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Published on 5/8/08
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Hardly a week passes in the TONY classical pages without cause to repeat a certain observation: The borders between classical and popular music have never been as willfully blurred as they are now. That’s not a nod to the pallid oratorios and highfalutin recitals served up by aging rockers, but rather an acknowledgment of the groundbreaking work being done by an emerging generation of composers and performers, for whom Mogwai and Moby can signify as much as Machaut and Messiaen.
Stephen Griesgraber is no stranger to locals who have followed this burgeoning trend: His guitar provides a strand in the gossamer music of Christopher Tignor’s postminimalist ensemble SlowSix. Griesgraber’s quartet, Redhooker, named for the Brooklyn neighborhood in which its repertoire gestated, includes two fellow SlowSix collaborators, violinist Maxim Moston and keyboardist Rob Collins; clarinetist Peter Hess completes the group.
Griesgraber’s music on The Future According to Yesterday, Redhooker’s debut CD, shares some of SlowSix’s more appealing qualities, most notably the chiming sound of Collins’s electric piano and a sense of narcotic drift enhanced by subtle electronics. The leader’s spare, tonal melodies and repeated rhythms draw upon minimalism, but his compositions develop and conclude more succinctly. Clocking in at less than 30 minutes, the disc includes four pieces that seem to melt into an extended, melancholy dreamscape. (Available at cdbaby.com.) — Steve Smith
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