David First — Revolutions

Revolutions is a long-form drone work from American composer/guitarist David First for twelve players. It’s based on the 16th through 32nd harmonics of the note G—a sound world, which resides largely outside of traditional Western musical instruments and training.

Here from Mode Records is a CD release of the work. The disc comes presented in a dark brown and orange coloured mini gatefold featuring a kaleidoscope shape on its front cover. Inside, along with the CD, we have a six-page enlay featuring a write-up about the work and how it was created.

The piece was commissioned by Anthony B. Creamer and premiered at Christ Church (Philadelphia), presented by Bowerbird on February 9th, 2020. The players here, under the banner of The Western Enisphere, take in the following: Jeanann Dara—viola Sam Kulik—trombone, Jeff Tobias—bass clarinet, Alex Waterman—cello, Ian Douglas-Moore—guitar, Tania Caroline Chen—overtone keyboard, Will Stanton—piano, bowed piano, EBow piano, Danny Tunick—tuned glasses, James Ilgenfritz—upright bass, Bern Gann—electric bass, Matt Evans—drum kit, and David First—jaw harp, electric jaw harp, mpe keyboard, all programming.

The piece runs for a total of six nine minutes and forty three seconds. It’s presented as one long track, with five track markers.

To begin with, after a fairly rapid fade-in, the piece focuses down on a very pressing and sustained feel, which seems to hum and very slowly oscillate around your listening space. There is a piercing yet blunt quality to the drone, which suggests the tone of road drills set into notation. As it progresses, you start to notice the presence of different horns, jew harp twang, guitar purr, string crate, and organ simmer. The feel of the piece/ drone largely remains very thick & pressing. And really, the use of the colour brown in the packaging feels very fitting- as if I was to give the piece a colour, it would be thick, heavy & muddy brown- though that’s not to say the different instruments don’t get their place/identity, as the whole thing is well mastered/recorded.

Genre-wise, I’d say Revolutions sits between modern classical minimalism, non-harmonic drone, with forays into thick avant jazz & folk. But there’s no doubt First has his own take on drone form.