Reviews:
(Disaster Amnesiac) Moving on to cassette number two from the recent eh? Records delivery, we find Splendor Falls on Everything Around, the recording debut from Realtree. Realtree are a quintet, made up of Carley Olson Kikai on B flat clarinet, Michelle Kinney on cello, Patrick Marschke on laptop, Adam Zahller on guitar, and Noah Ophoven-Baldwin on cornet. It seems as though Ophoven-Baldwin is the leader of the group, in that he is listed as the main composer for the music of Splendor. Using derivations from Arnold Schoenberg's Verklerte Nacht as jumping off points for this composition, and consisting of a polyphonic core piece and an appendix of duo and trio works, the music on this cassette presents itself to the attentive listener in really magical ways. The word attentive is key here, for the sounds are never forced. Instead, one is treated to several movements of sublime moments. The way that this quintet interact with each other has been blowing Disaster Amnesiac's mind for days. Splendor features the kind of playing that is not flashy or demonstrative. Instead, the players are clearly paying very close attention to both the score and to their fellow group members. The closer you choose to listen, the more that you'll hear just how tight this group is. There have been times when, as I've listened, I've felt the same way that I did after being exposed to Gagaku, or Miles Davis, or Albert Ayler, or Karlheinz Stockhausen. You know, that otherworldly stuff. Realtree hits on those levels, and speaking of Miles, I swear that I heard a quote from Bitches Brew coming from Ophoven-Baldwin at some point. The ways that Noah slurs and trills with his horn are really fun to hear as well. This action, paired with the stated focus and attention from everyone in the group, and its resulting sounds, have had me further entranced with each listen. I recall one morning where this music, paired with the sunlight moving across a wall opposite of me, when some kind of deep satori was reached. I also recall imagining the score as some kind of tissue, laid over Schoenberg's score, and its sounds appearing as pinpricks of light emerging through. Splendor Falls on Everything Around is a captivating debut from a very special group. As Disaster Amnesiac writes this, I'm feeling as though I'm not saying enough, or not going as deep as this music deserves to be treated. Don't take my word for it, then. If you're at all interested in current composition, or Improvised Music, you'll want to find and dig a copy of this excellent cassette for yourself, you will not be disappointed for having done so. - Mark Pino
(Vital Weekly) After listening to ‘Splendor Falls on Everything Around’ its hard to believe this is a new ensemble. Noah Ophoven-Baldwin has created a quintet of cello, clarinet, cornet, guitar, and laptop to bring his compositions to life. The playing is so confident and precise it swaggers out of the speakers. I’m not implying that these recordings have the feeling of 20 somethings on a night out filled with cheap lager and doused in Lynx Africa, but it has an air that is not usually present on improvisational recordings. Musically the recordings are layered with polyphonic instrumentation and field recordings. This combination creates a mood that is delightful and compelling. The opening track ‘(8-30-19) Hemlock forest, birds’ lives up to its title. The sound of brush underfoot and birdsong fills your ears and transports you immediately to a tranquil forest. Near the end, horns make fleeting appearances, but they are blended into their surroundings and feel natural. This is immediately followed up by ‘Philosophy for the good times. The bird sounds briefly bleed into this track, but when the guitars, and horns, kick in with their ungainly dance the album begins proper. ‘(13-3-19) Bike to Andy and Flynn’s’ is that. The sounds of someone cycling from one house to another. As the bike creaks and the traffic passes by you are wrapped up in a sense of urgency. Will anything bad happen or will this just be another quick bike ride? Luckily, this isn’t an audio version of JG Ballad’s ‘Crash’ and the journey is short and sweet. What this track does is break up the album perfectly by grounding it 100% in the real world. These are sounds that we all know. We’ve all quickly gone to a friend for something but given how over the past year many of us haven’t had the luxury to do this, the sounds are exotic and captivating. It reminds up of a different time where freedom wasn’t taken for granted and we could just pop to a friend on a whim. ‘Splendor Falls on Everything Around’ is an intoxicating album that opens with