Singing in the Dead of Night
has a unique structure: it is both three works and one. The music was composed by
David Lang
,
Michael Gordon
, and
Julia Wolfe
, all associated with the New York contemporary music ensemble
Bang on a Can
. All have independent compositional careers, but they continue to collaborate with interesting results like the ones here. The album's title, and that of
's
contribution
, come from
The Beatles
'
Blackbird
, and the other two works also take their names from lines in that song. (The ensemble name
Eighth Blackbird
, however, comes from the
Wallace Stevens
poem Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird.)
Lang
these broken wings
is a three-movement work, and interspersed among its movements are
Gordon
the light of the dark
and
Wolfe
's work. The compositions are independent of each other but linked in medium and by a general idiom that might be called postminimalist, with propulsive but spiky textures occasionally interrupted by silences or contrasting passages. The instrumentarium of the six players of
ranges from flute to cello to sandpaper, with all of the musicians playing multiple instruments, including, in most cases, "metals." The biggest attraction may be the production by
Elaine Martone
, who earned a Producer of the Year Grammy nomination for this and the entirely different live album
Bound for the Promised Land
. Working at the Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts at the University of Chicago,
Martone
and engineer
Bill Maylone
lend the percussion instruments a crackling edge. This is an absorbing, lively, and conceptually unusual contemporary music release. ~ James Manheim