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Vinny Golia: Music for Like Instruments: The Flutes

By Rex Butters
July 2, 2005
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Vinny Golia: Music for Like Instruments: The Flutes

The prolific Vinny Golia returns with a highly anticipated flute record. As with the other entries in the Music for Like Instruments series, Golia enlists his unit from the cream of the local scene, then directs them in the astonishing textural and technical realizations of his unique musical vision. His muscular webs of sound avoid flutistic sentimentality and reveal a power not commonly associated with flutistry.

"Lonely Michael opens the collection with the first of four tastes of the Wasabi Series, each a haiku of breath tones. "An Alternative to Oregnum has Golia blasting through the prickly arrangements, themselves giving way for lively group workouts. By tonelessly striking their keys, the trio imitates train rhythms under Golia's contrabass call on "On a Train, before a solemn spaciousness dominates. Seemingly abstract, "Dr. Lubbeck Pays a Visit, So Sam Phones Some Friends coalesces into riffs and orderly ascensions, then dissolves into freedom.

Ghostly voices and breathed whispers precede the piccolos on Poece. An interlude of breath sculpture, and the quartet returns to close. "Wasabi-One blows toned breath and subaudible voice into "Six-Ninety and its spiky theme, with B-movie tension sequence soundtrack motif. The quartet breaks into duos, which pair off for the musical equivalent of martial arts routines. Lon Chaney's growls, squeals, and moans precede the contrabass flute solo on "Aquarina. The ensemble warmly supports the deep wind with an attractive arrangement.

Whirling through the contrabass flute, Golia kickstarts The Machinery of History. The composition then sends the players on like contrapuntal cogs, meshing intricate patterns. "The Everyday Phone Call (for Bobby Bradford) works an appealing bop line that blows apart into a shower of hot metal sparks. "Wasabi-Two walks a foggy night on the waterfront. Golia's contrabass flute plays like a cello on the stately "Red Dirt.

The Flutes liberates the unjustly saccharinized wind instrument from the drawing room and returns it to the hands of Pan.

Track Listing

Lonely Michael; An Alternative to Oregnum; On a Train; Dr. Lubbeck Pays a Visit, So Sam Phones Some Friends; Poece; Wasabi-One; Six-Ninety; Aquarina; the Machinery of History; The Everyday Phone Call (for Bobby Bradford); Wasabi-Two; Red Dirt; Wasabi-Three; Da A; Xenomorph

Personnel

Ellen Burr, piccolo, alto & C flutes; Vinny Golia, Db, G & C piccolos, C, alto, bass & contrabass flutes; Jennifer Roth, piccolo, alto & C flutes; Fawntice McCain, C flute

Album information

Title: Music for Like Instruments: The Flutes | Year Released: 2005 | Record Label: Nine Winds Records

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