Erik Hall is a Michigan-based multi-instrumentalist. Along with recording under the moniker In Tall Buildings and in the outfits NOMO, Lean Year, and His Name Is Alive, Hall made a splash during that pandemic year of 2020 with a solo reconstruction of Steve Reich’s “Music for 18 Musicians.” His latest release, Solo Three, out January 23 via Western Vinyl on LP, CD, and digital, expands the focus on the 20th-century classical avant-garde by tackling works by Reich, Charlemagne Palestine, Glenn Branca, and Laurie Spiegel.
Solo Three is the culmination of a trilogy. Between this new release and Music for 18 Musicians (Steve Reich), which came out in May of 2020, Canto Ostinato (Simeon ten Holt) hit the racks in February of 2023. That set featured a multi-tracked, hour-long recording of a piece by the late Dutch composer Simeon ten Holt that utilized grand pianos, electric piano, and organ.
Hall’s choices for this culminating entry in the trilogy establish an inclusive breadth, spanning from foundational Minimalist figures (Steve Reich and Charlemagne Palestine) to a pioneering woman electronic composer (Laurie Spiegel) to a guitar-focused disruptor who spiraled out of the NYC No Wave scene (Glenn Branca).
Hall’s version of Branca’s “The Temple of Venus Pt. 1,” the opening movement from a seven-part ballet recorded by a large ensemble in 1991, is a stunning transformation from the symphonic thrust of the original recording to glistening, reverberating repetitions. This interpretation retains recognizable aspects of the source work as heard on The World Upside Down (released by the Atavistic label in 1992) while intensifying the nature of Hall’s approach, which has grown into an increasingly signature sound.
Although the Solo Three performance of “Strumming Music” is considerably shorter than the recording by Palestine that was first issued by Shandar in 1974 (and reissued on CD by New Tone in 1995), Hall still works up a considerable head of interpretive steam. The recognizability factor is certainly there, but this element thrives in close proximity to Hall, who puts his personal stamp on the material.
Lessening the bold and bright sonic timbres that date-stamp Spiegel’s “A Folk Study” as a crucial portion of a breakthrough and indeed defining avant-garde electronic statement, Hall’s version lengthens the piece by a smidge more than one minute. Instead of replicating the era-specific aura of Spiegel’s work (in this case, The Expanding Universe, originally released by Philo in 1980 and reissued by Unseen Worlds in 2012), Hall adapts it and extends it into our current moment.
As “Music for a Large Ensemble” unfurls, the Reich-ian elements flow forth with clarity that drives home Hall’s understanding of compositional intent. The cyclical patterns persist and shift with glorious intensity. Solo Three caps a brilliant trilogy of Modern classical interpretations that is poised to inspire new listeners for years to come.
GRADED ON A CURVE:
A-
