REVIEWS of Sarah Peebles' music < back to Amber CD main review page || next review >
Contact! 11.1 (1997 Special)
A publication of the Canadian Electroacoustic Community (CEC)
Suspended in
Amber
Sarah
Peebles
Innova
A CD review by Kevin Austin
Music as timeless as the consciousness of Japanese rock garden, Suspended in Amber, is a CD of works that have evolved from the cross-cultural experiences of Sarah Peebles: composer, performer, source of energy. The four works, expertly presented, Blue Moon Spirit (solo shô), Tomoe (version 4) (shô, percussion, noise-makers, sampled sounds), Phoenix Calling (shô, percussion and tape), Aqua Babble (ondes martenot, shô, electroacoustics, toys), wend between improvisation and acoustical realization of the performers' and composers' inner secret strengths of body, speech and mind.
shô chants over delicately interlaced loon, cicada, and water environmental signatures: templar Japanese percussion counterpoint frogs and insects: ondes martinot and sampler naturally cohabit this dynamic, modern occid-oriental, spiritual still-life. Cycles of the seasons, birth, passage and re-birth transform inner turmoils. Sounds of grace and peace: music: musics of longditudinal inner peace where time hath no dominion.
- Kevin Austin, Montreal.