Claire M Singer

Fairge

BY Scott A. GrayPublished Oct 20, 2017

8
Scottish contemporary composer Claire M Singer follows the patient beauty of her debut album, Solas, with this epic, nearly 21-minute single-track EP conceptualized around the Scottish Gaelic word for "ocean."
 
Fairge continues Singer's fascination with carefully textured drones and the gradual mutation and intensification of repetitive parts. With gripping deliberation, she thickens the organ-driven frequency spectrum with layers of electronics and cello over the piece's majestic, undulating and swelling runtime. When a simple note-diving hook enters around the 11-minute mark, the sound has congealed so much that it's hard to tell which instrument or combination is causing it, but the effect makes a most effective and chilling climax to the piece.
 
After this subtly roiled sonic ocean churns up those delicate whitecaps, the quelling comedown is long, soothing and rife with the attentively nurtured minute timbral warbles that make Singer's music important to listen to on high end speakers. A compelling continuation of the instrumental conversation she started on Solas, Fairge is ample evidence that this compelling new voice in minimalist modern classical composition has a lot more to say.
(Touch)

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