It's been suggested that rock writers, confronted with avant garde music, will rave about it because they lack the necessary vocabulary, experience and sense of context required to determine whether a given work is a masterpiece or an also-ran.
Frankly, this pisses me off. I certainly won't claim to be an expert on experimental, avant-garde or improvised music, but I'm capable of enjoying music that goes well beyond the tried and true guitar/bass/drums format. The statement implies that experimental music has lofty, inscrutable academic goals, and isn't meant to be enjoyed at all -- let alone by members of the proletariat. This ultimately short-changes the artist, who might not want his work to be viewed in a purely academic context, and who probably aspires to an audience beyond other academics and conceptual musicians.
The point I'm making here is that there's no real harm in treating something like Chamber Music as if it was a pop record.
Dan DeChellis is an improvisational pianist with an impeccable list of academic and performance credits. In his improvisational works, including the three pieces on Chamber Music, he plays piano in an almost of stream-of-consciousness style, flitting between keyboard runs, churning out disjointed dialogues, off-kilter scales and occasional moments of classically-inspired clarity. Sometimes, as on "Deliberate Steps", he'll play in a tentative, exploratory fashion, while on "Conversational Quench" he's at the forefront of the action, assailing his keyboard with an almost brutal energy. It's not always easy to listen to, but DeChellis' improvisations are confident and intuitive; it's easy to follow his playing, even at its most disjointed, because you know he's going somewhere rather than noodling aimlessly.
DeChellis is backed by voice, violin, percussion and theremin. Of these, Katt Hernandez's violin is perhaps the most significant element, actively working its smeary, keening howl against DeChellis' mannered chords on "Life on a Square" and engaging in a measure of call and response on "Deliberate Steps". Hernandez carries the first few minutes of "Deliberate Steps" on her own, creating an uneasy mood; her skill with the bow gives her violin the broadest vocabulary of any of Chamber Music's instrumentation. Anita DeChellis' non-verbal vocals are used sparingly, but when her piercing voice stabs through the mix, often riding on the back of Hernandez's sustained violin howls, she will grab your attention. Percussionist Gary Fieldman punctuates the pieces ably, providing everything from disjointed rattling and wooden block clatter on "Deliberate Steps", to the more traditional varied-tempo brushwork that drives "Conversation Quench".
James Coleman, on theremin, seems underused here, but I suspect that this has more to do with my expectations regarding his chosen instrument. There's no piercing, Pere Ubu-style electronic burbling here. More often than not, Coleman's instrument complements Hernandez and Ms. DeChellis, warbling like a bowed saw. Coaxing such even notes from a theremin certainly isn't easy; it's an instrument that could easily steal focus if played incompetently, so the subtlety of its application here is testament to Coleman's ability.
The entire ensemble is ill served by the disc's low recording level. Much of Chamber Music is inaudible at "normal" listening volume. In order to hear all the details of the music, I had to turn my stereo system all the way up. I can't imagine that DeChellis intended this, as it robs his work of essential energy.
Volume concerns aside, Chamber Music is an intriguing series of compositions that will appeal to listeners who enjoy one-on-one instrumental interaction. When Dan DeChellis pits his short, sharp piano textures against the billowing whine of Hernandez's music, you might even get the same feeling you get from a killer riff at a rock concert -- that marvelous electric thrill that comes when music transcends its bounds. You can get that from any kind of music, if it's done well. Chamber Music is done very well -- and in this context, there's nothing stuffy or academic about it.
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