Eric Chasalow: Left to His Own Devices

Guido Arbonelli, bass clarinet; Keith Benjamin, trumpet; Auros Group for New Music; Phantom Arts; Boston Modern Orchestra Project; Gil Rose, conductor The seven electro-acoustic works on this disc illustrate the salient virtues that have distinguished Eric Chasalow's work in the genre over the past twenty years－an unerring sense of drama and a rhythmic verve that makes for compelling listening. Two in particular, Left to His Own Devices and Suspicious Motives, pay homage to his Columbia-Princeton mentors; the former is built from vocal samples of Milton Babbitt and the sound of the RCA synthesizer while the latter incorporates two motives from Davidovsky's music, primarily the opening to Synchronisms #6. That the composer is equally at home outside the studio is amply borne out by the two purely acoustic chamber pieces, In the Works and Yes, I Really Did, clearly cut from the same aesthetic cloth as the tape pieces. As Chasalow has said, "In spite of my long history with electronic m