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Douwe Eisenga

Albums
Antonymes
Christopher Bailey
Big Eyes Family Players
Causa Sui
Celer
The Declining Winter
Dikeman/Lisle/Serries...
Douwe Eisenga
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EUS
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Ikeda + Hatakeyama
Invading Pleasures
ironomi
Jaeger / Mathieu / Rabelais
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Kastning & Wingfield
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Kubisch & Güther
Tanner Menard
Mikal
Nuel
Craig Padilla
Post-Haste Reed Duo
Pugs & Crows & T. Wilson
rhein_strom
Steve Roach
SiJ & Textere Oris
Andreas Söderström
Solar Bears
Nicklas Sørensen
Tassos Spiliotopoulos
Strategy
subtractiveLAD
Taavi Tulev
Western Skies Motel
Erik Wollo
Waclaw Zimpel

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Ricardo Donoso
VA 002
La Monte Young & Zazeela

EPs / Cassettes / DVDs / Mini-Albums / Singles
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My Autumn Empire
Lasse-Marc Riek
Soulful Nature

Post-Haste Reed Duo: beneath a canopy of angels...a river of stars
Aerocade Music

“There aren't many saxophone and bassoon duos,” declaim saxophonist Sean Fredenburg and bassoonist Javier Rodriguez in what certainly must be one of the year's biggest understatements, even if 2016 is in its early stages. But as their Post-Haste Reed Duo debut release makes clear, theirs is no novelty act; the music on the release holds up as an excellent collection of contemporary classical works by Louis Andriessen, Simon Hutchinson, Lanier Sammons, John Steinmetz, and Ethan Wickman, no matter the instrumentation involved.

The two met as students at Louisiana State University and then again years later, becoming friends first and musical colleagues later. When not performing as the Post-Haste Reed Duo, Fredenburg is Instructor of Saxophone at Portland State University and Rodriguez Assistant Professor of Bassoon at the Lionel Hampton School of Music at the University of Idaho. Not surprisingly, the two weren't able to draw upon an extensive body of works for saxophone and bassoon so set about creating arrangements of existing pieces and commissioning material for the newly formed group to play. On the recording, four commissions are featured along with an arrangement by Jeff Chambers of Andriessen's Lacrimosa (1991) specifically created for the Portland-based duo.

The album begins with Hutchinson's bioMechanics (2011), which expands on its woodwinds soundworld using electronics. Said addition allows Fredenburg and Rodriguez to build dramatically on their core sound and transform the group into an industrial-strength electro-acoustic ensemble featuring bassoon and saxophone as its front-line. In this bold opener, sheets of metallic noise as well as beat patterns interact with the duo's acoustic sonorities, making for something of a showstopper, even if it's just seven minutes long. Still, as interesting as the opening piece is, it's bettered by the second, not only because it's an Andriessen composition and therefore evidences his distinctive composer's voice but also because of its austere presentation. In addition, the material exudes a character reminiscent of Stravinsky's later works, plus the arrangement allows the microtonal combinations of the two voices to be heard with remarkable clarity.

Confluences, Wickman's 2014 work for alto sax and bassoon, works through three movements, the first (“Rogue”) an attempt to mirror unpredictable planetary movements in the spiraling interactions of the instruments, and the second (“Receding Orbits”) a comparatively plaintive study in independence and unity. The third movement gives the album its title and concludes Wickman's piece with a minimalism-styled to-and-fro of cyclical patterns. Sammons' Some thoughts about time (2012) reintroduces electronics for six short episodes of contrasting character, some intricate and agitated (“Strata”), and others calmer by comparison (“Intertwined,” “Held”). At album's close, Steinmetz's four-part suite Songs and Dances (2013) ranges between the pulsing, minimalism-fueled “Prelude” and lyrical, Nyman-esque “Aria/Procession” to the melancholy “Folk Song” and joyous “Dance Song.”

March 2016