Enrichment Center Percussion Ensemble - Three Pieces

All Music Guide

It is hard to concieve of anyone not approaching the Enrichment Center Percussion Ensemble with respect. The WinstonSalem project combining "adults with disabilities" and percussion instruments is noble, virtuous and capable of inflicting great genius upon tobacco country, an aspect of which would be a discography consisting of interesting percussionorientated projects. As of 2005, this collection is still in its early stages. Three Pieces is the second recording to be issued featuring the group, under the direction of multiinstrumentalist and composer Aaron Bachelder. The material was recorded in 2002, pressed and printed nearly three years later.Bachelder composed the three pieces and plays a large part in their unfolding with cleanlyplayed electric guitar parts. He has come up with an interesting style of music with which to make use of this ensemble's talents, accenting instruments such as vibraphone, bells and drum set in a music that comes to life for the most part elegantly. So...me instruments are not accented enough, speaking in terms of the mixthe trap drums are too far to the background, a shame considering the part they might have played in fortifying a tinny drywalling of electronics. Listeners may hear Erik Satie or gamelan in the repetitive, strongly consonant melodic lines. The opening "Parallax" marks promising artistic heights for the project which unfortunately may not have lived up to itself by the time nearly 20 minutes of "All Lives Intersect" is finished. This must be Bachelder's "Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands" in terms of how this project might be accepted, the material seeming to require its lengthiness in order to properly exist despite any and all negative outcomes. Actual anecdotal evidence exists, always an improvement over mere opinions expressed in essays. A composer that had been turned down for a grant in connection with this ensemble, for example, was so thrilled by the aforementioned opener and the subsequent "For Abraham" that he called several answering machines and left the following message:"I am glad they turned me down I could never have written anything this perfect for this important ensemble." Ten minutes later, the composer's friend burst into his study, six or so minutes into "All Lives Intersect". "What is this monotonous music?""You find it monotonous?" the composer answered. "I think it is unique and original, although the electronic sounds are irritating, too tweakytweaky.""It just goes on and on," the friend said a few minutes later while finishing the CD's liner notes."They should get a life." Read more Less