Double-disc set of contemporary classical music from Canada here called I Had A Dream About This Place (NO HAY DISCOS NHD002). Notably, the players behind NO HAY BANDA in Montreal are – we are informed – more than just an ensemble, but also a record label and a point of presentation for other work, since they also commission new works from other Canadian composers. It might be they’re doing for classical modernism what the Ambiances Magnétiques centre (also in Montreal) are doing for new music and improvisation. Bear with me as there are a lot of new names to digest here, although we did hear from the group’s percussionist Noam Bierstone in 2021 with the patchy mountains move like clouds album (the first release on their label, unless I’m mistaken).
NO HAY BANDA are just a six-piece on this release, but they do manage to summon up a pretty big sound, using just violin, percussion, bass trombone and soprano voice. In fact now that I look more closely, the trombone and voice only appear on one piece. There’s also the piano, modular synth and Ondes Martenot work of Daniel Anez – I don’t want to say he’s doing all the heavy lifting, but a lot of the music seems to be comprised of electronic sound. First on Disc One comes composer Anthony Tan, with 30:54 mins of ‘An Overall Augmented Sense of Well-Being’, which I quite liked for its abiding sense of tremendous ambiguity. It’s a composition where nothing gets resolved, no matter how long it continues, or how long the philosopher ruminates. “Thick, electronically mutated textures” here are praised by the press notes….there’s certainly real craft and care in the way this odd cloud of sonorities has been scored and assembled, but there are no real moments of drama or surprise. Not sure if this is Tan’s compositional plan, or it’s just the performers being very polite.
Sabrina Schroeder (of Vancouver) turns in ‘Rubber Houses’, another possibly mostly-electronic piece. I like the idea of “self-built mechanics”, whatever they may entail, and the use of transducers and live processing triggers David Tudor associations for me. The music though isn’t much more than a vague teeming drone, punctuated with odd percussive scrapes and bats and plunked piano notes. I feel our curiosity ought to be stirred more by these peculiar noises, and I’m trying to visualise a malfunctioning steam-driven machine to match these unpredictable puffs. Potentially, this could be quite radical and even exciting, so why do I feel that NO HAY BANDA are pulling their punches?
Onto Disc Two, where trombone and soprano voice join the troupe to perform ‘A Moment or Two Of Panic’ by Andrea Young. Young’s penchant for using her own voice in electro-acoustic settings is evident here on this rather unusual mix of sedate chamber music and steady voice singing its unfathomable plaint, while all around the electronic elements occasionally stir themselves into slightly grotesque shapes. This isn’t exactly the aural equivalent of The Temptation of Saint Anthony, but it’ll have to do. Once again the essential timidity of these players seems to prevent them catching fire or letting fly with exciting noise, and instead of the promised “panic” all we feel is a mild sense of concern about seeing a cobweb on the ceiling.
The last piece is by Mauricio Pauly, the only non-Canadian here – born in Costa Rica, worked in the UK, and has had successes at international festivals. ‘The Difference is the Buildings Between Us’ – another odd mix of dark electronic drone gradually giving way to astringent strings and piano stabs. Not bad actually. It joins the other three pieces in suggesting this overall mood of uncertainty and doubt, reinforced perhaps by the “dream” nature of the title. Overall though this is a rather lukewarm and mannered set, lacking in imagination and adventure. From 14th November 2022.