Olivia Block

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Eight years in the making, Change Ringing is the third release in an epic trilogy cycle by composer Olivia Block. However, while thematically similar to 1998′s Pure Gaze and 2001′s Mobius Fuse, the work stands alone as a complete piece of music, a sometimes calming, sometimes violent, and always interesting one at that. Block begins the thirty-minute work with a trombone blast (performed by Jeb Bishop, one of the fifteen musicians who plays on the work) whose reverb trail she follows with subdued pulses, feedback and skipping glitches. She continues in this fashion, subtly fitting these minimal elements together in a number of patterns until the first scene shift at the six-minute mark where she slowly elides the fade-out of the ensemble with a physically encompassing low frequency tone. For three minutes, Block builds tension by pairing this element with it’s polar opposite (a near dog-whistle tone) then interjects another trombone swell and covers the piece in lovely, speaker-ripping distortion. From here, she allows her source materials (field recordings, a concert of performances in the vein of Scelsci by her acoustic players in Boston) a bit more of their original personalities, though Block still continues to slur the lines with her deft programming skills; early-morning bird calls turn into a percolating slew, clarinetists produce droning harmonics not possible with the instrument and is that clanking and wooden creaking perhaps a pirate ship in Boston harbor? However, for the climax of the piece Block stratifies her digital and human camps as she strips the chamber ensemble of DSP and employs a crackling, clearly electronic bed of sound underneath, letting both sound off before sending them on their way. Combining electronics and acoustic instruments is a delicate line to walk, but Block handles this task with grace. She understands the relationship of these two worlds, how to placate organics and animate inorganics and how to combine the two into a unique mélange. The time invested in this work paid off, as Block effectively found that envied spot in the art world that so many try to reach: a unique voice that inspires her peers and captivates her audience.