field recordings and ends with the sound of sweeping and rain. This in itself isn’t the important bit. It’s what happens in between these points. The beauty of the album is that there are spaces between the phrases. Sometimes on improvisational recordings, the players feel the need to play as fast, and frenetic, as they can. Not allowing a moment’s pause. While these recordings give incredible energy, they sometimes overload the listener with information. On ‘Splendor Falls on Everything Around’ the players are taking their time to get their point across and allow spaces to naturally appear. Its these spaces, or moments of silence, where you really savour what has been played. They allow us to regain composure from what has just been played and allow the subtly of the phrases to take old. There is a section on ‘The Memory Reminds How All Earthly Joy Ends’ where Adam Zahller is playing a disjointed guitar part, while Ophoven-Baldwin’s cornet squeakily drones over it. This is underlaid by Patrick Marschke’s glitchy electronics. The combination of these three contrasting sounds is one of unbridled joy, or maybe joy dying, but joy is definitely in there somewhere. In those few moments, the whole album is summed up. It’s abstract, uncomfortable but totally captivating. - Nick Roseblade
(Bad Alchemy) eh? ist das Spielbein von Bryan Days brut + oddio ausgerichteter Sonic Fiction, das auf Kassetten rumspielt. Nahtlos fügt nun REALTREE dem in BA 108 gereihten eh?-Katalog als nächste Fragwürdigkeit Splendor Falls on Everything Around (eh?114, white C-60) hinzu. Der Kornettist & Komponist Noah Ophoven-Baldwin und sein Ensemble mit Carley Olson Kokal an Bb Clarinet, Michelle Kinney an Cello, Patrick Marschke an Laptop und Adam Zahller - Guitar arbeiten dabei in Minneapolis mit dem Holz der Schierlingstanne aus den Wäldern am Südufer, der Shipwreck Coast des Lake Superior. Ophoven-Baldwin verklärt das dortige Ambiente mit Schönbergs "Verklärte Nacht", einem seiner Lieblingsstücke. Einerseits als polyphonic core piece, mit jedoch, B-seits, noch einem Appendix aus monophonen Duos und Trios, eingerahmt und durchbrochen von Fieldrecordings von Waldvögelein, Holzfällersäge, Straßenverkehr. Sein Kornettton, extrem gepresst, dissonant gestopft oder als eintöniger Vogelruf führt das Ensemble durch reduktionistisch abgerissene oder dröhnminimale Dekonstruktionen von Melodie und Mondschein. Wobei man sich nicht nur durch spitze oder knorrige E-Gitarrensounds und Laptopnoise dornige Stiche und Abschürfungen zuzieht. Ostinate Repetitionen sind ebenso ein Leitmotiv wie gezogene Haltetöne, euphone Klänge werden von ständiger Verstümmelung konterkariert. Good times und earthly joy reichen kaum als Vogelfutter. So wie Musik und die Wirklichkeit sich gegenseitig aushalten sollten, besteht Zweisamkeit, programmgemäß, darin, Reibungen und Missklänge auszuhalten - Kor. + Git., Klar. + C., C. + Kor., Git. + C. + El. machen es fragil und nahezu unisono vor. Zuletzt vor der eigenen Tür zu kehren, ist allemal ein guter Zug. - Rigo Dittmann
(Wire)First release by an improvising quintet from the Minneapolis/St Paul scene. The instruments are bass clarinet, cello, cornet, electronics and guitar. And their approach on this cassette is quite orderly. Not much in the way of freaking out or piling up, the instruments are each allowed space to create their own vibe, which is then approached by other players with a certain amount of delicacy, often in sequence. There are places where everyone is playing, but there’s no sense of crowding, which gives the session a chamber avant feel, akin to some 1990s releases by the Recommended Records groups. - Byron Coley
(Kathodik) “Splendor Falls On Everything Around” del quintetto Realtree, mette insieme composizione e sezioni impro. Chitarra, laptop, clarinetto basso, violoncello e la cornetta del leader Noah Ophoven. Piccolo miniature in assenza di tempo, che spiccano il volo per pochi istanti romantici e poi tornano a riposo. Qualche registrazione di ambiente dai boschi attorno al Lago Superiore ed un procedere spesso sparso a due o tre. Cameristico, polveroso tepore da queste parti. - Marco Carcasi
