Dick Van Der Harst
Assim
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Adapting the music of Ghent-born Renaissance composer Jacob Obrecht for contemporary instruments and gamelan could be a train wreck or a revelation. Fortunately, the person who came up with this brainwave was Dick Van Der Harst. The Belgian composer and arranger has made a career out of ignoring musical genre boundaries, incorporating folk, classical, jazz, flamenco, and other far-flung sounds into his work.

On Assim, he has created a work of dusky luminosity and odd yet familiar beauty. Using Obrecht's requiem to his father, "Mille Quingentis," as his starting point, he keeps much of the original vocal polyphony intact, then adds traditional gamelan instruments, cimbalom, trombone, vibraphone, bass clarinet, and assorted percussion to bring the Renaissance into the twenty-first century. The hocketing polyphonies and shimmering tonalities of the gamelan are a perfect foil to the vine-like counterpoints of Obrecht's vocal lines. Jaggedly atonal one moment and creamy smooth the next, it all holds together like the petals of a rosebud.

"Gloria: Et in Terra Pax Hominibus" is angular, punchy, and dramatic. "Domine Maris Undisoni" has a Philip Glass-like roll to it. "Olum Quod Erat (Nunc Fuit)" is raucously orchestral, pulling out all stops. Assim is complex and challenging, with the dark sheen of a black pearl. - Peggy Latkovich

Available in 2010 from cdRoots

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