The Arching Path

Composer Christopher Cerrone has gained attention in the forms of both performances and recordings, and a collection of his recent works is a welcome development; this one earned a Grammy award nomination for Best Compendium. The album contains four pieces written between 2010 and 2016, three of which represent specific places. Two are in Italy; the third is a subway station in Brooklyn, but that too involves a kind of travel. The basic textures involve repeated piano notes that furnish a kind of background, with individual utterances, from piano, voice, or another instrument interrupting the flow. These have the quality of memories of the places involved; one might not guess what is being represented (in the case of the title work, its a bridge in southern Italy), but the sensation of memory is vivid and powerful, and as the liner notes argue, Cerrone has approached the musical representation of memory in a new way. In Double Happiness, the piano is joined by ambient field recordings of the Umbrian countryside; one could not guess this, but the sensation of memory is still present. Notably, the sole vocal work on the album, the four-song cycle I will learn to love a person, has a similar texture; theres a bit more melody, but the poems deal with reflections on a dying relationship, and the music still has the quality of experiences recalled. Radio programmers should note that these contain several obscenities. Accessible yet quite rigorous, Cerrones music is a significant presence on the contemporary scene, and it is to be hoped that Grammy publicity will stimulate listeners to acquaint themselves with this music. ~ James Manheim