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Evelyn Glennie, Percussion Artistic inspiration can be mysterious if not downright baffling. Solo percussionist Evelyn Glennie and producer Michael H. Brauer say her latest album is based on, of all things, a 1976 Michael Crichton novel, Eaters of the Dead. Crichton's tale of 10th century Norse culture as observed by an Arab traveler is intriguing, but the common ground between book and music is far from obvious beyond the track titles and a certain eerie mood. Shadow Behind the Iron Sun is entirely improvised, the result of putting Glennie and her percussion instruments into a studio for four days and letting her imagination loose, and what a vast array of instruments she has at her command, from marimba to car exhaust pipes, bass drum to ceramic bells, thunder sheet to Japanese hand cymbals. Glennie, a Scotswoman, even throws in bagpipes. There is one long, meandering piece of the sort that can give unbridled improvisation a bad name, the 27-minute Land of Vendon, which employs every percussion instrument under the sun, including a much-abused piano, but most of the rest of the tracks have the hard-driving momentum of a good pop song, such as Thunder Caves, which features vocal samples over relentless drumming. In addition to Glennie's percussion brilliance, the album is a testament to the precise mixing of Brauer, who has worked the sound board for the likes of Luther Vandross, the Stones and Toad the Wet Sprocket. He adds electronic sound manipulation that gives tracks like Battle Cry a wild techno quality. Glennie is a remarkable musician. Deafness from age 8 has not prevented her from becoming a percussion star who frequently appears as a soloist with symphony orchestras. She also composes for movies and television. Her new album would fit right onto the soundtrack of a sinister sci-fi flick along the lines of Blade Runner or Alien. Exhibit A: the odd effect achieved by music boxes and waves of synthesized sound in Icefall. She makes a great case for percussion as the music of the future. Grade: A |
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