(Minimalism, l. Unseen Worlds Records) [WEB] Philip Corner & Carles Santos - Chord / Gong! [aka "Chord: B Major / B♭ Minor 9 / Gong! (Transcription for Low Strings)", 1987] - 2020, FLAC (tracks), lossless

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FILE: 02. Gong! (Transcription for Low Strings).flac
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FILE: 01. Chord. B Major _ B♭ Minor 9.flac
  Size: 146367983 Hash: C511E4F71DE1EEC7B2680844A8538351 Accuracy: -m0
  Conclusion: CDDA 94%
  Signature: 04F412E89EC2CC14FE49B49467264D1388C375A0

foobar2000 1.3.9 / Dynamic Range Meter 1.1.1
log date: 2020-08-13 16:43:19
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Analyzed: Philip Corner & Carles Santos / Chord / Gong!
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DR         Peak         RMS     Duration Track
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DR13      -0.28 dB   -18.86 dB     28:00 01-Chord: B Major / B♭ Minor 9
DR12      -0.56 dB   -18.67 dB     21:10 02-Gong! (Transcription for Low Strings)
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Number of tracks:  2
Official DR value: DR13
Samplerate:        44100 Hz
Channels:          2
Bits per sample:   16
Bitrate:           700 kbps
Codec:             FLAC
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. . "It is thanks to the loving work of labels like Unseen Worlds if we are experiencing a golden age for reissues and the recovery of forgotten archival recordings, testimonies of musical avant-gardes captured in their first (and only now historicized) manifestations. It belonged to the Italian short-run catalog Exit & Exempla, curated by Maurizio Nannucci, the only audio-cassette edition of this double piano performance by Philip Corner and Carles Santos, recorded in New York in May 1978 and published nine years later. Today this rarity sees the light once again in an edition of 300 LPs with a new digital mastering by Stephan Mathieu.
. . Philip Corner's two extended pieces, in the present piano four-hands versions, exemplify his melodic sensitivity and his fascination for the accumulation of acoustic resonances, two aspects that unite him to the contemporary experiments of another master of American minimalism such as Charlemagne Palestine, to whom in fact belongs the Bösendorfer used for these recordings.
. . The self-explanatory "Chord: B Major / B♭ Minor 9" proves how it's possible to play the same chord for a long time, never making it look quite the same; as the rhythms and arpeggios performed on the different octaves vary, infinite harmonic weaves are generated in a hypnotic and sublimating flow of complementary bass and treble. But this piece is also, in a way, a basic lesson on the emotional power of major and minor keys: the brightness and occasional excitement of the first segment – at times unbelievably reminiscent of Lubomyr Melnyk's 'continuous music', just then at his own debut – is followed, around minute 17, by the dramatic transition to the lower semitone in a minor key; and it sounds like a change of season, as sudden as it is spontaneous, the inevitable reverse of a majestic flowering that slips into the transience of the cold months, tinging everything with melancholy. A whole synaesthetic universe that miraculously takes shape from a piece only apparently 'conceptual', ambivalent and revelatory as the pioneers of the old minimalist school could conceive them.
. . The transcription of 'Gong!' recreates the obvious perceptual connection with the Oriental percussion instrument by pressing only the keys in the lower register: Santos and Corner conceal their energetic gestures giving as little emphasis as possible to the action of the hammers on the strings, so that a cloud of residual and indistinct sounds arises, deep vibrations evoking just the shadow of the notes struck through dissonant and decidedly sinister clusters. As the volume decreases towards complete silence, the emission of sounds becomes increasingly mysterious and mysteric, as if even the imposing physicality of the grand piano disappeared and the imaginary gong echoed from the darkness of an ancestral night." ©