Vital Weekly review

Review from Frans de Waard of Dutch online music magazine Vital Weekly.

WILLIAM GARDINER – ONLIVING (CD, private)
Only twenty-one years old is our William Gardiner, who hails from Australia. He grew up with the music of Bach ‘and others’ and later on discovered the music of Astor Piazzolla, Peteris Vasks, George Crumb and Alfred Schnittke and now tries his hand in composing his own modern classical music. ‘Onliving’ is a four track CDEP with works for a small ensemble of clarinet, piano, cello, violin, flute and electronics, the latter being the department of Gardiner himself. I am not sure if I am the right man to discuss contemporary classical music, since its not my speciality. Having said that its absolutely a beautiful work, this release. It seems to be involving partly composed music, and partly improvised parts. Softly gliding and bending violin tones, mild flutes and piano accompanying this and the electronics sparse and effective. In ‘Reverie’ I thought of some light, joyous Arvo Part, in ‘The Loving Bells’ the minimalism of Steve Reich or Wim Mertens. This is music that we sometimes find on a label like Fat Cat. Very delicate and way too short. (FdW)

Appeared in Issue 690 of Vital Weekly. Also featured in the Vital Weekly Podcast.

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