Graham Reynolds’ Concerto About the Fervor of Invention Gets New Lease on Life (album stream)

Graham Reynolds‘ reissue of his 2010 composition The Difference Engine: A Triple Concerto, is out now and available on vinyl for the first time.

With the Independent hailing him as “the quintessential modern composer”, the Austin, Texas-based musician works in a variety of idioms and domains, including film, theatre, concert halls, and more. He recently scored Richard Linklater’s Last Flag Flying, the Rude Mechs’ Stop Hitting Yourself for Lincoln Center Theater, Ballet Austin’s Belle Redux, and a multi-year commission from Ballroom Marfa, The Marfa Triptych. His Creative Capital Award winning project, Pancho Villa from a Safe Distance, is a bilingual cross-border opera created with librettists Lagartijas Tiradas al Sol (Mexico City) and director Shawn Sides (Rude Mechs). Amidst touring with this opera and other endeavors, Reynolds is currently at work on Golden Hornet’s The Sound of Science as both curator and composer.

The new edition of The Difference Engine features remixes from the Octopus Project, Demián Gálvez, Adrian Quesada, Peter Stopchinski, DJ Spooky, and Orión Garcia and spotlights Reynolds’ unmistakable voice as a composer and performer.

The Difference Engine carried Reynolds into the practice of marrying sound and science while sharing the culture of inquiry central to both disciplines. Based loosely on the concerto format, the story of Charles Babbage and his invention “the difference engine” hands at the center. His desire to build this engine now gives historians a glimpse of the fervor of creation and what could have been the world’s first computer.

The completed concerto The Difference Engine premiered in 2010 as a 35-piece orchestral performance presented by Golden Hornet in Austin. Soloists Leah Zeger on violin, Jonathan Dexter on cello, and the composer himself on piano fronted the debut, with parts written specifically for their skill set and personal voices. Those voices were then captured for the recordings originally released in 2011.