#theobleckmann

#theobleckmann #bigearsfestival #bigearsknox #bigears2019 (at Knoxville, Tennessee) https://www.instagram.com/p/BvW1PPoh681/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=q3vlajpy753x

To me, listening to John Hollenbeck and the Claudia Quintet is like hearing what a mosaic sounds like. Maybe it’s my ever-present synesthesia kicking into high gear, but the short rhythmic phrases and their nested iterations and reiterations are like hearing the inside of St. Mark’s Basilica, or Topkapi Palace, if it could be translated into music. Hollenbeck’s writing fundamentally differs from the linear lyricism of, say, a Ravel string quartet in the same way that Byzantine and Islamic mosaics differ from works by Mannerist or Romantic painters - his focus is on shifting repetitions and layering instruments, rather than the linear build, climax, and coda that underpin so much of 19th and 20th century music forms. See this group live if you can, or catch his Refuge Trio (a more melodic ensemble with the great Theo Bleckmann and Gary Versace) when they perform.