Album

Same Rivers Different

2009 • Experimental, New Classical • Percussion, Solo Voice
1
9 Haiku: No. 1. Culture's beginnings: rice-planting songs from the heart of the country.
2:09
2
9 Haiku: No. 2. Above the moor not attached to anything, a skylark singing.
1:50
3
9 Haiku: No. 3. This bright harvest moon keeps me walking all night long around the little pond.
0:31
4
9 Haiku: No. 4. As the sound fades, the scent of the flowers comes up the evening bell.
1:52
5
9 Haiku: No. 5. The lightning flashes and slashing through the darkness, a night heron's screech.
0:17
6
9 Haiku: No. 6. Where's the moon? As the temple bell is sunk in the sea.
3:06
7
9 Haiku: No. 7. Clouds come from time to time and bring to men a chance to rest from looking at the moon.
1:30
8
9 Haiku: No. 8. My eyes following until the bird was lost at sea found a small island.
2:32
9
9 Haiku: No. 9. Sick on a journey, only my dreams will wander these desolate moors.
0:40
10
Hands On!
8:29
11
Dharma Pops: Snap yr finger stop the world! - Rain falls harder
0:59
12
Dharma Pops: Rain's over, hammer on wood - this cobweb rides the sun shine
0:36
13
Dharma Pops: The raindrops have plenty of personality - Each one
0:49
14
Dharma Pops: Bach through an open dawn window - the birds are silent
0:34
15
Dharma Pops: The strumming of the trees reminded me of immortal afternoon
0:46
16
Dharma Pops: Evening coming - The office girl unloosing her scarf
0:56
17
Dharma Pops: Nat Wills - America in 1905
1:10
18
Dharma Pops: Useless! useless! - heavy rain driving into the sea
0:43
19
Dharma Pops: The Golden Gate creaks with sunset rust
0:33
20
Dharma Pops: Three pencils arranged, Three minutes, Sambaghakaya, Nirvanakaya, Dharmakaya
0:43
21
Dharma Pops: —
1:17
22
Same Rivers Different
8:29
23
Protest Song
4:40
24
Automotive Passacaglia
15:36
Image
One Sheet

As the music on his debut CD shows, Michael Fiday is a composer who refuses to accept the oft-held notion that taking risks and appealing to the listener are at odds with one another – in his imaginative sonic universe they are one and the same. 

This collection of engaging chamber music features such works as 9 Haiku, in which a Japanese rice-planting song is set into motion by a pianist playing the body of the instrument like a drum; and Dharma Pops, in which two violinists strum, scrape, scrub and screech on detuned instruments in order to conjure the memory of a long-forgotten vaudeville entertainer. Far from mere novelty act, the inhabitants of Mr. Fiday’s sound world are filtered through a highly sensitive and imaginative music that critics have called “clearly structured, colorful and unflaggingly compelling work” (Philadelphia Inquirer). 

Featured on this disc are a first-rate lineup of performers as diverse as the music they play, ranging from acclaimed classical pianist James Tocco, to violinist and contemporary music exponent Graeme Jennings (late of Arditti Quartet), to rock/jazz/experimental violinist Carla Kihlstedt (2-foot yard, Sleepytime Gorilla Museum) – all of whom turn in stellar performances of rhythmically-charged works informed by classical tradition, non-western sources, vernacular music, and minimalist style – without being strictly adherent to any of them in particular.