Available through BandCamp		Tom Chiu The Live One CD1: Into The Forest; BABIP; Duo Improvisation 16741 (with Michael Schumacher) CD2: Birave Trifecta (with JCC Trio); RETROCON (with FLUX Quartet); deKonstrukt
Chiu is a polymath who is as comfortable with lyricism and the beauty of tonality as he is with process-based works and challenging conventions of composition. Chiu specializes in creating spatial experiences and altered states of mind with his music, with a singular, questing path. He is a gifted improviser and explores conventional playing, extended techniques, and working with technology with equal ease, sometimes all embodied in the same piece. On the album opener, Into The Forest, melancholic themes build and become wrapped in echoes that reverberate like a skipping stone casting ripples in a pond. Dry and delicate melodies emerge that float spatially. The piece is an assemblage of over 60 musical fragments composed by Chiu, which coalesce seamlessly into a homogeneous whole. BABIP---a solo performance, begins with Chiu’s pizzicato which evokes the spirit of gamelan, and builds through increasingly intense gestures, woozy double stops and extended techniques until he starts transforming the sound of his instrument with live effects. The functionally-titled Duo Improvisation 16741 sees Chiu pairing with sound artist and composer Michael Schumacher. Together, they create a hypnotically jarring sonic whirling dervish. Chiu’s live effects invoke undertones of Tuvan throat singing as glissandos layer with insistent bell tones. The sounds of the violin and the modular synth merge, stutter and blend so it’s difficult to determine the sound source. The insistent piece thrillingly morphs into electronic pulses and sirens, journeying deeply into sonic abstraction. The track Birave Trifecta sees Chiu performing with Dan Joseph on hammer dulcimer and Jason Cady on modular synthesizer under the moniker JCC Trio. The trio’s piece begins as almost a folk stomp, with echoes of minimalism in its insistence. It builds to euphoric intensity with Chiu’s bravura playing, sawing at his instrument with fierce abandon. RETROCON is a work performed by FLUX Quartet. The epic piece unfolds like a mini symphony, with the quartet creating a stunningly rich sonic world. The layers of the string quartet swell and undulate like a small boat in the middle of the ocean negotiating the waves of an impending storm, then wail plaintively before returning with clustered hives of notes. A startling and insistent monolithic pulsing then seems to summon dark deities before receding with a delicate beauty.

 
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