Ex Machina

CLASSICAL-MODERN MUSIC REVIEW
“Ex Machina showcases five works that delight in the tranformation of recorded instruments and vocals without losing sight of the idea that the finished product is something deliberately composed. … Here there is a real-time, performative ethos that is as playful as it is serious. It is Neil Rolnick and his collaborators that make this program very worthwhile, in the end. And for that reason I do recommend that all with an interest in electroacoustics hear this. It is fun and serious at the same time! Kudos!” [FULL ARTICLE]
—Grego Edwards 

KATHODIK
The American composer Neil Rolnick (born in 1947) is known to aficionados of the Innova but not only, for having always pursued a technological music, but with a communicative soul, profoundly human. Despite having studied with Pierre Boulez , Rolnick (as the French composer, somewhat sarcastically, had this to say to him) was “too American”: in the sense of too voted in a “popular” approach, in fact, will turn in his strength (I recommend reading in this regard the interview by Frank J. Oteri , made available on the website of Innova, complete with a video of some musical performances). Strong of a solid educational background in classical and more contemporary experimental, but also a youth spent in a few rock and jazz band, Our has developed, over the years, a sophisticated music, which makes use of advanced technologies and systems avant-garde composition, but at the same time it manages to be enjoyable and intriguing right from the start. In two of the songs presented here, the ubiquitous laptop Rolnick computer takes a few folk songs loan, for defragmenting them in a mirror and interacting that never make us lose touch with the themes of the songs reworked. In the three long tracks where Rolnick dialogues with acoustic instruments (it is in fact a double CD), to shift solo – Ted Nash on saxophone, Ashley Bathgate on cello and Kathleen Supové piano: all three sensational – requires a continuous interaction (and at times even a good deal of improvisation) much with the changing electronic scenarios designed by Rolnick, as with samples of what he (the soloist) and sounds that are continuously processed, defining contrapuntal textures of considerable complexity but also light, geometric clarity. Through catchy melodies, phase shift techniques and sound addition, snappy rhythm sections and full of groove, Rolnick can pass through different emotional stages, but always with an unmistakable sense of irony that would perhaps not like Boulez and company, but that writer like it very much.

ALL ABOUT JAZZ ITALIA

“It starts immediately with a bang thanks to a first piece starring the alto saxophonist Ted Nash, generously overdubbed (practice back even later) to create the effect of a lush saxophone ensemble throughout, in a whirl of ideas and always relevant solutions, brilliant, including structural happiness and good use of space, with more shrill and other more staid moments. Following the first of two incidents in which Rolnick is alone with his PC, and feels, because the quality difference is clear between similschitarrate and like vocal, rumorismi and various grumbling. Thank goodness that comes right after another excellent song, the protagonist here, cello (still largely overdubbed) Ashley Bathgate, who does everything by itself, including computerized processing. A powerful, impetuous archettato opens the floodgates to the track (twenty-eight minutes), which then evolves in coexist between acoustic and electronic element, as well as between archettato, precisely (which remains the cornerstone of the song), and pinched, also superimposed, with effects that song toward the center, becoming almost elegiac, lyrical and tuneful. Sumptuous.” [FULL ARTICLE] – Alberto Bazzurro