DAN JOSEPH / Archaea
The Dan Joseph Ensemble:Tom Chiu (violin), Michael Lowenstern (clarinet), Danny Tunick (percussion), Marija Ilic (harpsichord), Loren Dempster (cello), Dan Joseph (hammer dulcimer)
"A major player on the New York new-music scene...." - Time Out New York
This recording consists of three extended chamber works performed by The Dan Joseph Ensemble: Tom Chiu (violin), Michael Lowenstern (clarinet), Danny Tunick (percussion), Marija Ilic (harpsichord), Loren Dempster (cello) and the composer on hammer dulcimer. Influenced most directly by the first generation minimalists, Joseph's works bring a welcome new voice to the idiom with his unique sense of timbre, intricate rhythms and unexpected formal turns. Equal parts East coast and West coast, Appalachian and Balkan, Rock and Baroque, his style is characterized by its immediate beauty, positive spirit and exhilarating drive.
Dan Joseph (b. 1966) is a free-lance composer based in New York City. He began his career at 16 as a drummer in the explosive punk scene of his native Washington, DC. During the late 1980s, he was active in the experimental tape music underground producing works for independent labels in the U.S. and abroad. He moved to California in 1991 where he resided for 10 years, earning composition degrees from CalArts and Mills College. His principal teachers included Pauline Oliveros, Alvin Curran and Mel Powell. Equally influential were several workshops with Terry Riley.
As an artist who embraces the musical multiplicity of our time, Joseph works simultaneously in a variety of mediums and contexts, including traditional instrumental composition, free improvisation, sound art and popular electronica. His work has been presented in a variety of venues, including Merkin Concert Hall (NYC), Diapason Gallery for Sound (NYC), Roulette (NYC), Deep Listening Space (Kingston, NY), The Kitchen (NYC) Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (SF) and New Langton Arts (SF).
Since the late 1990s, the hammer dulcimer has been the primary vehicle for Joseph's music. As a performer he is active with his own ensemble, as well as in various improvisational collaborations and as an occasional soloist. Recently he was Composer-in-Residence with New York's Gamelan Son of Lion for which he composed Lion Steps for hammer dulcimer and Javanese Gamelan. Also active as a concert producer, he is a co-founder of the San Francisco Electronic Music Festival and currently serves as the coordinator of the acclaimed Interpretations series produced by the World Music Institute and Thomas Buckner.
TRACK LIST
Percussion and Strings (19:04)
Archaea Quartet (15:53)
Lotus Quintet (17:26)
REVIEWS
Vital, FdW
When I opened the package containing this CD, I immediately thought this would be more music for fellow writer Dolf Mulder, but out of curiosity I played it first. Dan Joseph is a composer who has been working inside the experimental tape music underground since the late 80s, but later on went to get degrees at CalArts and Mills College. As instrument he plays the hammer dulcimer. On 'Archaea' he plays this instrument, along with a small ensemble, of violin, clarinet, percussion, harpsichord and cello. Joseph says to be influenced by the first generation of minimalists, and that is well heard throughout these three pieces (all between fifteen and twenty minutes). I played this with curiosity and fell in love with this. Especially the first two pieces, 'Percussion And Strings' and 'Archaea Quartet' are great. It's an odd mixture of minimalism, along Steve Reich's early seventies works (like 'Octet', but then without any wind instruments), oriental (eastern Europe), baroque and even mediaeval at times. Melodies flow by, instruments shift about and small webs are formed and shaped. The hammer dulcimer gives the music a certain drive, hammering (pun intended) the basic chords of the pieces. That adds an element of 'rock music' to the pieces. Think The Lost Jockey (when is that coming on CD?), Micheal O'Shea and a very mild Glenn Branca meeting Steve Reich and Micheal Nyman. There are so many links to so many people, but Joseph knows how to keep his music fresh. That 'Lotus Quintet' is the weakest link, is ok. It has good movements, but somehow the drive is less apparent. Great CD (sorry Dolf).
Paris Transatlantic
What is clear to me in Dan Joseph's pieces is how he tries different ideas of minimalism, of which some are more rewarding than others. Luckily the performance by the group is brilliant, precise and fluent at the same time. Especially the first two pieces show rewarding and fresh ideas. “Percussion and strings” starts while using minimalist ideas, with a kind of Celtic folk(rock) flavour. Dulcimer and harpsichord here fit very sound-related like united in close family. The piece evolves over certain melodic evolutions with some looped repetitions. The second part starts with mathematical changes in repetitive variations on harpsichord. When it seems to form its own logical field, then are added cello and violin and bass xylophone (?), in a hypnotic way, but fresh in nature as a composition, with a certain Terry Riley touch. With the hammered dulcimer coming thoroughly to the fore, the music gets a different, slightly improvised shape with the dulcimer as the fundament, because of the choice this instrument makes already a different sound of minimalism. When the harpsichord is added again, it plays like notes for swing. The cello with bit of percussion and harpsichord conclude with a chamber like vision. The last and shortest part, played with the same instruments, is the moodiest part, with the dulcimer as rhythm drive, with touches of harpsichord chords and moody cello almost like wind instruments and violin on top. The main piece, “Archaea Quartet” swings its themes, using the minimalist theme as an instrument on its own, while switching melodic themes on top of it, then moves like a toy clock with some variations of the play. The second part of it starts with a “rock” like melodic theme, in repetition and loop, with first one, then two and then three layers of it (in the bass line section, mid tones section and in high note registers), like a fundamental rock/jazz piece -even without percussion-, turned into a classical piece, with the impression of a rather heavy rewarding rock theme. This is repeated a second time, without leading at first to something else, but then clearly it falls back to its minimalist nature, before it gets another theme origin with only a few changing notes, like a one-note harpsichord, a slightly improvising dulcimer, a theme repetition on harpsichord, and a clarinet improvisation on this theme. Very enjoyable. The last piece, “Lotus Quintet”, completely falls back on over-minimalism and basic repetitions, tic-tac clock rhythms, and little variation or ideas. It still is consumable, it is not yet boring, but is on the edge of irritating because the content is stretched without much reasons, and there is minimalism without showing any reasons as some kind of essence. The group performance makes the best of it. But it is the first two pieces or 35 minutes of the CD especially which shows fresh visions.
Teachers from Dan Joseph included Pauline Oliveros, Alvin Curran, Mel Powell and of most obviously noticeable, Terry Riley.
