Redhooker

Named after a ed year of sadness and isolation in an industrial quarter of Brooklyn, Stephen Griesgraber’s Redhooker is probably best described as the sound of loneliness with a resolve to patience. With Vespers, his second CD release, this classically-trained guitarist from Slow Six and formerly of Antony and the Johnsons invites us to bask in the combined warmth of three violins (Andie Springer, Maxim Moston, Ben LIvely), a bass clarinet (Peter Hess), and an electric guitar (Griesgraber himself), dancing at the juncture of Renaissance and Baroque polyphony, experimental minimalism, and improvisation. Reconnecting with a faded but poignant memory of singing in a Madrigal choir college, Griesgraber combines composed counterpoint with live improvisation using a foot-operated Max/MSP application, which plays randomized snippets of sound from the performance that is currently unfolding. Whether we hear them live or on record, the ensemble takes the experience of spontaneous interactive music-making and folds it back onto itself: what we hear is not only the sound of the players responding to one another in real-time, responding to the recording, but also responding to their own responses earlier on in the performance. How could an empty apartment be full of so many voices? And who would have thought that the story of a hard Redhook winter could leave us feeling so warm?
From: redhooker.com