John Luther Adams: Houses of the Wind
Cold Blue

Many composers draw for inspiration from their surroundings; a rare few, however, become veritable conduits for the environments they inhabit. John Luther Adams is a prime exemplar of the latter, specifically in the way his music amplifies the impact many years in Alaska have exerted on his creative output. Yet while the Pulitzer- and Grammy-winning composer no longer lives there—he relocated about six years ago to areas within South and Central America before moving to rural New Mexico—his latest Cold Blue release draws directly from his experiences in the Great North.

To create Houses of the Wind (2021), he revisited a ten-and-a-half-minute field recording of a small aeolian harp he made in the Arctic in summer 1989 and was so taken by the sound of the wind blowing across the instrument's strings, he decided to work with the tape directly and apply pitch manipulations, time-stretching, and layering to produce five ten-minute variations. Rather than use the originating material as a springboard for a formally composed instrumental work, Adams in this case worked directly with it as a foundation for the treatments.

After a softly shimmering, organ-like drone introduces “Catabatic Wind,” the opening track slowly expands as more sounds are layered in, the move delicately executed to preserve the contemplative aura. The tones float through the air, undisturbed by other elements and murmuring like a gentle breeze transcribed into aural form. As the wavering tones ebb and flow, the music begins to feel elemental and out-of-time, as if it's something that's always existed but only now has assumed corporeal form and made available for public consumption. Whereas a slightly foreboding character infuses “Mountain Wind,” “Tundra Wind” reinstates the peaceful ambiance of the opener. “Canyon Wind” shimmers beatifically at first before retreating into itself and growing ever-quieter, after which “Anabatic Wind” concludes the recording at a similarly low-level pitch.

Note that in being an electro-acoustic work as opposed to one performed by, say, a string quartet, the recording aligns Adams more explicitly to electronic artists operating within ambient-drone and field recordings genres. Said difference, however, has more to do with timbre than style. It's not so much that the music on Houses of the Wind is radically unlike others in his discography so much as it involves a dramatic shift in sound design. Adams's sensibility still permeates the work, even if the presentation's different.

Cold Blue has undeniably benefited from its association with Adams, but he too has been a huge beneficiary of the label's unwavering support. While recordings by him have appeared on other labels, Cold Blue has for many years brought attention to his work and magnified his profile, and it's over the course of his tenure with the label that his stature has grown to what it is today. It's especially gratifying that his work has received the recognition it has when he's made no concessions to public taste or compromised on the integrity of his creations.

September 2022