review of Sethares' 'exomusicology'

Hey all,

As promised, I wanted to give you my thoughts on Bill Sethares' 2002 CD,
'exomusicology'.

My percussionist partner, Andy Hasenpflug, walked in as I was listening to it,
and said 'What is this? It's *great* !!!', a valid and concise description of
the experience of hearing this CD.

There are even more tracks (19) than there were on the 'Xentonality' Cd, and
this 2nd CD (from 2002) shows what five more years of musical and technical
experience has given Bill's work. I find the 'exomusicology' disk a much more
evenly high level listening experience, and sonically richer. As well, there
is a tighter rhythmic feel.

'Apprehension of Time' and 'Persistence of Time' reveal Bill in what I call
his 'percussive mode', where 'spectral drumming' is dominant (although in
'Persistence of Time' there are quite a few othere synth lines going on as
well). These are quite enjoyably 'cro-magnon' tracks, and as a composer, I
finish hearing them refreshed and inspired to explore some of the directions
Bill opens up.

A very funky humourous track is 'Local Anomaly', where a guitar-like timbre
Bill calls a 'triangulaika' (a play on Balalaika) is composed to do adaptive
real-time JI adjustments to the next simultaneous pitches.

There are several extremely unique and special tracks to be found on this
disk. Notable is 'Over Venus' for its beautifully alien take on overtones and
drones. An instrument the liner notes calls a 'Klein trumpet' has a strange
disembodied sound to it that is quite striking. 'When everything was
simultaneous' and 'Temporal Consciousness' use speech elements in a uniquely
strange and spectral way. This listener has heard nothing quite like it.

'Intersecting Spheres' is notable for its use of a gorgeous stereo field where
all sorts of very optimistic sounding 'Close encounters' type sounds groove
over an afro-cuban type rhythm. It's sure to put a smile on your face.

'Pulsing Silences' and 'Nexus' are different yet similar tour-de-force studies
of how much can be done with a single note (overtone series music) is there
is sufficient spectral variation. Wonderful 'ambient electronica' tracks.
Bill could, and should, come out with a whole album of this style alone, and
it would get gobbled up greedily by the Brian Eno crowd.

We enter the realm of the tongue-and-cheek 'Star Trek' geek crown with
'Sonork' and 'Rojqoq', which both have a nice heavy aggresiveness to them.
There are great llittle subtle layers of 'Star Trek' ship sounds placed into
the mix of the latter ! These tracks are a lot of fun, and show Bill at his
humourous best.

There are 2 'cosmic 7-tet gamelan' tracks. 'Pagan's revenge', a stellar,
energetic track which is structurally a giant melodic palindrome, has a
wonderfully knotty line that grabs your attention and doesn't let it go.
And 'Nothing Broken in Seven' builds its gorgeously kaleidescopic texture with
techniques of delay that are reminiscent of Steve Reich. I don't know if my
disk was flawed, but this track, the last track of the disk, ends abrubptly
at 3:25 as if the cosmic arts council ran out of yttrium recording media!!!

A very enjoyable disk, folks, definately a must-own if one wants to have some
current and essential microtonal repertoire!!!

Aaron Krister Johnson
http://www.dividebypi.com
http://www.akjmusic.com