LANG, D.: Pierced / Heroin / Cheating, Lying, Stealing / How to Pray / Wed (Real Quiet)

$8.99 (COMPACT DISC)

Link to this COMPACT DISC

Pierced (more info)
Performed by: Boston Modern Orchestra Project
Composed by: David Lang
Conducted by: Gil Rose


1.   Pierced - 13:49


Heroin (arr. D. Lang for voice and cello) (more info)
Composed by: Lou Reed Hans Asteberg
Felix Fan, cello
Bleckmann Theo, vocals


2.   Heroin (arr. D. Lang for voice and cello) - 10:56


Cheating, Lying, Stealing (more info)
Composed by: David Lang
Evan Ziporyn, bass clarinet


3.   Cheating, Lying, Stealing - 10:41


How to Pray (more info)
Composed by: David Lang


4.   How to Pray - 09:54


Wed (more info)
Composed by: David Lang
Andrew Russo, piano


5.   Wed - 05:19

Reviews

A Disconcerting Beauty (Mar 3, 2009)
Reviewer:Tym
David Lang is a prime mover in the experimental contemporary Classical collective, Bang On A Can. The five pieces on this collection effectively reflect his use of outsider sources and contrary strategies.

The opener "Pierced" contrasts the avant chamber trio Real Quiet with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project. Each plays almost independantly of each other while adding into a... David Lang is a prime mover in the experimental contemporary Classical collective, Bang On A Can. The five pieces on this collection effectively reflect his use of outsider sources and contrary strategies.

The opener "Pierced" contrasts the avant chamber trio Real Quiet with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project. Each plays almost independantly of each other while adding into a contrapunctual whole. The trio's jaunty and jazzy tangents, almost like an abstracted and distracted Lionel Hampton, are surrounded by sheets of nervous strings more akin to Bernard Herrmann. The effect is both exuberant and trepiditious. Midway, a new movement brings in terse percussion underlining slower sad lyricism and skittish dissonance, a disconcerting beauty.

Lang transmutes the viola-ed danger of the Velvet Underground's "Heroin" into a startling new arrangement, with Theo Bleckmann's confessional choral ebbing and flowing over a modal and serpentine cello. It is like a throughline between Phillip Glass and Radiohead, something that Lou Reed and John Cale would wryly appreciate.

"Cheating, Lying, Stealing" is a self-deprecating jibe about unreliability, riffing off of being a rip-off. Modes repeat but shift erratically in a formal dance that's gone tipsy and turnabout. The three movements sych to the title; the first like bold tiptoeing, the second secretive and dark, the third like partial melodies skipping grooves. But it all gells as exciting and engaging instead of being randomly frustrating.

"How To Pray" pairs elegaic cello flows with strong piano chords to synthesize classical swell with rock urgency. "Wed" evokes a bittersweet personal memory by balancing delicacy with decay, where Lang says "hope and despair were in some strange equilibrium". A good summary of the goods herein. Each piece on the disc is strong and nuanced, an excellent introduction to a musical outlaw. (read more)