F. Gerard Errante: Beyond Noend with Errante

Beyond Noend with Errante is a most interesting recording by F. Gerard Errante, a clarinetist, composer, and author based in Virginia. Errante, who also is a professor of music at Norfolk State University, has performed extensively all over the world, and was second prize winner in the international Gaudeamus competition for interpreters of contempory music. The music on this CD evokes a lot of images. It is filled with music of seeming contradictory elements; at once, dark and mysterious, at the same time bright and optimistic. It is jagged and disjointed, and at the same time structured and cognizant. At times it is psychedelic and even psychotic, yet it is also full of strength and sanity, and there does appear to by a internal logic at work throughout each and every piece on this disc. The names of the pieces themselves evoke a lot of emotion and intrigue- names like "Silent Tears", "Kaleidoscope", and "Twilight". Special effects such as echo and delay are used throughout to augment what is at times, clearly a 20th century classical approach that harks back to inventions in atonality and chromaticism made famous by composers such as Schoenburg and Stravinsky. As dissonant as this music gets, it is also at the same time largely accessible. In fact much of Erranti's music is strangely beautiful, and eerily peaceful. A work of obvious conviction brought forth with a lot of heart and courage. Recommended.