COMPOSERS: Ricks
LABELS: Bridge
ALBUM TITLE: Ricks
WORKS: Mild Violence
PERFORMER: Various artists
CATALOGUE NO: 9256
There’s tougher but more rewarding listening in six varied works by stephen ricks, director of the electronic studio at Brigham Young University. He’s a composer unafraid to tackle big themes – life, death, the hereafter, not to mention scenes from Thomas Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbow – in modernist soundscapes lit up by violent flashes of lightning, electronic or instrumental. A line-up of first-rate specialist performers, including flautist Carlton Vickers, the percussionist Dominic Donato, violinist Curtis Macomber and the New York New Music Ensemble, does justice to Ricks’s visions. Excellent recordings. Anthony Burton