Invisible "Seeds" for James Tenney is a 1998 work scored for the same forces as Music of Nights It too is an arch-form work, but unlike its aforementioned sister piece, the strings always play arco. It begins with somewhat slowly moving sustained tones, gradually picks up its pace and intensity until it reaches its climax, and then it slows back down to a state that is somewhat akin to its beginning.
Entrances is a work for four pianos—all four parts stunningly played by David Rosenboom, who also realized the specific construction of the version of this somewhat open-form piece that is heard here. Starting with intermittent bursts of notes, it builds to an extraordinarily dense barrage of sound.
Michael Byron is a New Jersey/New York-based composer whose works have been performed around the world. As a performer, he has been a member various new music and experimental improvisation ensembles with such other composer/performers as David Rosenboom, Peter Garland, and William Winant and artists Jackie Humbert and George Manupelli. Byron has also been a member of the American Gamelan ensemble Son of Lion. He has taught at York University and served on the Board of Directors of the Aesthetic Research Centre of Canada, where he edited the first issue of Journal of Experimental Aesthetics. He also was the editor/publisher of Pieces, a series of books of music scores by contemporary American composers. Byron has received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York State Council for the Arts, and the Canada Council for the Arts, and he has had his music recorded on the Cold Blue and Neutral labels.
David Rosenboom, the pianist(s) on Entrances and the conductor of the other two works on this disc, is a noted composer in his own right whose most recent CD, a collaboration with Anthony Braxton, was released on the Lovely Music label. Rosenboom is the Dean of the School of Music at Cal Arts. Rosenboom
The CalArts New Century Players is an ensemble of CalArts instrumental faculty who are also top Los Angeles studio players and new music specialists.
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". . . pieces lovely in their cloudy string textures and abrupt piano riffs. . . it all breathes the air of pre-Silicon Valley California." —Kyle Gann, Village Voice
". . . cascades of swirling music . . . sincere, technically challenging musical art with a distinct point of view." —Fanfare
"The deeply engaging pieces on Byron’s CD are rigorously about process and implications. . . . Music of Nights Without Moon or Pearl is a piece to savor. . . . David Rosenboom’s realization of Entrances is a marvel of stamina and precision." —International Record Review
"Entrances. . . an impressive piece for four pianos . . . builds up into rhapsodic frenzy, taking the listener into its maelstrom." —All-Music Guide
"It's wonderful that music can have such power to (en)lighten the soul and that Michael has the gift to so empower us." —Richard Teitelbaum
"Byron creates a maximalist effect out of minimalist means." —ClassicalNet
"These are restful pieces of a minimalist solemnity, but they are also impalpable and velvety, like the best of Brian Eno in his ‘Discrete’ days. Pizzicatos, sustained notes, cascading pianos—Byron’s works deserve attention." —Blow Up magazine (Italy)
One is reminded not only of the time-bound nature of sculpture (one must move around a piece to fully experience it), but the mobiles of Alexander Calder, which are both fixed and moving. And like Calder's work, Byron's music is immediately comprehensible and beautiful, while it remains experimental. —Dean Suzuki, San Francisco Bay Guardian
"There is complexity and layering, intrusion and change-of-direction, often when least expected. It is beautiful, enigmatic and involving. —Rupert Loydell, Tangents (UK)