Every moment is vividly etched, drenched in instrumental color, steeped in influences that range from ancient Chinese folk music to the latest detonations of the European avant-garde. A starry array of ensembles, including the Ensemble Intercontemporain, Alarm Will Sound, and the International Contemporary Ensemble, bring the music to rambunctious life. The flow of events is so rapid and so variegated that nothing settles into the groove of the familiar.
"Some listeners might find this aesthetic overloaded, but Wang Lu is not some facile mixmaster of a kind that was too prevalent at the end of the last century. Beneath the tumult of sounds is a more contemplative, integrative layer—one that becomes fully audible in 'Past Beyond,' the piece with which the album ends. Before that comes 'Cloud Intimacy,' in which she offers a richly sardonic instrumental portrait of Tinder and other dating apps—what she calls the 'frantic digital reality' of 'endless notification sounds' and the 'theatrics of swiping.' Brooding behind the scene is the 'Liebestod' from 'Tristan und Isolde,' the ultimate music of restless, unfulfilled longing. The sense of loneliness that emerges at the end of 'Cloud Intimacy' lurks behind all of Wang Lu’s meticulous frenzies: it is of a piece with the essential solitude of composing, of sitting in silence and dreaming of a music that has never been heard." -Alex Ross, The New Yorker
LISTEN to "Urban Inventory" here:
http://www.newfocusrecordings.com/…/wang-lu-urban-inventory/
A statement from Wang Lu, Composer and Assistant Professor of Music at Brown University:
"I’m excited to announce the release of my first solo portrait album, "Urban Inventory," out on New Focus Recordings. This album brings together six instrumental works over a seven year period, scored for small ensemble, sinfonietta, and orchestra, and performed by an international roster of ensembles: Alarm Will Sound, Holland Symfonia, Le Novel Ensemble Moderne, Third Sound, International Contemporary Ensemble, and Ensemble Intercontemporain."