Incomparable Contrivances

Photo by Beowulf Sheehan

MATA closes its festival with Talea Ensemble in an evening of percussion-rich works that explore technology, machines, and resonances. Dan VanHassel’s Ghost in the Machine, gives voice to the natural by dismantling the apparatus of logic and allowing percussion to sound without performers. Irish composer Ann Cleare’s new MATA-Commissioned percussion mini-concerto, explores the resonant qualities of a handmade sculpture. Monoliths are made audible in the sonic walls of Sam Pluta’s three-percussion concerto in binary: Machine Language, and curves sound in Davor-Branimir Vincze’s shape-shifting Inflection Point with its surprising midpoint. From Israel comes Ofir Klemperer’s A Love Song: a punk-inspired challenge to the limitations of instrumental sound. Finally, Matthias Kranebitter’s packthebox(withfivedozenofmyliquorjugs) attempts to make a pangram audible.

Dan VanHassel (USA): Ghost in the Machine (2013), NYP
Davor Branimir Vincze (Croatia): Inflection Point (2011-13), AP
Matthias Kranebitter (Austria): packthebox(withfivedozenofmyliquorjugs) (2013), NYP
Ofir Klemperer (Israel): A Love Song (2007) AP
Ann Cleare (Ireland): TBD (2015), WP - Festival Commission