It was a microtonal night in NYC

Just got back from NYC. I caught Newband performing
Dean Drummond's score for the silent film "The Last Laugh"
by F.W. Murnau in the Wintergarden at the World Financial Center.
I already heard this once in March. Joe Monzo
reviewed that show on my Juxtaposition Ezine site (follow links below).
Last time I was busy watching the film, this time I could concentrate on
the
music. For me, to date this is probably Dean's most interesting work.
The score really captures the polar opposites of despair and joy in the
film.

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After that was done I buzzed over to the Knitting Factory to
catch Elodie Lauten with a band that contained a few AFMM
regulars. Here's the bit from the Knit site:

>Elodie Lauten
>
>Performed every seven years, Initiation, from the Soundless
>Sound Matrix brings seven performers to interact with an
>electronic ambience based on the harmonic vibration of silence.
>Mary Hurlbut - soprano; Meredith Borden - coloratura soprano;
>Andrew Bolotowsky - flute; Jon Catler-microtonal electric
>guitar; Johnny Reinhard-bassoon; Juliann Klopotic - violin;
>Elodie Lauten - synthesizers.

I got there a bit late but they were still working on
the sound check, the sound man plugging things in with
the board volume turned up - treating us to some really
nice loud pops. There were problems with the mix, the cd
backing track was a bit too loud. I could go on a bit here,
but on to the music...

Bells and cymbals and big fundamental drones over which
the band played. On one of the pieces, some classic
repetitious minimalism against which the band also played.
Some of this was performed by Elodie, some was on a
cd player plugged into the board. Everyone got some
solo space, the obvious being Meredith Borden, Johnny
Reinhard and Juliann Klopotic letting loose with some
great solos.

Microtonal? Yes but I have no idea what kind of tuning
was used. Still, even though there were technical difficulties,
I got *it*. A big beautiful drone (most of the time)
with sections of group improvisation.

Elodie Lauten on the WWW:
http://www.echonyc.com/~jhhl/Lauten/


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