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Congleton Chronicle

This is something of an avant-garde affair — it explores the Macedonian composer’s search for “chroma” (colour) in music (the title from the Greek, “poly” for many and “chroma” for colour, but you knew that) — but it’s never hard on the ear and is most interesting. It seems a shame that fans of classical music might shun for its lack of tunes and melody while people who would buy a similar Steve Hillage or The Orb album might not show interest because it’s with “classical” instruments. 

Fans of guitarist Nick Harper should take a listen to guitar duo “String Dune(s)”, which is great. Fans of the section in Zep’s “Dazed and Confused” where Page takes a bow to his guitar might also connect. 

The opening piece is “Chaconne” (“a fiery and suggestive dance” and a solo piece written for Peter Sheppard Skærved) which opens with well- spaced violon strikes, though around 4:16 it goes all Zeppy as Sheppard Skærved fills in some of the missing notes and the fiery nature of the pieces comes out before it all fades away to practically nothing. For a 13-minute violin piece with nary a melody to be heard it passes quite quickly. 

“Sandglass” follows, a clarinet hitting a hard note and sounding like an echoey violin until the second, lower note is played. Like the first track, this is a slow piece with lots of space between the sound; if there was the sound of running water it could be Hillage’s “Rainbow Dome Musick”. It gets a little raucous in places, with vague nods to jazz. 

“Šarenilo” throws in more notes and less silence and is more dramatic as a result, and as it’s a violin duet, it sounds almost conventional. It’s a bit similar to the later “String Dune(s)”, the standout track, which starts off slow and a bit flamenco but builds up and up to make a lot of noise, in the style of Harper or even John Butler’s gig highlight, where he recalls his busking days and makes a lot of noise with one acoustic guitar (and a mic and a ton of loud, state-of-the-art amps, obviously). 

“Weaxan” is a trio for violin, clarinet and piano and is similar to the first pieces, with some of the silence filled in, while the title track is a cello solo that’s very “Dazed and Confused” — for those of you unfortunate enough not to have heard the might Zep, it’s a section where the guitarist plays with a cello bow and produces lots of interesting and loud effects. The sleeve notes say it is the “the most extreme of all the pieces” yet it’s more listenable than some of the less exciting one. The composer talks about “bow pressure, position and speed / sound density / vibrato / tremolo / microtones / harmonics” being behind it but we think he just listened to Zep’s “Song Remains the Same” 23 times. “String Dune(s)” might be standout but “Polychromy” is close behind. 

The recital ends with more solo violin, “Grain and Song”. These are like the first opener, but after “Polychromy” and “String Dune(s)”, the quiet is a relief. 

Artists: Linda Merrick, Mihailo Trandafilovski, Miyabi Guitar Duo, Neil Heyde, Peter Sheppard Skærved, Roderick Chadwick, Roger Heaton. 

It’s out on Metier, MSV 28629