Frank Denyer: Screens

Composer Frank Denyer was born in London, in April 1943. Screens, recorded at the Menuhin School in Surrey, England, in September 2022, serves to mark the milestone of Denyer's eightieth birthday. It is his sixth album on Another Timbre, his first having been the label's third release, Music for Shakuhachi (2007); that featured four Denyer compositions for solo shakuhachi or shakuhachi plus percussion, performed by shakuhachi master Yoshikazu Iwamoto at a time when the newly-formed label seemed more interested in improv (the label's first two albums featured John Butcher and Phil Minton respectively.)

Screens' five compositions dating from 1973 (two pieces), 1990, 2017/18 and 2020/21 cover a period of forty-eight years from when Denyer was in his thirties to his late seventies. The music here was all played by members of the Octandre Ensemble conducted by Jon Hargreaves who, with Denyer, was responsible for musical direction. In a set-up similar to Apartment House, the Octandre Ensemble players vary from piece to piece depending on the requirements of the compositions. Anyone wishing to understand Denyer's compositions would be well advised to wade through the list of musicians and the instruments they play on each track. Alongside instruments such as violins, cellos, flutes and clarinets which would be at home in most orchestras, are listed less well-known ones such as genggong, crow call, jaltarang, santur and a rack of berimbau, as well as more mundane ones such as marble on table top, shepherd's whistle and plant pots. Prolonged listening suggests that Denyer selects some instruments mainly for the unique sounds they make.

Sensibly, the compositions were not programmed in chronological order, although the most modern, the five-part "Five Views of the Path," does close the album. This shuffling of the pack serves to illustrate the continuity of Denyer's music over the period in question. The two 1973 pieces, "Unison 1" and "Unison 3" are separated by the title piece, "Screens" written in 2017/18. All three feature wordless ethereal vocals which blend well with the other instruments; the title piece is unique in featuring Denyer's voice, reciting rather than singing a piece about sounds, interrupted occasionally by attention-grabbing percussion.

Although every track here is engaging from start to finish, "Five Views of the Path" is undoubtedly the album's best, its blend of voices and Baroque instruments being offset by subtle use of percussion. It demonstrates that Denyer's best years and works are not necessarily behind him and he will be worth watching in future. With its broad range of Denyer compositions, Screens is recommended as a starting point for those wishing to investigate Denyer's music but will also appeal to those already converted.