Swiss Coplanar

I have to admit that I’m not particularly fond of vocal music, or tubas either for that matter, which doesn’t quite explain why I immediately skipped to seventh track of this CD of music by Guillermo Gregorio. According to the track listing, Irish composer Jennifer Walshe—I’ve been a fan of hers for years—was the vocalist for a piece called Swiss Coplanar, here accompanied by Marc Unternährer on tuba and Jim Baker on piano. Walshe’s deadpan, yet powerful, delivery of Dada poet Hans Arp’s perplexing text colored by striking vocal fries and impossible shifts in pitch and timbre was riveting. A listen to the rest of the disc revealed a composer interested in unusual timbres, formalist constructions, and improvisation. Props to the people at New World for turning us on to another interesting composer.

—RN