J. Pavone String Ensemble - Reverse Bloom (2024) [Hi-Res]

In 2017 composer and violist Jessica Pavone began working with Aimée Niemann and Abby Swidler, marking a dramatic shift in her music toward a more sound-oriented approach. Over time, the bond they’ve developed has allowed the leader’s compositions to become vessels for healing and meditation—although there’s nothing remotely New Age about the music they create together. Instead, Pavone’s relatively simple pieces function as structures for sonic union, and Reverse Bloom achieves yet another new apex in her work since then. Most of the four pieces are time-based, with the musicians changing pitch at frequent intervals to forge music that toggles between viscous dirges and Baroque-like lines. But any stylistic reference is secondary to the way the stacks of tight intervals—inside of which the players alternate the precise placement and voicing of pitches—produce immersive swells of richly textured sound. Pavone sticks with traditional tuning, but microtones and sonic interference generate psychedelic onslaughts, like the dense, crushing din that arises in the final moments of the title piece, just before it all floats back to earth with stately beauty. While the trio does generate that sort of intensity here and there, most of these deeply instinctive pieces trust in the connection of the musicians, as they simultaneously shape and bend the most infinitesimal gradations, locked in, yet adrift in the sounds they are sculpting.

Tracklist:
1.01 - J. Pavone String Ensemble - Reverse Bloom (10:18)
1.02 - J. Pavone String Ensemble - Three Trees (7:45)
1.03 - J. Pavone String Ensemble - Obstructed Current (10:58)
1.04 - J. Pavone String Ensemble - Embers Slumber (10:00)