The Chronicle Review Corner

This is out on classical label Metier (part of Divine Art) but it’s practically sitting at the same table as Abdou Boni [a jazz album also reviewed], and they’re all sniggering at people who write music with tunes, beats, melody or predictability.

This is pretty easy to listen to; appreciating it and getting lost in the music may be a little harder.

The album features world premiere recordings of some of Hayden’s “most significant acoustic music for solos and duos”, say the sleeve notes, with clarinet or saxophone, guitar/lute, violin or viola.

Side one is shorter tracks, Picking Up The Pieces kicks off CD2 as a longer work and there is at least some continuity in sound by the solo violin, the listener having something to hold onto. The piece “evokes an invented ‘folk’ violin style through the use of irregular meters, grace-notes, pedal tones, diatonic modalities, microtonal inflections and irregular rhythmical subdivisions,” says the sleeve.

—Jeremy Condliffe