Beta Collide

Beta Collide are a strong, new music quartet playing flutes, brass, keyboards and percussion. Each musician is a virtuoso, conveying their unique repertoire with the kind of full-on commitment that makes each piece move with muscular grace and echo with full-bodied resonance. Case in point: flautist Molly Barth's performance on Frederic Rzewski's short, serpentine "Molitude." Add to that the awe-inspiring feat of negotiating the leaps and vocalizations of Robert Erickson's "Kryl" by trumpeter Brian McWhorter, with apparent ease and confidence (see him do it on YouTube), and already the CD is worth the price of admission. Percussionist Phillip Patti and pianist David Riley, on celesta, create glistening snowflake sonorities on Valentin Silvestrov's "Variations." There is also a lively reading of the group's arrangement of "Mysteries of the Macabre" by György Ligeti, with its leaping melodic lines and shifting metres. The 11-track CD finishes with Beta Collide's two-minute remix of "Nude" by Radiohead, featuring eerie, reverb'd vocal. This is a rewarding listen.