Outer Circles

NEW MUSIC BOX

Intended as a metaphorical bookend to her 1993 Requiem for Bosnia, Victoria Jordanova once again delves into a distinctive and subtly intricate soundscape in her 9/11 commemorative Outer Circles. Noticeably absent from this follow-up effort is the corporeal presence of a broken piano or Jordanova’s signature electrified harp. Although Outer Circles is decidedly digital, the composer sustains a tactile veneer by processing the sound of her own voice as she whispers and intones the names of the dead. The finished result drifts somewhere between Lucier’s I Am Sitting in a Room and Alan Lamb’s long wire music. The disembodied sound floats inside the brain like a blurry distant memory that refuses to be suppressed. It’s constantly transmitting, ensuring that its presence will not be ignored. 

Paired with Outer Circles as a sort of coda, Le Campane combines the tolling bells of Chiesa Nativita di Maria Santissima, a 12th century church in the center of Bogliasco, with the wind and surf of the Mediterranean Sea. This real-world backdrop supports the ethereal punctuations from Jordanova’s processed harp—a choreography of small gestures that carefully collide around a multiplex of harmonic nodes, creating a clangor of overtones and elaborate thuds. As with Outer Circles, the piece strays from tactics like narrative, development, and goal-oriented climaxes, opting instead for a more sustainable and immediate emotional impact more commonly encountered inside sound installations.