A stage full of musicians using not-the-usual instruments in not-the-usual ways. That's a gift worth getting.
In the first half, Meara O'Reilly offers compositions to split the brain and see what falls out. Singers Eliza Bagg and Kathryn Shuman, one shorter and darker, one taller and blonder, each with distinctive footgear and fingernails, perform difficult "hockets" that sound like one person breathing in and out in rapid mathematical melody, and it's fascinating. Then cheerful O'Reilly and sparkled poet Jodie Landau stand on opposite sides of a rack of glass bells and select unexpected harmonies and sequences with paired mallets; when Landau does it alone, he shatters the C-sharp, stands there briefly and continues with a smile. Then Erika Dohi plays something similar to the glass bells on piano, giving the music an air of flowing formality. Then the vocal concept is expanded, with Bagg and Shuman joined by Landau and fiery Mingjia Chen, who sing hocket-style abstractions and briefly romanticize with a poem by Elaine Kahn. It's all refreshing and kind of disconcerting. What falls out of our newly split brains? Paranoia, anger, guilt, anxiety. We quickly kick those aside and close up the hemispheres, hoping we have retained our bank PINs.
The second half presents collaborative compositions of Jodie Landau and William Brittelle, performed by a string quartet and numerous percussionists, keyboardists, singers (including the above), et al. Landau lends his ethereal lead voice to some of the words about a mythical land called California, while the sound bounces like a beach ball from textural abstraction to melodic art music to modern pop. Landau & Brittelle's determination to break barriers makes the experience constantly involving, and when the strings all surge together, the emotion pulls like a riptide. Listen everywhere, and there's always something driving, wafting, spiraling, gathering. Though the composers acknowledge that these are works in progress, we feel privileged to witness an attempt at a "Smile" in the making.
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PHOTO BY FUZZY BJORK.