Percussion and Strings

Percussion and Strings

NYC-based Bay Area transplant Dan Joseph’s hypnotic webs of sound are reminiscent of early minimalism and psychedelia. His penchant for the unexpected, however˜like combining harpsichord and hammered dulcimer˜takes what he does somewhere else. Then there’s the music itself, which paradoxically sets up and then demolishes the rigid formalism of process music. Near the end of… Read more »

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NewMusicBox Staff

NYC-based Bay Area transplant Dan Joseph’s hypnotic webs of sound are reminiscent of early minimalism and psychedelia. His penchant for the unexpected, however˜like combining harpsichord and hammered dulcimer˜takes what he does somewhere else. Then there’s the music itself, which paradoxically sets up and then demolishes the rigid formalism of process music. Near the end of his 2004 composition Percussion and Strings, a sound emanates from the ensemble that sounds like a gunshot. It’s an extremely unsettling moment made all the more so by the seeming comfort zone which preceded it and, as so, is an extremely apt musical metaphor for the world today.

—FJO