"Darkness and Scattered Light" is an album of composer John Luther Adams’s darkly beautiful, mesmerizing, virtuosic music for double bass (two solos and a bass quintet), performed by the late bassist extraordinaire Robert Black (1956–2023).
“This is one of the most beautiful albums I have heard in years. And so emotional. It seems strange that an album about the vastness of nature should be so human, and so emotionally resonant. As the music goes deeper into exploring the stark, mysterious slowness of the natural world it becomes clear just how little this world cares about what we think about it. Nature doesn’t need us – the majesty of this music reflects our smallness back to us. It is a humbling, devastating kind of beauty.
“It would be hard to imagine a better match of composer and performer than John Luther Adams and Robert Black. Collaborators for decades, they have both dedicated their professional lives to pushing their fields forward, at the highest possible levels. Robert Black is, himself, a national monument, and his playing here is rich and pure and plainspoken. He presents the music to us, unornamented and honest, and painfully direct. And therein lies its beauty, and its power.” (David Lang)
“Spectacular bassist Robert Black pairs up with John Luther Adams, one of the most important composers of our time. Black’s visionary commissioning and his realization of and advocacy for the music of our time is unmatched.” (Julia Wolfe)
“No one on the planet can make the double bass sing, dance, sound like a drum, spin like a top, like Robert Black. Robert has single-handedly reinvented the technique and repertoire of the Double Bass, bringing it bursting into the 21st century.” (Michael Gordon)
Three High Places (for solo double bass) (2007)
1. Above Sunset Pass
2. The Wind at Maclaren Summit
3. Looking Toward Hope
Darkness and Scattered Light (for five double basses) (2023)
Three Nocturnes (for solo double bass) (2022)
1. Moonrise
2. Night Wind
3. Moonset
John Luther Adams writes about the three works:
“Three High Places” (for Gordon Wright) (2007): For thirty years, Gordon Wright and I shared our two greatest passions: music and Alaska. Gordon was my musical collaborator, my next-door neighbor, my fellow environmentalist, and my camping buddy.
“Three High Places” contains no normal stopped tones (created by pressing a string against the fingerboard of the instrument). Instead, all the sounds are natural harmonics or open strings. So, the musician’s fingers never touch the fingerboard. If I could’ve found a way to make this music without touching the instrument at all, I would have.
Originally composed for solo violin, the piece is also frequently performed by violists and cellists. But Robert Black is the first to play it on double bass, which requires retuning the strings of Simone, his beloved instrument, to perfect fifths (C/G/D/A).
“Darkness and Scattered Light” (2023): My electronic sound environments “The Place Where You Go to Listen” and “The Wind Garden” sound the rhythms of day and night across the seasons in, respectively, Fairbanks, Alaska, and La Jolla, California. The voices of daylight are grounded in the “major-sounding” intervals of the harmonic series, while those of night derive from the “minor-sounding” intervals of the subharmonic series.
Written for five double basses (on this recording all parts are played by Robert Black), “Darkness and Scattered Light” traces long melodic lines across harmonic arcs from midnight to noon and back to midnight, on the winter solstice in an imaginary place.
“Three Nocturnes” (2022): Commissioned by the Moab Music Festival, “Three Nocturnes” is dedicated to my longtime friend Robert Black, who gave the premiere performance outdoors, amid red rock canyons. The dark twin of “Three High Places,” it is scored only for double bass, in the standard tuning of perfect fourths (E/A/D/G). While “Three High Places” is composed entirely on the harmonic series, “Three Nocturnes” is grounded entirely in the subharmonic series.
John Luther Adams’ music has won both a Pulitzer Prize and a Grammy Award and has been performed by such prominent ensembles as the New York Philharmonic, the Chicago Symphony, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Seattle Symphony, the International Contemporary Ensemble, and the JACK Quartet. Cold Blue Music has released ten recordings of his work, including Houses of the Wind, Arctic Dreams, Lines Made by Walking, Everything That Rises, and The Wind in High Places. “His music . . . is an elemental experience.”—The Guardian
Robert Black toured the world, creating music for the double bass and collaborating with adventurous composers, musicians, dancers, actors, and other artists. A founding member of the acclaimed Bang on a Can All-Stars, his recent collaborators have included Philip Glass, Eve Beglarian, Phil Niblock, and Joan Tower.
credits
released September 15, 2023
All music performed by Robert Black, double bass
All music composed by John Luther Adams.
Produced by John Luther Adams, Nathaniel Reichman, and Jim Fox
Recorded by Greg DiCrosta at Firehouse 12, New Haven, CT, March 25–27, 2023
Edited, mixed, and mastered for stereo and immersive audio by Nathaniel Reichman, Dubway Studios, NYC
Design by Jim Fox
Cover photo by Rodney Hoad
Interior photo: Getty Images/iStockphoto
John Luther Adams’ music has won both a Pulitzer Prize and a Grammy Award and has been performed by such ensembles as the
Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Seattle Symphony, and Int'l Contemporary Ensemble. Cold Blue Music has released seven albums of his work, including Lines Made by Walking, The Wind in High Places, The Light That Fills the World, and Red Arc/Blue Veil....more
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