Composer Robert Gross releases his second album on New Focus, highlighting his deft electro-acoustic writing for live instruments with Absynth 5 synthesizer and his post-serial approach to pitch class, all integrated into a stylistically hybrid aesthetic approach.

Robert Gross’ music reflects a unique amalgam of influences. On one hand, Gross’ pieces evolve in a manner one might call Germanic, presenting his chosen material early in his pieces and then developing each component idea as the structure unfolds. On the other, his reliance on repetition and rhythmically driven ensemble machines points to the minimalists. By choosing to focus his electronic palette around the Absynth 5 synthesizer, he evokes the sound world of the early electronic composers who spun complex webs from limited timbral materials. Yet his works tend to treat material modularly, moving sound objects around within the structure in a manner that echoes contemporary electronic collage approaches.

Gross’ vigorous title work Penumbra, performed by the Cordova String Quartet, opens with declamatory unison statements that are intensified when the articulation is doubled with repeated notes. The rigorous uniformity of the ensemble writing quickly splinters as Gross introduces a heterogeneous texture of swirling lines, brusque accents, and pizzicato interjections. This alternation between homogenous and heterogenous textures frames the piece, as Gross moves through a broad range of characters, from angular to fluid, and transparent to mysterious. His pitch language is chromatic with tonal references; he writes that the “tonal centers attempt to emerge but are obscured by densely chromatic outlines… outlining each like a penumbra.” After a driving climax, the piece ends with hazy, disembodied chords.

The musical material in Essay for Autoharp and Electronics is reminiscent of Gross’ Chronicles series (FCR301) for live instrument and Absynth 5 synthesizer, though it is a purely electronic work that incorporates autoharp samples, without the human component of a performer. Gross opens the piece by placing the two sound profiles in dialogue with each other as he might in an electro-acoustic work, with the Absynth 5 synthesizer articulating fleet passagework and quirky melodic fragments, answered by splashes of autoharp glissandi and chordal punctuations. As the piece develops, he increasingly combines and obscures the two distinct timbres, resulting in a hybrid texture, a souped up autoharp or a tightly strung synthesizer.

Gross tips his hat to Stravinsky with the title of the next work, Symphonies of Electronic Instruments. Here, his timbral sources are the Absynth 5, the Aperture Stack synthesizer, and string samples filtered through a flanger, using these resources to generate sixteen virtual instruments to create the diversity of a symphonic texture. Once again we hear Gross’ personal balance between motivic development and modular repetition, as ideas are both mined for their potential for incremental manipulation but also reordered within the piece as fixed musical entities.

Five Movements for Flute and Electronics is one of two works on the recording that explores the relationship between soloist and a prevailing musical environment. In the opening movement “Gracefully in Spite of Everything,” we hear some of Gross’ characteristic tritone centered passagework passed between the flute and electronics. “Icily” is more lyrical, with a graceful flute line floating over and between gentle waves of electronic sound and computer noises that evoke R2-D2 from Star Wars. Rhythmic imitation between a dulcimer sound in the electronics and flute drives “Always With Some Forward Motion.” In “On the Brink” the flute plays lithely on top of washes of electronic harmony. “Easily” takes on a ritual hue, with unison phrases between the flute and a xylophone sound in the electronics framed within a moderate dance tempo.

Here We Call it Pop engages with justice topics through a text written by Gross that addresses the ways in which propagandist framing can shape public perception. The setting, sung by soprano Shana Oshrio, is stark and direct, with the voice written in gentle phrases that indict through their simplicity. The electronics are similarly understated, created by samples of Gross blowing on soda pop bottles, and wisely opting to establish a haunting sonic environment as opposed to painting the text sounds with semantic meaning.

The final work, Concerto for Saxophone and Nine Instruments, returns to the all-acoustic format of the opening string quartet. But even from the outset, we hear some of Gross’ characteristic electronic gestures — geometric arpeggiated figures, accumulating block chords, and a concise, ordered approach to rhythmic presentation. The work unfolds in a fast-slow-fast structure, though the internal “movement” leans towards a moderato tempo. Gross gives soloist Drew Hosler plenty to sink his teeth into, with virtuosic passages culminating in a cadenza that explores several key areas.

- Dan Lippel