1. Towards the Darkness, for 3 double basses, 3 flutes (tin whistles and plunger flutes) & 2 percussionists (non-standard instruments)
2. Beneath The Fired City, for 2 percussionists (non-standard instruments)
3. Quick, Quick, The Tamberan Is Coming, for 4 bass flutes
4. Hanged Fiddler, for violin, sustaining instrument & percussion
5. The Resonances of Ancient Sins, for octobass flute/alto/flute/piccolo, contrabass saxophone, bass tuba & percussion (wooden box)
6. Prison Song, for alto flute, clarinet, trombone/melodica, muted violin & percussion (non-standard instruments)
Members of The Barton Workshop, dir. Denyer
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Tzadik:
Composer, theoretician, inventor and instrument builder Frank Denyer is a legendary figure in the Harry Partch/Scelsi tradition. His music is utterly unique and intensely personal, often requiring specialized new instruments of his own design and radical playing techniques. Fired City presents six of his most dynamic compositions in definitive performances supervised by the composer himself. Having worked closely with Denyer for many years, The Barton Workshop is unsurpassed in this repertoire and performs it with passion and a meticulous attention to detail. These very special recordings, the group's best, show various sides of this enigmatic composer, making Fired City the best place to enter Denyer's mysterious and imaginative musical world.
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AMG capsule review:
Like avant-garde outcast Harry Partch, Frank Denyer often scores his works for bizarre combinations of instruments ("Quick, Quick, The Tamberan Is Coming," for example, calls for four bass flutes) and uses instruments of his own creation. And like Partch, Denyer incorporates a variety of types of non-Western music into an odd outsider sound that's simultaneously like all of them and none of them. The frequent pitch sliding and ornamentation on "The Hanged Fiddler," for instance, recall traditional Japanese music (which Denyer has studied extensively), though Denyer's use of phrasing is distinctly his. Elsewhere, Denyer enjoys using extreme differences in register (a typical Denyer piece might call for piccolo along with contrabass saxophone) and heft (the breathy flute meanderings on "Resonances of Ancient Sins" are often interrupted by blasts of tuba and the sound of Elizabeth Hall slapping a wooden box). But the most important feature of this fine collection of Denyer's work is his unusual and lyrical approach to melody, which has as much to do with his studies of non-Western musics as his connections to the avant-garde. ~ Charlie Wilmoth
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A good interview with Denyer (reproduced somewhat less legibly in the txt):
http://www.paristransatlantic.com/magazine/interviews/denyer.html
