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Improbable Transgressions - Pedro Carneiro | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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 Pedro Carniero is a rock star…of classical percussion, that is. Yes, maybe it's a bit unusual for an accomplished symphonic percussionist to make a go of it as a soloist and composer, while at the same time flirting with the "out there" world of experimental music. His classical repertoire includes solo marimba transcriptions of Bach and Schumann as well as very brave contemporary pieces by Iannis Xenakis. This adventurous percussionist also has programs titled "Pedro Carneiro Rewired", where he dons special electronic gloves that sense tilt motion and generate visuals capturing the "choreography of the hands", further enhancing the audience's concert-going experience. Pedro is even an innovator outside the concert hall; fans can surf his website and learn where to buy signature mallets and snare sticks that he has co-designed with specialty manufacturers. Yep, not a typical classical musician. Improbable Transgressions finds Carniero performing a surprising range of marimba improvisations to be remixed or used as source material by an eclectic bunch of computer musicians and sound artists. The first disc of the double CD set is Pedro exploring a variety of themes that are often centered around a particular type of technique or mood. The track for Ivan Franco: Pensierosamente, Parlato begins with a drone, which I believe is actually created by skillfully bowing marimba bars. The piece for Ivan Franco weaves nicely down a path into a dark foreboding forest, which is a journey I never thought a marimba could suggest. For those that like marimba pyrotechnics, the track titled For Cristian Vogel: Glissando, Palpabile, demonstrates Pedro's agility and virtuosity. The mallets fly with dizzying speed and the piece evolves into amazing tonal frenetic dissonance. The second CD in this set, Transgressions, will likely resonate most with fans of experimental computer music and electro-acoustic sound art. The roster of artists includes Stephan Mathieu, Ralf Wehowsky, Chris Brown, Convolution Brothers, Cristian Vogel and Brandon Labelle. On this disc, the electronic composers reveal the results of their digital processing of Mr. Carniero's improvisations and in general, all of the transformations are quite remarkable. The Convolution Brothers absolutely vaporize the original instrument, pulling it through an ungodly array of granular synthesis. The usually quiet composer Stephan Mathieu gently coaxes his piece into an undulating dense layer of kaleidoscopic sound, which sounds quite loud to my ears. Ralf Wehowsky wakes up a nest of angry wasps by drastically experimenting with pitch shifting in both directions but my favourite is Supplement by Brandon Labelle. Here he delightfully crafts a better soundtrack to David Lynch's eerie art film Eraserhead as the marimba morphs into a crying creature, half human half animal, and sings a lonely lullaby to muted marimba bass chords. Review by Derek Morton
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