For percussionist Greg Stuart, music has been something of a less-then-easy journey. He has focal dystonia, a neurological condition that can cause involuntary muscle contractions in the body – hand, wrist, or arm being very common affected areas, so you can imagine what that must mean for one who plays the drums. Part of his personal musical evolution has been to “cultivate an anti-virtuosic stance”, which can’t be easy in a world seemingly full of conventional players who strive to be as accomplished and note-perfect as possible. Indeed Stuart seems to be one who’d like to get to the root of this line of conditioning – who gets to decide what constitutes “good” playing, and why?
He’s been fortunate however in his collaborations with composers, including the two Wandelweiser names Sarah Hennies and Michael Pisaro-Liu, whose pieces appear here on Subtractions (NEW FOCUS RECORDINGS FCR348). They’ve both provided works which seem to suit our man Stuart very well. ‘Border Loss’ from 2021 by Hennies is arranged in ten discrete parts – “states”, they’re called here – yet appears to be a very porous and open structure that allows the player to move freely from one place to another, creating a huge range of textures and timbres as they do so. Evidently this means everything from retrained crackling effects to very rich “swarms of sound”, and the overall effect is both exciting and surprising. I doubt there’s much conventional notation provided by Hennies for Greg Stuart to get to this point, rather a set of empowering instructions and guidelines that work, in the best post-Cagean manner, to point the way across unfamiliar territory and enable the player to interpret the signposts they meet. There’s also an implied political angle, it seems, in the way the imaginary “boundaries” within the work are subtly but effectively blurred and dissolved.
Pisaro-Liu’s ‘Side by Side’, also from 2021, arrives in two parts to deliver some 30 minutes of percussive music. If you want a precise musicological description of what’s going on, I direct you to the fine booklet notes written by Marianna Richey, where she speaks of static textures, discrete pitch, articulated struck sounds, and over-ringing verticalities. For me the process that’s relevant is the very close collaboration between the composer and the performer – seems they really did work on this one together “every step of the way” and roped together like mountaineers, which is how Picasso described the task of developing Cubism with his compadre Braque. Through this back-and-forth exchange of ideas, and a genuine attempt to reach consensus, ‘Side by Side’ turned into something tailor-made for dystonic Greg Stuart, and any notions of classical “virtuosity” are soon given a kick in the glissandi. All I knows is, this may be not be classically perfect percussion, but Stuart is doing things with a bass drum that any sensible musician would give their left foot to play, yet they probably can’t even begin to see how to do it. Those low-register rumbles are being applauded right now by Max Neuhaus himself as he peers down from kettle-drum heaven…that’s Part I, while Part II makes use of vibes and glockenspiel to create pure, near-electronic tones that hang there in the air like droplets of solid gold.
Impressive…be sure to check out Greg’s other collaborations with Pisaro, many of which have been released by Gravity Wave, and there was also the Rundle cassette with Hennies for Notice Recordings. May I say I was surprised and delighted by this strong and innovative set. From 21 October 2022.