Ilex

Thomas Buckner-voice, Gustavo Aguilar-percussion, Wu Man-pipa, Earl Howard-electronics

Thomas Buckner’s appropriately-titled new CD Contexts puts his trademark extended vocal techniques in a variety of them: completely a capella, accompanied by piano, in duet with cello, and, my favorite, a tapestry of pipa, percussion, and electronics titled “Ilex” shaped by composer Earl Howard. Here, Buckner’s solo voice is transformed into an other-worldly chorus amidst Wu Man’s electronically-altered pipa improvisations and rhythmic interjections by percussionist Gustavo Aguilar. The result is highly abstract yet very compelling. As Earl Howard explains in his note on the CD:

When you hear someone crunching a carrot over the phone, or you know from the sound of their tone of voice that they are tired or upset, you are hearing a sound image. You do not say this is music, but know a lot from hearing only sound. If you imagine when you see a bundle of wire standing on end with some metal arms coming out of it, and a flat piece of metal on top of it as being figurative, you might imagine a cluster of clicks as an abstracted crunch, and the sound of a sigh resonant with emotion an abstract kind of singing.

—FJO