Maya Beiser – Maya Beiser x Philip Glass (2021) [FLAC 24bit/48kHz]

On July 23, 2021, cellist, arranger, and producer Maya Beiser will release Maya Beiser x Philip Glass on her Islandia Music Records label. The album includes Maya’s arrangements of Philip Glass’s piano Etudes Nos. 2 and 5, Mad Rush, Music in Similar Motion, and selections from Naqoyqatsi, part of Glass’s Qatsi Trilogy with filmmaker Godfrey Reggio. On this album, Maya creates a multi-layered sound sculpture with her cello, exploring and unveiling new dimensions in some of Philip Glass’s most powerful and achingly beautiful works.

Maya says, “What do I see when I listen to Philip Glass’s music? What do I feel? How does the construction and deconstruction of these seemingly simple harmonic and melodic phrases affect my perception? In making this album, I searched for layers of sound that might reveal something new about Glass’s ingenious creative power. I was thinking about stratum, the layering that occurs in most sedimentary rocks formed at the Earth’s surface. I imagined the layers of my cello becoming porous and Glass’s music flowing vociferously through each layer, like lava, endlessly creating new patterns, expanding into the landscape.”

Cellist Maya Beiser, a member of the avant-garde group Bang on a Can, makes no statement about the symbol “x” in the title of her album Maya Beiser x Philip Glass. Is it Maya Beiser “times” Philip Glass? It could well be, for in this collection of Glass pieces transcribed for a single cello and then multitracked, she does indeed multiply the music rather than just transferring it to a new medium. In general, the pieces go from being “minimalist” to something denser, for they give the cellist a lot to do, even with the aid of multitracking. Further, Beiser’s approach adds variety, for the multitracking behaves differently in each work. In the early Music in Similar Motion, a pure minimalist work (and one written in open score), it restores something close to Glass’ basic textures, but in the orchestral selections from Naqoyqatsi, it has a life of its own, selecting and abstracting from a larger score. Beiser has collaborated directly with Glass in the past, and although there’s no direct indication of this, one may suppose that he enjoys the project. Islandia Music’s engineering, from a space at the Hudson Opera House in upstate New York, is a major contributor to the album’s success; the multiple resonances of the music come into sharp relief. A fresh and absorbing approach to the music of Philip Glass. – James Manheim

Tracklist:
01. Maya Beiser – Etude No. 5 (Arr. M. Beiser for Cello)
02. Maya Beiser – Etude No. 2 (Arr. M. Beiser for Cello)
03. Maya Beiser – Mad Rush (Arr. M. Beiser for Cello)
04. Maya Beiser – Music in Similar Motion (Arr. M. Beiser for Cello)
05. Maya Beiser – Naqoyqatsi (From “Naqoyqatsi”) [Arr. M. Beiser for Cello]
06. Maya Beiser – Massman (From “Naqoyqatsi”) [Arr. M. Beiser for Cello]
07. Maya Beiser – New World (From “Naqoyqatsi”) [Arr. M. Beiser for Cello]
08. Maya Beiser – Old World (From “Naqoyqatsi”) [Arr. M. Beiser for Cello]

Download:

mqs.link_MayaBeiserMayaBeiserxPhilipGlass20212448.rar

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