Metropolis Ensemble ushered in a packed house of excited audience members at (le) Poisson Rouge on January 27-28 for its surreal Hallucinations concert events. The back-to-back evenings saw the premieres of four composers’ new compositions (Gity Razaz, Du Yun, Enrico Chapela, Ricardo Romaneiro) that explored the fusion of electronics and acoustic instruments, and the premiere of an electro-acoustic remix of John Corigliano’s Three Hallucinations from the film Altered States.
Blending electronics and acoustic instruments isn’t a new concept to modern strapped-to-my-Mac composers. However, as one audience member noted, the extended electro-acoustic listening session inserted the listener into a sonic universe with a rich palette of unusual textures and sounds.
The concert started with composer Du Yun’s piece, Fallen Warriors, the Cihuacoatl’s Eye. “Trippy is my middle name,” the composer pronounced from onstage, and then proceeded to use her laptop to tap out waves of unrelenting fragments over the violently mournful instrumental lines. Combined with Du Yun’s raw, emotional wailing over the microphone, the piece’s fierce energy filled the room with the sounds of lamentation.
Gity Razaz’s piece, The Metamorphosis of Narcissus, is based on Salvador Dali’s portrayal of the Greek myth in oil on canvas. The music is based on reflections and transformations, as the electronics expand out the instrumental part’s dreamy self-involvement. Gity explained that interaction of sounds reflected Narcissus’s self-reflection and psychological transformation.
LI PO by Enrico Chapela is a percussive, rhythmic drama. The piece is based on a poem by Jose Juan Tablada about the Chinese poet Li Po. Enrico transcribed a recording of himself reading of the poem into music and sound effects; he emphasized how this process transformed the original work into a completely new piece of art that takes on an entirely new meaning.
After the intermission, Ricardo Romaneiro’s Strata presented a much different line of thought than the other pieces. The piece blended minimalist motives into a vibrant, electronica beat that facilitated an ease of interaction between the elements at play. When Artisic Director Andrew Cyr asked him, “What kind of genre does this music fit into?” Ricardo responded, “I don’t know, it’s just my music!” Ricardo also arranged John Corigliano’s piece, Three Hallucinations, from the Academy Award-nominated film score film score for Altered States. Closing out the evening, the piece’s Stravinskian spirit escalated to an explosive brute energy that was barely containable by the venue’s walls, much like the infamous Metropolis concert at (le) Poisson Rouge in 2008 The Rite: Remixed.
After the concert, one audience member remarked on how she felt strong themes of destruction and recreation throughout the music: The music in first half represented painful destruction that required one to be patient for the healing that would come in the second half, where the music was regenerative and represented recreation. Other audience members remarked on how the compositions highlighted the extraordinary talent of the Metropolis artists, who were stretched well beyond normal musical techniques. Steve Smith reviewed Hallucinations for the New York Times and echoed that sentiment:
“What impressed most was the diversity of approaches that the composers involved took to stretching a more or less conventional chamber ensemble’s sound through electronic legerdemain.”
Overall, the concert ran the gamut of interactions between the live electronics and acoustic instruments: sometimes a friendly dialogue, other times violent arguments or competitive struggles. The performers harnessed the voices in the works in order to produce this wildly unpredictable event. And the audience walked away, heads still reeling.