SIGNAL TO NOISE

The Quarterly Journal of Improvised, Experimental and Unusual Music

Issue #49

Spring 2008

www.signaltonoisemagazine.org

Gordon Monahan

Theremin in the Rain

C3R 011 CD

Gordon Monahan is a master at an instrument which, despite its inception as a non-idiomatic device, is overburdened with associations (not just Clara Rockmore but a world of bad sci-fi) and a canny conceptual artist as well. The ten tracks here are part of an installation project Monahan has used in various spaces, one where he alternately probes the limits of the theremin’s physical structure as well as those of the performance space. But the pieces aren’t mere exercises to be deployed differently depending on location. They’re extremely well conceived and musical, where the analog signals of the theremin are converted to midi signals that act on prepared piano strings and amplified percussion plates (on which water drops, cued by midi signals). The results are gorgeous. The opening title track situates some Project Blue Book code waves amidst rain sounds and superb detuned strings. Things go deeper into dark waters on “Flex String” and emerge amid dull bells and woodblocks on “Fluid Dynamics.” “Updown” is very much like a lost Harry Partch piece, circa “Delusion of the Fury.” The record tends to alternate between percussive pieces and fulsome drones, though the two approaches are combined to pretty dazzling effect on “Aerial Drop.” And a clash of sine-wave minimalism on “Wavelength” closes out the disc.

Jason Bivens