Jody Redhage: Of Minutiae and Memory

Jody Redhage specializes in the art of the “singing cello”. Although what she does is categorically labeled as classical music, her tireless pursuits of adapting her two instruments to the genre of “new music” pretty much thrusts it out of classical territory. Of Minutiae and Memory is more ambient and new age than it is chamber, a style for which this avant-garde New York City musician has professed a love. All of the works here, penned by other composers at the performer’s request, treat the cello and the human voice as playthings ready-made for long, shapeless soundscapes. Relying heavily on texture and technology, and lightly on form and melody, this is a piece of mood music if there ever was one. And I must add that the introduction to “paint box” frightened me halfway to hell one night as I walked into my daughter’s room to check on her. It was dark, I had my earbuds in, and a sudden, sharp inhale from Redhage’s voice came at me from some unseen angle.