David Fennessy
Caruso
NETHERLANDS UNSOUNDS 80U CD (2024)
That’s right, it’s a modern compositional work formed using samples of the famous Italian opera singer who died in 1921…Irish genius David Fennessy is also a guitarist (we heard him, or a composition by him, in 2020 on that fine Benjamin Dwyer album) and you can hear him shining forth with his electric guitar solos on the long opening cut here, a grand statement subtitled “gold is the sweat of the sun”, also using the autoharp and samples / live electronics from collaborator Pete Dowling.
This piece is the principal showcase for the “let’s sample old gramophone records of Caruso” strategy, and successfully achieves the hoped-for effect of a “virtual choir” with its loops, repeats, layers, echoes and time-stretching by the kilo. But Fennessy transcends the process; if you think you know what to expect, stop rustling your programme and sit still in the box until you’ve heard all 23 and one-half minutes of track 01. The arrangement of the samples is done with care and attention, and I like to think a good deal of spontaneity – the ghost of the singer soon appears with flesh on his bones and a velvet cape around his shoulders. The genius stroke has been to combine it with this eccentric guitar-playing – it’s not free-form blast-outs in the style of Sonny Sharrock, rather slides, picking, distorted vibrations, and a hefty dose of sheer oddness. Not even the craziest New Wave band from 1978 would have dared employ such an inventive axeman. If (like me) the closest you’ve come to experiencing the operatic arias of this internationally famous historical figure is the movie Fitzcarraldo, well – it so happens David Fennessy has composed an entire trilogy of orchestral pieces based on Werner Herzog’s diaries written during the time this film was being made. I’m glad to hear Fennessy did not attempt anything so banal as a “re-imagined soundtrack” to the movie.
Also here are three other pieces which may link together (apparently it’s a viola triptych) and may not be connected to Enrico Caruso in quite the same direct way. ‘Nox’ is written as the portrait of a musician, but the musician happens to be Garth Knox – who also plays it on his viola and adds peculiar syllables and French vocabulary from his intoning voice. ‘Haupstimme’ is played by the great Ensemble Modern with another viola solo from Megumi Kasakawa. Where ‘Nox’ is intimate and low-key, this one’s an all-out modernist freak-out in high fiesta mode. Part of the plan is to make the poor viola player work ten times as hard, simply to be heard against the unkempt blasters in this crazy group. The percussion section alone ought to restore your faith in avant-garde orchestras, if you’ve not yet found a recording of Varese that can satisfy your inner John Bonham. Really feeling the pull and push and warp-and-weft of this heavy tapestry, one that’s complex and high-achieving enough to hold its head alongside the work of Sam Pluta. Only ‘Nebenstimme’ doesn’t quite re-point the brickwork for this listener, although the combination of viola and celeste is an imaginative choice, and Knox turns in another superb performance here.
An excellent release, great musicians in the room, and an inventive composer at work, flirting occasionally with meta-music themes in an imaginative and productive way. (15/05/24)