The five pieces on Barry Truax’s most recent CD are all from this century, 2001 through 2006. Given the similarity of dates and the thematic unity suggested by the album title, one might unwarily conclude that these five are similarly similar. They’re not. If I wanted to give someone a fair idea of Truax’s range, [...]

Pacific Fanfare(1996)
Like all such, Pacific Fanfare is a short piece; unlike other fanfares, this one has no stirring licks by the trumpet section. Instead, there are some very nice foghorns, as befits the Pacific part of the title.
Sadly, short here means three minutes, which is not just way too short generally, but way too short [...]

Portland, Oregon residents who have not been to Czech Republic recently to see and hear installation artist Dan Senn’s Huffa Puffa can see a version of this at the Autzen Gallery of Portland State University through February 7. Entitled Air Lift, Lilt with traffic, the Portland installation uses the same ideas of audio and subaudio [...]

“Swinging ” – A noisy, minimal, slow-moving wash of gritty sound…, with tunes. It’s true; every once and awhile some of the electronic sounds are pitches, lined up just like pitches in a melody. It doesn’t happen very often, but it’s fun when an actual little tune appears out of the mix. [...]

Five tracks, all labelled “Untitled.” Makes it easy to listen to this as one piece—in five movements. Certainly the overall sound of the thing changes very little from “movement” to “movement.” Nor does the basic aesthetic change much either. In other words, it’s a consistent piece from start to finish fifty-two minutes [...]