less commonly heard instrument, the CD will certainly be of considerable interest.
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