Return
Go big or go home, they say.
The ever-intrepid New Music Ensemble at Grand Valley State University (Allendale, Michigan) gets to do both. Having conquered the Big Apple with their rendition of Steve Reich’s Music for 18 Musicians, and then turning to Terry Riley’s In C, performing and remixing it for their most recent innova album, they now return home to see what they can come up with on their own. Their wholesome farm-to-table freshness is apparent in this new album where three alumni wrote acoustic music for the group and then took back the recordings to play with in the studio.
RETURN may not have had to look beyond its own back yard for materials, but this album of hybrid electronic-acoustic audio landscapes opens up a wide musical horizon — forward gazing, a bit chill and sentimental, with surprises along the way.
In the end it is a youthful vision of beauty unencumbered by textbook dogma. And to polish it all off, the mastering was done by Grammy winner Randy Merrill at Sterling Sound (whose other clients include Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, and Adele).
All the music on this 78’ album was written by three former students of ensemble director and composer Bill Ryan: Daniel Rhode, Adam Cuthbert, and Matt Finch. With their 15 new tracks, the ensemble has now commissioned over 60 new works since its inception in 2006. Now they can add over a dozen more landscapes to their road trips from Carnegie Hall to the Grand Tetons, and save gas in the process.
RETURN may have classroom origins, but it pushes down those walls and lands on its feet in a remarkable soundscape tour de force. This is one album you will come back to repeatedly.
