Maric

COMPOSERS: Maric
LABELS: Onyx
ALBUM TITLE: Borrowed Time
WORKS: Borrowed Time; Predicaments; Lucid Intervals; Sense and Innocence; Shapeshifter; Trilogy


PERFORMER: Colin Currie, Sam Walton (percussion), Håkan Hardenberger (flugelhorn, trumpet), Dave Maric (piano), Clive Driskill-Smith (organ)


CATALOGUE NO: ONYX 4024

Musicians today are no longer obliged to rely on the received traditions of music college when presenting new work. Rather, they now work in a deregulated aesthetic environment where, say, the deployment of digital samples and the influence of jazz/trip-hop/Balinese gamelan/your non-classical music of choice must be addressed with as much rigour as traditional instrumental virtuosity or the conventions of the sonata form.Given the baggage attendant on such freedom, it’s always reassuring to hear a disc like this which presents new music with such conviction.



Both Dave Maric and Colin Currie are alumni of the Steve Martland Band, a unit which was grappling with these issues before most people realised they existed, so theirs is a well-qualified collaboration. Their guest performers display equal commitment to this pleasingly varied set of compositions, which range from a gentle invocation of jazz chord structures (the first piece) to an ingenious three-section workout for live and sampled percussion (the last). This detailed, thoughtful music, mature in conception, confident in execution and impeccably recorded, is well worth your time.



Roger Thomas