Constant Filter
Matthew Barley, cello
Works by John Metcalfe
“Using computerised octave-splitters and delay units, Barley achieves a surprising depth of sound and harmonic richness, particularly on the title-track, where echoing wisps of electronic sound flutter around the cello like butterflies”
The Independent |
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“Barley's booklet note explains how he decided it was time that he made a recording at home, and gives some idea of the steepness of the learning curve he faced. He seems to have made the ascent with ease: you'd never know it wasn't the product of some glitzy studio. His playing, of course, is just as accomplished.”
International Record Review |
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“Metcalfe has achieved the unusual feat of creating electronic music that sounds organic and heartfelt, and in Barley he has a hugely persuasive advocate.”
The Strad |
The Independent, June 2010
****
Most recently to be found helping Peter Gabriel transform the cover versions on Scratch My Back, John Metcalfe here furnishes cellist Matthew Barley with a series of pieces mostly composed for solo cello and electronics.
Using computerised octave-splitters and delay units, Barley achieves a surprising depth of sound and harmonic richness, particularly on the title-track, where echoing wisps of electronic sound flutter around the cello like butterflies; Lonely Bay, on which the concentration necessitated by using a 40-second loop imposes a deep meditative calm; and The Appearance of Colour, where the slow accretion, note by note, of a single 25-note chord produces an imposing serenity.
DOWNLOAD THIS Constant Filter; The Appearance of Colour; Lonely Bay
Andy Gill
International Record Review, July/August 2010
Having heard the name of John Metcalfe more often than I had heard his music, I was wondering what to expect when I put this CD into the player - after all, Tracing the Outline, the first work on this disc, doesn't give you much to go on. Written in 2009, it opens with a melodic line studded with fourths and thus is instantly, assertively tonal, and the appositeness of the title is soon obvious: Metcalfe uses electronics to develop shadow lines that accompany the melody being spun out by the cello itself, generating rich chordal progressions, harmonics and rhythmic complexity (and on occasion some physically unplayable pizzicati) over the course of this 21-minute, six- movement suite. The prevailing fourths give it a confessional character, even in the minimalist toccatas that people its progress.
Matthew Barley commissioned Constant Filter from Metcalfe in 2006; not quite six minutes in length, it posits an elegy in the cello and then wraps it in a wash of pulsing electronic sound. Kite (2010), where Barley is joined by the pianist Ashley Wass, alternates expansive cello lines and Metcalfe's off-beat playtimes, discreetly assisted by electronics. Lonesome Bay uses a loop, so that what the cello plays – which from Barley's notes seems to be some extent up to the cellist – returns 40 seconds later; it thus generates a timeless vault of sound (seven minutes long here).
As She Fell is a five-minute adaptation of a piano piece occasioned by the death of the composer's mother; it stumbles forward in sorrow-laden repeated chords, introverted in grief. Finally we have The Appearance of Colour which, Barley tells us, was written (he doesn't say when) 'for performance in a cathedral and is filled with the serene grandeur of those buildings'. It is in essence a huge chord that begins as a rocking A-G figure and piles on over 20 more notes over the course of its eight-and-a-half minute length; it must be very effective in one of those huge spaces.
Barley's booklet note explains how he decided it was time that he made a recording at home, and gives some idea of the steepness of the learning curve he faced. He seems to have made the ascent with ease: you'd never know it wasn't the product of some glitzy studio. His playing, of course, is just as accomplished.
Martin Anderson
The Strad, October 2010
This disc was something of a labour of love for Matthew Barley – he recorded it at home on his own equipment after over the years building up a repertoire of pieces by John Metcalfe for electronic cello. It was a steep learning curve: ‘I was engineer, producer, editor, and computer sound-designer – not to mention cellist,’ he writes in the booklet.
The result is compelling, and at times extraordinary – Metcalfe’s lyrical, contemplative lines are drawn with infinite care, and the immediacy and tenderness of Barley’s performance makes this music addictive. The organum- like sounds of Tracing the Outline, in which the computer duplicates Barley’s sound a fourth below in places, draw you in with their lush, slowly building textures. Constant Filter, the title track, lays a singing acoustic cello line over hovering electronics to great effect.
The five movements of Kite, for cello and piano ‘with a hint of electronics’, are brief yet lovely, particularly the dream-like opening and closing movements. Lonely Bay – in which each phrase reappears exactly 40 seconds later – is wonderfully contemplative, and Barley uses his fine ear for colour to make every nuance and gesture count. Metcalfe has achieved the unusual feat of creating electronic music that sounds organic and heartfelt, and in Barley he has a hugely persuasive advocate.
Catherine Nelson
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