Following several releases over the past decade of archival Arnold Dreyblatt & The Orchestra of Excited Strings material and collaborations with other ensembles, on labels including Black Truffle, Choice Records, Megafaun and Superior Viaduct, Drag City are excited to be able to introduce ‘Resolve’, the first release of new Excited Strings music from Arnold Dreyblatt since 2002.
‘Resolve’ acts in dialogue with the minimalist inspirations of the first Arnold Dreyblatt & The Orchestra of Excited Strings release, 1982’s ‘Nodal Excitation’ - in effect, looking beneath the hood of several decades of progression, reviewing and renewing the revolutionary intent of their foundation credo.
The reference points, then as now, include La Monte Young, Tony Conrad and Phill Niblock, as well as Jim O’Rourke, whose support for Arnold’s music in the 1990s sparked new life. Konrad Sprenger, Joachim Schütz and Oren Ambarchi form the current Orchestra of Excited Strings, first initiated in Berlin in 2009 - but the story of Arnold Dreyblatt’s conception (a rhythmic drone played by Dreyblatt on a double bass strung with piano wire, playing in concert with other stringed instruments performing in 20 unequal microtones per octave and changing key but keeping the same fundamental pitch) dates back to the 1970s, when Arnold evolved his interests in media arts to include acoustic sound while studying under Young and Pauline Oliveros before forming his first Orchestra in 1979 (from 1980 he studied with Alvin Lucier at Wesleyan University, where the second Orchestra was formed).
Each phase of Arnold’s music with The Orchestra of Excited Strings requires several overlapping periods of gestation. In the initial writing of the music, the expectation is that the musicians be there to allow the instruments to sound; later, in playing the music with the orchestra, free interaction among the players results in the fixing of additional parts in the final pieces. And so, each Orchestra brings their selves to the project. In the case of Resolve, each of the members, as composers, producers, DJs and artists in their own right, brought their own unique angles. Konrad Sprenger (aka Jörg Hiller)’s treatments involved solenoids, sine waves and a computer-controlled multi-channel electric guitar (as well as a relentless style behind the drum kit and overseeing the sound production), while Joachim Schütz’s individual conception of electronics and electric guitar and Oren Ambarchi’s undeniable innovations with signal path work together with Arnold’s Excited Strings bass as magnetic component parts of ‘Resolve’.
Side One features three potent new compositions demonstrating the Orchestra’s unique feel - incorporating rhythmic accents that act as microbeats within Dreyblatt’s microtones, implying shuffling funk and metallic rock at times, yet never deviating from the driving intensity of the harmonic play.
Side Two is taken up by the piece ‘Auditoria’, in which Ambarchi and Sprenger’s production methodologies turn the Orchestra inside out, working expansively backwards through harmonic overtones to Dreyblatt’s original tempo in a mesmerizing spatial redistribution of the music. The music of ‘Resolve’ uses a variety of vehicles to find avenues back to the inaugural intent of the Orchestra of Excited Strings.
This effort is, in ways both tactile and inadvertent, a timely one. With over 40 years of work as a solo artist, collaborator, composer, educator and bandleader, and with his 70th birthday approaching, ‘Resolve’ is an important expression for Arnold Dreyblatt. The album title’s tendency to mean different things is an indicator of the dynamic qualities of his music with The Orchestra of Excited Strings - an evolution that continues to produce new dimensions in acoustic sound with every new release.
TRACK LISTING
Container
Shuffle Effect
Flight Path
Auditoria
