Dessner: Solos

Listening to “Tromp Miniature,” the fifth cut on Bryce Dessner’s new album Solos, people whose ears were shaped decades ago may note a similarity to the “pulses” of Steve Reich’s 1976 Music for 18 Musicians, or even to Carl Orff’s Schulwerk. Colin Currie plays the piece on a five-octave marimba, and it’s lovely in a minimalist, Bach-like sort of way. Other solo meditations heard here suggest Eric Satie and Philip Glass. But Dessner is far from reactionary and only a bit derivative. He’s a post-modern composer-guitarist with a Master’s degree from Yale who has one foot firmly planted in the classical world, including film, and the other rooted in indie rock. Between these worlds, the message of his music seems to be: “Why should there be a distinction?” And in a certain way, all 15 of the pieces heard here ask that question, while suggesting there’s a New Age spirituality behind it all. Solos consists of 15 unaccompanied instrumental works written over the past ten years, performed by Dessner, Currie, string players Pekka Kuusisto, Nadia Sirota, and Anastasia Kobekina, pianist Katia Labèque, and harpist Lavinia Meijer. We are a long way from Berio’s Sequenze, but so be it. The sound from multiple venues is excellent.