Interactive poll XXL-26 - the choir edition

1.        Mila:  I just fell in love with this one.  Damon Locks – Black Monument Ensemble “NOW (Forever Momentary Space)”  Repeating telephone or modem sounds, then steady beat of drums.  Trilling oboes and harp swirlies.  Slightly dissonant female vocals.  This is very infectious.  Oboe solo (with drums and cymbal crashes).  There are beautiful layerings of the female chorus with added higher voices, then back to jamming on the oboe (or is it a clarinet?  I should know, I knoW, but not sure).  All drops out except for the modem beep sound and the chorus, then back to drums and reeded instrument (lol, I cheated).  Swirlies return for another time.   The chorus is back, plaintively, reed and drums accompanying them.  Shimmery sounds end the piece.  That was fantastic.  😊 IF SHE’D CHOSEN:  Meredith Monk & Vocal Ensemble “Songs of Ascension” 

  2.        Kees:  I also fell in love with this one, fickle me.  But the never having heard quite the like of Mila's gave it second place for me.  Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra & The Tra-la-la Band with Choir “Some Lonesome Corners So Many Flowers Bloom”  Counting out starts this one, it sounds like it’s in a big building, like a dance rehearsal.  Single notes of guitar step into the room, building a feeling of tension, then some layered male and female vocals create a choir sound.    There are some delicate little “plings,” here and there, subtle in the mix.  Male voices come to the fore in a kind of chant and also a round.  The women join in again, similarly to what the chanting/round thing is doing, yet different.  An orchestral swell now are in play, in a ascendant sound.  Single guitar notes with a bell-like sound, then some lush synth shimmers in and out, with some bowed type sounds, then becomes an echoed violin (although it may be being done with effects on another instrument), there are subtle fluted noises also.  Just gorgeous! Melancholy string sounds play with some orchestral hits (horns?) and drums.  The piece slowly fades to it’s end.  I expected a journey and I got one.  Well-done, Kees! *Note:  Sorry for the formatting glitch. 

3.        Christian: A third love, here is a more classical bent from my other choices.  Wim Mertens “Maximizing the Audience”  Solo piano, then cello added.  I already quite like this, for it’s more spare tone.  A more strident sense comes in for just a moment, then becomes contemplative again.  The vocals are all female, richly sung.  Smaller bowed instruments enter now, and the piece moves into a beautiful melody with all of the instrumentation.  A feeling of the tragic to my ear.  So far this is my favourite piece of all, perhaps not unsurprisingly.  I love watching the musician’s joy in the performance.  The pace begins to gallop along a bit, I get the feeling something new is about to happen in it.  The women rejoin, still rich, this now reminds me of mountain traveling, the curving road beneath and the icy summits above.  The pianist add his vocal and soars and swirls around the chorus.  The song builds to a majestic climactic ending.  Just lovely! IF HE’D CHOSEN:  Deep Forest “Sweet Lullaby”