(Dabodab) Realtree’s debut release, Splendor Falls On Everything Around, is a mesmerizing exploration of sound and silence that pushes the boundaries of contemporary composition and improvisation. This quintet, featuring cello, clarinet, cornet, guitar, and laptop, weaves an intricate tapestry of auditory experiences that captivates and challenges the listener. The brainchild of Noah Ophoven-Baldwin, Splendor Falls stands out as an ambitious project that draws inspiration from Schoenberg’s Verklärte Nacht. These compositions are timer-based miniatures—delicate and precise—each one a microcosm of sound crafted with care and intent. The pieces unfold like trinkets on a shelf, each moment meticulously curated to evoke a sense of wonder and introspection. One of the most striking features of the album is its emphasis on stillness and silence, which is masterfully balanced with the ensemble’s unique improvisational language. The written material seamlessly transitions into mixed ensemble improvisations, creating uncanny textures and vibrations that feel both organic and otherworldly. The quintet plays with a deep sense of reciprocal listening, allowing the music to breathe and evolve naturally. Field recordings interspersed throughout the album provide a grounding framework, splitting Splendor Falls into two distinct parts: a polyphonic core piece and an appendix of monophonic works for duos and trios. These recordings, captured in the serene woods of Lake Superior’s South Shore and the urban environment of Minneapolis, add layers of environmental context that enrich the listening experience. Realtree’s lineup—Carley Olson Kokal on Bb Clarinet, Michelle Kinney on Cello, Patrick Marschke on Laptop, Noah Ophoven-Baldwin on Cornet, and Adam Zahller on Guitar—delivers impeccable performances that highlight their individual talents while blending seamlessly as an ensemble. Splendor Falls On Everything Around is a remarkable debut that invites listeners into a world of introspective beauty and sonic exploration. It’s an album that rewards repeated listens, revealing new details and emotional landscapes with each play. For those interested in the realms of experimental and avant-garde music, Realtree’s first release is not to be missed. - Bryan Baker
(Sound Projector)Unusual small-ensemble work on Splendor Falls On Everything Around (EH?114), a set of works by the Realtree combo. The leader is Noah Ophoven-Baldwin, who brings his own very determined ideas about composition and improvisation to the group, and also plays the cornet. Noah made a private-press free jazz record in 2017 as part of Le Percheron, and in 2018 there was Drone Band who made a self-released double-cassette. From Drone Band, he’s brought along the guitarist Adam Zahller to today’s group, along with the very able and in-demand cellist Michelle Kinney, plus Carley Olson Kokal on clarinet and Patrick Marschke supplying laptop noises, the latter addition almost transforming their work into a species of EAI. This is the group’s first release, but they have already developed a “unique improvisational language”. As regards composition, Ophoven-Baldwin evidently favours a very quiet mode, and has certain ideas about “stillness and silence”, all of which might tempt us to file him alongside the more established (and much more severe) Wandelweiser Group, but that connection is not explicitly made. Oddly enough, half of the cassette is derived from the music of Schoenberg, specifically a composition called Verklarte Nacht which Ophoven-Baldwin has adored since an early age. To connect the sounds on Splendor with the music of Schoenberg is a task for a more able musicologist than myself, but I have the feeling there’s something quite radical, inventive and unorthodox going on in these performances. The music takes the form of short events, proceeding in a very quiet and unhurried fashion, the gentle emissions barely joining together as they hang in the air. Compositional shapes soon turn into free improvisation, and it’s impossible for anyone to see the joins. I particularly like the way the notes appear as small, discrete units in this skeletal framework, yet you could never once accuse the combo of delivering a “fragmentary” experience. I think the first half of the tape is dedicated to this unusual Schoenberg interpretation, some of the sections enhanced with rather romantic titles, and the added bonus of gentle field recordings sliding into the record every now and then, reflecting the outdoors-iness of Lake Superior (where it was composed) and Minneapolis (where it was recorded). This adds a typically Thoreau-esque touch to the whole enterprise, and it’s done in a natural unforced manner. The latter half of the tape comprises two Appendices, where the group break up into duo and trio combinations to perform the parts of ‘On the dismal air I sketch my restraint’ and ‘Everybody’s love in the air’, where the deliberation of the playing and the wistful voicings tend to emphasise the isolation and loneliness, emotional states that I take to be a core part of this work. Very fine. - Ed Pinsent
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