Sequenza21/The Contemporary Classical Music Weekly

Wet Ink at Tenri

For the past few years the Tenri Cultural Institute has been creeping into the limelight of the New York music scene. Its beautiful galleries have proven to be an ideal setting for new music concerts, and last night Tenri played host to Wet Ink, a new music collective/ensemble/thingy. Wet Ink in turn produced a concert featuring the ensembles �Flexible Music� and �Z�s.� Flexible Music dedicates itself to expanding the repertoire for saxophone, guitar, piano, and percussion � the instruments its four members play; Z�s � which consists of two drummers, two electric guitar players, and two saxophonists � dedicates itself to �avant-rock� and new music. The results were mixed.

Flexible Music went first and opened with Ryan Streber�s �Closing Time.� Streber and his music are unknown to me, but his work was in many ways the strongest on the program. A spiky, polyphonic piece, �Closing Time� is rich in dynamic and timbrel contrast and utilizes the ensemble with flair and imagination. Following Streber were two world premieres: Reiko Fueting�s �red wall� and Vineet Shende�s �Throw Down or Shut Up!� With its obstinate tutti attacks and quick echoes, Fueting�s strange work brings to mind the premature flattening of rippling concentric circles in water; Shende�s breathless and goofy homage to James Brown went over better with the audience, and its jaunty syncopations and tonal riffs were refreshing. Flexible Music closed their half with Louis Andriessen�s dreamy four-part unison canon �Hout.�

The second half was all Z�s. The aptly named group presented four pieces: �Bump,� �Balk,� �Four Systems,� and �Mimesis.� The first two works are arrived at by the entire group, the third is by Earle Brown (sort of), and the last is by Alex Mincek, who plays saxophone in the group and is one of the folks behind Wet Ink. While �Mimesis� does make some efforts toward form and gesture, the other works are content to run their numbing minimalist ruts while finding no other use of the ensemble than the pairing of drums, pairing of guitars, and pairing of saxes. (Why not a duet for sax and drum set?) The music, while boasting the odd moment of rhythmic and timbrel interest, is claustrophobic in every respect.

However, excepting the Andriessen, the same problem to a greater or lesser extent troubled every piece on Wet Ink�s program: no composer moved between sections of music convincingly. Every piece moved in fits and starts and lurches and twitches. Transitions were often very awkward. Now there�s nothing �wrong� with abrupt musical changes and lurching and what not, but it�s hard to keep energy flowing when the music starts and stops so frequently. As a result, endings fell flat (or flat-ish) all evening in spite of good ideas and good performances: both Flexible Music and Z�s are, when all is said and done, tight groups with great musical chops. With some different rep, they�re both worth hearing again.

P.S. A word on Z�s realization of the Earle Brown in �comments.�

posted by David Salvage 10/15/2005