yMusic: Ecstatic Science
New Amsterdam Records

Having backed Paul Simon on his 2018 tour dates, yMusic could have opted to capitalize on that association on its fourth album. In such a scenario, Ecstatic Science might have featured treatments of, say, “America” and “The Late Great Johnny Ace” alongside the kind of contemporary classical fare we've come to expect from the chamber ensemble; further to that, a Bruce Hornsby cover might also have found its way into the set-list, given that yMusic has recently performed in a similar capacity with him. (In addition to live dates, the group regularly contributes to others' albums, a recent example Simon's In The Blue Light.)

However fascinating such a recording might have been, the one Hideaki Aomori (clarinets), Gabriel Cabezas (cello), CJ Cameriere (trumpet, horn), Rob Moose (violin, guitar), Nadia Sirota (viola), and Alex Sopp (flutes, vocals) decided to produce is consistent with the approach they've adopted for their previous yMusic releases. Instrumental works by living composers (the oldest born in 1980, the youngest eleven years later) are performed, two by Gabriella Smith and single pieces by Paul Wiancko, Caroline Shaw, and Missy Mazzoli. If said approach is a little less audacious than that imaginary other, the result nevertheless maintains the integrity and high standard of the group's earlier full-lengths and reaffirms its commitment to new material. yMusic's signature sound remains firmly in place in its assured realizations of the five works, all written between 2015 and 2017.

The group's benefited from its high-profile collaborations in other ways, too. Sirota notes, for example, that being on a rock tour for weeks on end brings a group closer and makes its already cohesive playing even tighter. Still, a key thing that sets yMusic apart from other new music outfits isn't this ensemble-for-hire aspect but rather an electronics-free instrumentation that emphasizes acoustic timbres, the guitar's presence notwithstanding. The material on the new release shows the group effectively simulating an orchestra in microcosm when string, woodwind, and horn sections are all accounted for.

Smith's Tessellations gives the album a jolt of panther-like propulsion at its start when a cello-generated percussive groove is augmented by flute chirps and viola swoops, the elements forming a driving, skipping prod for horn tones and clarinet patterns. Restlessly moving, the parts, however disparate they might seem separately, coalesce into a whole collectively moving in a shared direction with common purpose. Eschewing the driving animation of the opener, Mazzoli's title piece begins with plaintive string glissandos peppered by woodwinds, the gradual convergence of parts indicative of her mastery of compositional development. Baroque strains emerge from the string parts, though a pastoral quality crystallizes as vividly as the piece progresses. At eight-and-a-half minutes, Ecstatic Science is the longest of the album's settings, and Mazzoli maximizes the possibilities the extended duration affords in having the piece advance naturally through its multiple episodes until it culminates in a return to its initiating gestures. Even further removed from Smith's Tessellations is Wiancko's unusually titled Thous&ths in its occasional veering into dissonant territory, though it shares with the opener a subtle regal character.

Shaw's three-movement Draft of a High-Rise progresses confidently through winding melodic passages, their trajectory altered by unexpected rhythm interjections and tempo shifts. At the close of “Inked Frame,” aggressive unison expressions give way in “A Scribbled Veneer” to an elegiac chorale, with intimate strokes by the musicians lending the material delicacy. Nothing sits still in Shaw's world for long, however, and, similar to the Mazzoli work, Draft of a High-Rise segues rapidly between robust and serene episodes. A singer and violinist as well as composer, Shaw draws from her extensive skill-set in fashioning a piece rich in vocal-like melodic content and wide-ranging string effects. Ending the collection strongly is Smith's roaring Maré, a dynamic, dizzying exercise in declamation and polyphony that taken together with Tessellations suggests she's a composer to watch.

Interestingly, perhaps the main thing Ecstatic Science shares with the classic rock album has nothing to do with it stylistically but instead duration: at forty minutes, its five pieces would fit snugly onto two vinyl sides. Concision works in the group's favour, as the modest album length and set-list leaves one satisfied but not exhausted and if anything desiring more.

March 2020