Very unusual record is Break A Leg (GEIGER GRAMMOFON GGCD12) by the contemporary Scandinavian ensemble who call themselves Gahlmm. Names in the group are George Kentros, Mattias Petersson, My Helgren, Anna Svensdotter, Lisa Ullén and Henrik Olsson, some if not all of whom have passed through these pages before.
They do play cello, piano, flute, violin and percussion – plus electronics – though one hesitates to tag them “classical” or anything like it, for fear of giving offence, since they evidently see themselves as light-years ahead of the competition when it comes to serving up post-everything modernism, with a hearty dose of mischief besides. On this record you hear their take on five pieces of music from very modern composers (and non-composers): Tony Blomdahl, Mirjam Tally, and Vinyl -Terror & -Horror. Plus two pieces by members of Gahlmm – for instance Kentros and Petersson collaborating under the rather odd composerly name of “There Are No More Four Seasons”. The one by Blomdahl opens the album and it is certainly one of the strongest here; ‘Measurings’ was a commission for the group written in 2020, and it bolts out of the gate here like a greyhound crossed with a porcupine. Although comprised of relatively simple blocks and shapes, it’s also informed by a disturbing penchant for sonic violence – much appreciated by our Gahlmm friends, who take great delight in scraping their strings and pounding their foreheads for maximum aural distress. Blomdahl’s genius is his apparent simplicity; you can almost see the music as primary colour squares and circles lined up in unexpected rows. Liner notes by Johan Redin see parallels with the music of Bernard Herrmann – or even an entire Hitchcock movie. Yes, that degree of tension and horror.
It’s also very interesting to hear the group tackle Vinyl -Terror & -Horror, that Danish duo Greta Christensen and Camilla Sørensen who don’t compose as such, but make music from turntabling and sampling and broken shards of vinyl. When we heard them on The Sound Around You, it was indeed the same George Kentros who rose to the challenge of “scoring” their music for a classical ensemble, a task he’s repeated today on ‘Break A Leg’. It’s not as outright thrilling as hearing broken vinyl records, but if you’re asked to process it as classical music, it gives a certain frisson; perhaps not very shocking, but certainly borderline outrageous and fun. Then there’s ‘unRaveled’, a piece where Gahlmm make plain their break with musical history and set out their agenda: they won’t revere the classics, nor outright make fun of them, but they sure will work hard to reinvigorate old forms with their up-to-date ideas and forms. Very little of Maurice Ravel’s romantic spirit survives under their hostile-takeover treatment, with alarming triple-bowed strings and highly energetic drumming.
Some of the other pieces here might fit more neatly into a conventional contemporary / modern repertoire. ‘Luminescent Seas’ by Estonian composer Tally is played by just cello and flute, and studiously avoids anything resembling normal harmony in 10:33 mins. The converse is that we end up with swooshing noises which, albeit evocative, lend themselves far too easily to association with water and wind sounds. Then there’s ‘Friktion’, which wouldn’t upset an audience of 12-tone serialism fans if it appeared on the concert bill; produced by the improvisers of the group, Ullen and Olsson, it’s just prepared piano and percussion, and though presented as some sort of “philosophical short story” by the ever-contextualising Redin, the two players are not afraid to frighten the horses with plenty of dissonant, scrapey textures and illogical chains of thought.
I was kinda prepared to dislike this record and its pretensions, but now its very eclectic surface is growing on me, and through these bold performances and unusual selections, they make a good case for whatever it is they’re trying to do. It’s not quite like the cover (by Vinyl -Terror & -Horror in visual collage mode) may lead you to expect, but it’s still good. From 2nd March 2023.