Lewis Gill, Parochial Chamber Works, Music Inspired by Warrington, Volume One

 

I have been friends with UK composer Lewis Gill for some time now, having the pleasure of hearing about his music on social media and exploring mutual musical frontiers by sharing music and thoughts over the years. I originally liked what he was doing in Prog Rock and have followed his forays into Modern Concert Music for some time without  hearing a lot of musical examples until lately. I am especially glad that I have gotten the chance to hear his latest, Parochial Chamber Works Inspired by Warrington, Volume One (Self Released, Bandcamp).

The album covers some eight shorter works all centered around the feeling of place, most specifically of the town of Warrington, England.

The works are all chamber and chamber orchestral configurations, well orchestrated and apparently articulated via synthetic sound modulators such as you might hear in composition software like Sibelius. Gill skillfully builds and articulates the music while wisely avoiding a lot of string writing as this kind of software can be less convincing in this wise.

The works are mostly squarely of a High Modernist ambition, with edgy harmonies, slippery quagmires of repeating cycles of melodic ambiguity that recalls nicely traces of later Feldman and non-formulaic others. We are not talking about vulgarly imitative as we are original fare. Each piece is singular and memorable, though one is also a humorous foray into melodic ironies like Happy Birthday, Way Down South in Dixies and another uses Shave and and A Haircut as a cadence marker!..

It is first rate and well worth repeated listens. Bravo buddy!

Check out a full stream of the album on SoundCloud: https://on.soundcloud.com/V3neX To order a copy get in touch with Lewis Gill on his Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61558178737272