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NW 80728CD
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"In many respects Earl Howard's (b. 1951) music is an anomaly that resists categorization and the seductiveness of genre. He is an important force in improvised music and yet his work employs complex structures and rigorous transitions of sound and texture. His electro-acoustic music is realized with a K-2600 Kurzweil that for Howard is not merely a keyboard synthesizer but an open system, a computer with a most effective interface with modules and a key map that enable more freedom in the composer's creation of textures. In the three solo works ('Bird 3', 'Strasser 60', '2455') presented on 'Granular Modality', one can observe the striking continuity of Howard's aesthetic approach. All three pieces employ a flexible script of material that transforms and modulates from texture to texture. Each section in the composition represents a complex sound world that is not simply multiphonics or sub-harmonics, for example, but an exchange, an interplay that is both directional in terms of an overall sense of form and discursive in its oppositional characteristics. The discursive elements in Earl Howard's playing on the saxophone and on the synthesizer convey a restless approach toward material. Musical material and texture always change and evolve. On the synthesizer this is accomplished with a scripted succession of programs, textures and behaviors that can overlap and be revealed over time. The scripted flow of events creates a coherent overall structure that is malleable in terms of duration and nuance. Distinction between the improvised and the composed becomes irrelevant, as the order of events, the script, remains the same as the details are revealed in the action of improvisation. 'Crupper' (2009) features Miya Masaoka on koto with the composer on synthesizer. The piece has a fascinating tension between tonality and sound finding a delicate balance between the stochastic and the melodic."
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NW 80670CD
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"Earl Howard's Clepton (2006) is as complex, mysterious and poetic as the outer limits of science he finds inspiration in, and the imagery of particle physics is particularly appropriate for the extraordinary interaction that takes place between the composer and his three playing partners throughout Clepton's 38 minutes. For Gerry Hemingway, 'these are models that might be referenced to help us focus our approach to a given section -- a basic understanding of scientific principles and concepts is useful as they often have terminology that better articulates the intent of a player's actions rather than, say, feelings which are more vague and open to interpretation.' 'Rosebud,'[ a Howard/Hemingway duo recorded during a tour of upstate New York back in 1989, is as fresh and challenging as if it had been recorded yesterday. What's particularly remarkable is the range of color and timbral sophistication of Howard's electronics. Milton Babbitt's famous line about nothing growing old faster than a new sound certainly applies to the world of electronic keyboards; tune in to your local Top 40 station and if you hear a mellotron, an ARP Odyssey, a Yamaha DX7 or a Korg M1, you have a pretty clear idea as to when the song was recorded. Very few musicians have taken the time to explore these instruments in depth and go beyond the standard patches that soon sound dated, even clichéd. Sun Ra was one, Thomas Lehn is another, and you can add Earl Howard's name to the short list. The sounds he conjures forth from his DX7, a Lexicon PCM 70 and what today would be considered a relatively primitive Akai sampler are extraordinarily subtle, and haven't aged in the slightest."
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