CIRCADIAN RHYTHMS

Marvin Ayres has well established how far string instruments electronically engineered or electronically processed, or both, can reach some places, somehow neglected in their solely acoustic parallel universe. Of course he is not the first and hopefully nor the last to plug his strings and bows, but his relentless effort, as composer the same as performer, has stretched those limits for the benefit of both the string instruments and us, the audience.

Stepping somehow off his last, more symphonic structured, releases "Circadian Rhythms", 2016, takes a turning point, composition wise, that extends itself backwards to his first release and forwards to a bright new route in Mr. Ayres' musical language.

To start my praises and happiness for acquiring this release, I will mention its first track accordingly. "Anthropomorphic", up to know, I have never heard some composer influenced by Steve Reich, that does something else than to sound like him and expect uncultured audiences to applaud. Marvin Ayre's moves these "Reichian" counterpointing mini-structures to a different environment which proposes a new direction and by the same a different sonic experience. Kudos!

But of course that was just for starters. Marvin Ayres' continuous exploration of his musical language takes him to bring forward the piano here and there, giving this album a whole new focus and adding a substantial part to his strings' mood ranges by freeing them of the burden of always being there as main characters.

These attributes, mentioned above, will appear in refreshing ways all through this release, tracing an exciting experience of discoveries. The repeated listenings will convince, attentive listeners, that the undercovered complexity and excellence of all its tracks is accomplished by creativity in composition, more than the perfect recording of the same, which is perfect by itself and by the way.

*****5 "smooth and flawless" PA stars.