Joanna Brouk - Hearing Music 2xLP

Label: Numero Group

Our Review:

Third in The Numero Group's archival series of obscure California modernist new age composers following the incredible Iasos and Jordan De La Sierra releases, comes this breathtaking anthology of works from Robert Ashley and Terry Riley protege Joanna Brouk. Hearing Music collects little heard recordings from this Mills College Center for Contemporary Music graduate who was inspired by the frequencies of sound occurring in nature. Approaching sound composition more as a conduit than a willful subjection of ideas, Brouk used recordings of nature, especially of bees and crickets, slowing them down and finding the underlying drones from which to build long-form evocative pieces involving piano, flute, horns, gongs and voice. Brouk found that the sustained drone had a universal connection from sounds of nature to chanting of monks to the overtones heard on a piano, and by just listening to the frequencies of a tone, she could channel the right space and atmosphere for what the composition would end up becoming. Hearing Music is a brilliant and beautiful introduction into the reclusive sound world of a truly remarkable composer.