Carolyn Yarnell's Sonic Vision is unfocused and vague. In this
album, she plays heavily on clichés, though in one piece, she touches on
a bold and original idea. The album starts with "The Same Sky," a lengthy
piece reminiscent of George Winston on speed. The tracks that follow
include a three-part baroque composition, which was commissioned for
American Baroque (a San Francisco-based chamber group that uses
traditional Baroque instruments). While the composition loosely follows
the rules of Baroque with hints of Aaron Copland, it doesn't flow from
the rapid, twinkly patterns of the album's first song.
Yarnell yanks the listener yet again into another genre with "Love God,"
an inspired foray into electronic chamber music with a techno beat. She
toys with heavy-handed augmented synthesizer chords and effects to
provide a sense of a bassline and a strong 4/4 techno beat. A few
minutes into the piece, and lo, an electronic percussive track kicks in
and entwines with the strong synthesizer pattern. Yarnell herself
interjects with a lovely aria, which is then rudely interrupted by a heavy
Liszt-like piano solo. Although this piece somewhat reflects the
confusion of the album, she harnesses this chaos with confidence. This
piece is imaginative, and gives hope for future works by Yarnell.
While the remaining piece rambles a bit, they do play on a few
interesting ideas and make good use of effects. It‚s not apparent,
though, how this composition fits into the rest of the album.
Sonic Vision sounds more like a sampling of Yarnell's musical
ideas than a full-length album. Perhaps Yarnell needed to get this out of
her system, to clear the way for more focused and adventurous
compositions. Given her long musical history and superb synthesizer
skills, I think we have a lot to look forward to.
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