Tim Brady: ‘Symphony in 18 Parts’
Tim Brady, guitar (Starkland)
“A solo guitar symphony might raise some eyebrows, but this 50-minute piece by the Canadian composer-performer Tim Brady made me a believer.
For one thing, his electric guitar setup incorporates a looping device, in addition to other pedal effects, thus allowing Brady to create polyphonic variety. For example: After a feverishly distorted opening solo kicks off the opening track, he proceeds to layer sheets of droning sounds and clean-tone rhythm work — all before another fuzzed-out guitar voice comes back to provide a climax.
Not everything is so showy. The second movement makes much of the timbral variety that Brady can produce with his gear, but from within a calmer sensibility. Elsewhere, a few sections flirt with how close Brady can push his amplifier into white-noise territory while still tracing a clear motif.
There are also aspects of blues feeling (in the movement “more, or less, than the sum of the part”) and reverb-strewn patterns that suggest an affinity for Minimalist processes (in “assume an error in the source code”). So the contrasts come thick and fast enough to provide a symphonic range of color and attack. But diversity of approach isn’t the only goal here; most of these selections sound carefully considered enough on their own terms to invite repeat listens, whether part of a symphony or not.”
SETH COLTER WALLS
