Arnold Dreyblatt: Resonant Relations

“Resonant Relations” was commissioned by the Crash Ensemble with a little funding help from the Irish Arts Council, and it’s unfortunately boring. Nowhere is it written that the writing and performance of minimalist classical chamber music needs to mirror the negative connotations of the genre’s design, but Dreyblatt’s 32-minute-plus title composition is an even-keel check that the Crash Ensemble are all too eager to cash. Nothing happens, not even the hint of an expression. This release comes with one other track, “Twenty-Five Chords in Twenty-Five in Ninety-Four Variations”. This time around, the anxious silence actually adds some tension to the album. Whether or not you’re up for a miniature pianoforte’s excursion into wide, wide spacing is entirely your call, though it’s misleading to say that Jörg Hiller plays the “Excited String Bass” on this. Hopefully Arnold Dreyblatt can strike up another deal with Tzadik records, because that’s where he left the gravy.