| ...aboutNEWBAND'S
recording of Archipelago
by Elizabeth Brown
Elizabeth Brown's Archipelago (1990/92) quite simply blows me away as the gentlest fusillade one is ever likely to hear. For a start, the work appears haunted by the spirit of John Dowland's Can she excuse my wrongs?, a.k.a. If my complaints could passion move. This is nowhere stated or indeed obvious. It is probably more a question of my wishing it so. Whatever, the hint of a powerfully beautiful melody appears almost immediately on the cello, its full fruition by cello and flute against the narcotic luminosities of synthesizer, two surrogate kitharas, diamond marimba, and a pair of (Dean Drummond's) zoomoozophones, in a kind of free fantasy assembled with an attention to poetry and detail that plays for me as a beyond-brilliant union of common and uncommon parts." Mike Silverton, Fanfare |