CLAIRE EDWARDES - DUAL ATTRACTOR: REVIEW
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CLAIRE EDWARDES
Dual Attractor (ABC Classics)
MUSHROOMS ARE SO PASSE now, Beef Wellingtons having settled that issue for a while. But curiosity is not so easily sated. How do you die if you are poisoned with nightshade? Or hemlock? Or Crocus sativus? No, I’m not asking for a friend, chef, true crime podcaster, or indeed anyone with access to the White House kitchen, as appealing as that may well be.
I am not sure I have the complete answer after listening to a three-part piece by composer Gemma Peacocke called I Promise Not To Poison You xoxo – broken up into sections labelled Nightshade, Hemlock and Crocus Sativus – and that I am even asking may indicate more questions of me at the very least, than might reasonably be directed at her. But I suspect the fact that I have not totally ruled out finding out first-hand is not a healthy sign, personally, though a positive for Peacocke and Claire Edwardes, the percussionist and leader of the adventurous new music group, Ensemble Offspring, on whose album the poisons trilogy is performed.
The 12 minutes of I Promise Not To Poison You xoxo parts 1-3 is the centrepiece of the first half of Edwardes’ album, what you might call the mellow side. On an album where marimba and vibraphone are the lead and often enough only instruments, there is lightness (Crocus Sativus), urgency (Hemlock) and speculative enquiry (Nightshade) within an unlikely, almost lush atmosphere. The rivers of notes in the early part of Hemlock cascade around any impediments, falling through rather than crashing down, the nagging persistence in Crocus Sativus feels more like persistence than demand and yet does not release you, and Nightshade begins it all with probing explorations that move forward incrementally, initially disguising its intent.
Proceeding I Promise … , the woody In Manus Tuas (one of several pieces originally written for other instruments, in this case cello, but here arranged for tuned percussion) by Caroline Shaw, feels wholly contemplative, and Kate Moore’s higher, less-earthy Joyful Melodies is theoretically a sunny-side-up moment. But there are competing, or at least nuanced, shadings within each to make doubt a player at all times.
This is not necessarily the case for Natalie Williams’ Emberstrike whose elegance is unquestioned, but this track is a turning point in the album, preceding the introduction of electronics, and eventually drums, shifting Dual Attractor across genres. And even onto dancefloors.
Initially this is through four parts of Bumps Per Minute, 18 Studies For Dodgems (What now? Dodgems? Hell, why not?) from Scot, Anna Meredith whose sense of humour is drily Celtic. The squelch of Joy Subdivision’s processed rhythm, over which Edwardes lays shimmering textures, gives way to the more caught-in-traffic-oriented Deep Thought Panda, a kind of place-setter for the urgent Norcanaoe, Edwardes now engaged in a kind of space race against the accelerating machinery. In a way, the machinery wins in Tom Cruise Runs, the shortest of the quartet (well, obviously!) with Edwardes eventually giving up on holding back the tide and going with the frantic flow. Someone was having fun.
It is in the closing, 10-minute, title track – written by Edwardes and Paul Mac – that the inevitable occurs, melody giving way to rhythm. Metallic percussion.is joined by hand-drums then escalation begins, carrying forth a rolling momentum that scatters finer materials as if no resistance is tolerated. When a counter argument begins to emerge, it is absorbed at first, but there’s a hand on the brakes, and the easing back slows down the engine just enough for us to catch a better look at the scenery before we ease away.
Is Edwardes pulling with or against us? Does it matter? Maybe that is dual attractor.
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