Blood Wedding
And our faces vanish like water
27m2
Sturmhöhe (Wuthering Heights)
A Tale of Two Cities
Borrowed Time (CD)
Lucid Intervals
Ghosts
Borrowed Time
Predicaments
Unspoken (CD)
Broken Fiction
Exile
Sense & Innocence
Falling to the Sky
Shapeshifter
Trilogy
"The doom-laden musical score by Dave Maric, with wonderful percussion flavours, carries the action and highlights major turning points." "Dave Maric's music paints a complex soundscape that gives structure to the drama." "Blood Wedding by English choreographer Cathy Marston, director of the Berne Ballet, is full of drama and a feeling of inexorable fate from its first moments. This is prompted above all by the dark, percussion-laden music of Dave Maric." "The music for the production was commissioned from likewise British composer Dave Maric. The music carries the story and presents the dancers with a challenging underlay." "in the experimental piece [And our faces vanish like water], in which the movements of the ensemble meet the sung statements of classical soprano (Mélanie Adami) and the Bern Beat boxer Steff La Cheffe, you feel a sudden crackle. Like fragments from different worlds, the energies of text, sound (Dave Maric) and different dance styles coalesce. "And our faces vanish like water" transforms into a whole range of options rich with quotations. There are Hotspots of strong emotional force; unpredictability is their strength." "Film of the Festival" "David Maric's score, for electronics and live double bass, is a meterological marvel with its high, sighing melodies and rumbling climaxes that threaten to burst into heavy rock but never do." "David Maric’s score - a blend of electronic sounds and live double-bass solos, played with concentrated passion by Mich Gerber - is hauntingly evocative, brilliantly echoing the vastness and menacing presence of Bronte’s infamous moors." "the music (Dave Maric) which evoke the moors with inspired simplicity and the dark relationships spookily well." "Maric's score is suitably nervy and atmospheric" "Dave Maric’s jagged score provides both meteorological mood and emotional daggers." "Dave Maric’s music, scored for double bass and electronics, is an effective partner." "The music, the work of Dave Maric and Mich Gerber, uses samples with live bass to make a fantastic envelope of sound, which clearly and confidently structures the dance into a classic three-acter." "Die Musik, das Werk von Dave Maric und Mich Gerber, lässt samples auf den live gespielten Kontrabass treffen für eine fantastische Klanghülle, die den Tanz souverän und klar strukturiert, als einen klassischen Dreiakter." "And the music? It is a success. Dave Maric, who also composed Ghosts (created in 2005), has, in Wuthering Heights, expressed more concretely the echoes of nature and the stormy contrasting moods of the novel than the set. One hears the rustle of rain, the doors shaking from the storm, and all with the help of a single instrument: the contrabass. "The Music of Dave Maric sharply contrasted with the simplicity of the staging. His combination of computer music sounds and mournful bass fits perfectly. Here the storm rages - the vanities, the feelings and the elements in the moors of Yorkshire." "Die Musik von Dave Maric kontrastiert scharf die Leichtigkeit der Inszenierung Seine Kombination von Computer-musik und traurigen Kontrabassklängen passt hervorragend. Hier tobt der Sturm - der Eitelkeiten, der Gefülhe und der Elemente im Hochmoor von Yorkshire." "Maric, who in 2008 was composer for Marston's production of Ghosts, interweaves the scraps of melodic and percussive patterns into a dynamic sound space which illustrates the seismographic emotions on the stage." "In collaboration with David Maric, whose score artfully soundpaints
the action, Marston finds some clever choreographic routes through Dickens'
tortuous chronology, staging simultaneous scenes from past and present and
doubling the moves so that they echo across the years." "Dave Maric’s fine original score provides
the show with a sometimes suspenseful, unexpectedly delicate pulse." "the combination of Dave Maric’s original score, so full of foreboding,
and the expressive, diverse choreography consumes you." "Maric’s score is luminous, painting the dance in richest colour,
and is one of the finest new ballet scores I have heard, as good as that
which Hans Werne Henze wrote for Ashton’s Ondine last century. The
evening was a triumph – for Maric, for Marston – and especially
for NBT, which has acquired a narrative ballet that does not sacrifice intelligence,
nor craftsmanship and will give them (I hope) many splendid performances
hence. It is Dickens truly ‘recalled to life.’" "The final ten minutes or so, covering the escape and departure of
the Darnays to England and the moments before Carton's execution were quite
heart-rending. And here I need to mention Dave Maric's score. Beautifully
supportive of the dance to this point, it now became positively noble, and
I would be fascinated to know whether it could be expanded to a fuller symphonic
scale without loss of effect. It follows, I hope, that NBT's small orchestra
had delivered this significant score effectively. (Significant? Arguably,
yes - new full length ballet scores are hardly ten-a-penny these days in
the UK.)" "David Maric’s modernistic score – with hints of Stravinsky,
Beethoven and Mozart – perfectly complemented the choreography." "The music, composed by Dave Maric, added enormously to the atmosphere
on stage and produced a dimension of striking originality." "***** The original score by David Maric is very good indeed: atmospheric
and varied in style - at one moment sweetly easy on the ear, at another starkly
ominous and atonal as the Revolution approaches." "The tone of the music is predominantly one of tension and foreboding
in much of the first-half, reaching a climax of alarm as the revolution begins
among a colourful flurry of tricolores. But composer Dave Maric varies the
overall driving urgency of his score with gentler, more delicate themes when
the action switches from Paris to London." "And special mention has to be made to the rather chilling score which
adds another sinister edge to a narrative which always seems to be edging
perilously closer to an ominous conclusion." "**** Set to a new score - echoing Marston's intentions by also fusing
traditional influences and avant-garde impulses - by composer Dave Maric,
Dickens' French Revolution-set novel gives Marston and the excellent dancers
a great imaginative stretch." "It's at moments like this when the importance of Dave Maric's score
is brought into sharp focus, underpinning the sinister prison scenes with
a babble of brass and those set in a legal chamber with the gentle mockery
of a flute." "Classical CD of the week. "Music by Dave Maric", the CD
cover admits in faint print beneath Colin Currie's name and the title of
his disc, Borrowed Time. (It is even more discreet on the back of the CD.)
This unusually modest admission as to the identity of a composer whose work
fills the whole enterprise hides a man who has done a lot for the percussion
world in the past few years in building a recital repertoire. "SCOTS percussionist Colin Currie has long been a champion of Dave
Maric's music. Both men met through their shared connections with the Steve
Martland Band, and there are shared allusions, too, in Maric's jazz/rock-driven
music which Currie performs with various artists in this stimulating disc.
Who would ever have thought of combining percussion and church organ? Maric's Borrowed
Time connects the two brilliantly, Clive Driskill-Smith - on the
organ of Westminster Abbey - playing a moody understated backing to Currie's
atmospheric solo line. There's no shortage of big hitters. Fellow percussionist
Sam Walton joins Currie in the frenetic rhythms of Shapeshifter;
trumpeter Hakan Hardenberger adds a sultry flourish to Lucid
Intervals; while Maric himself plays piano
in the driving minimalism of Predicaments.
If you've seen Currie live in these works, the recordings are no less spectacular. ***** " "Musicians today are no longer obliged to rely on the received traditions
of music college when presenting new work. Rather, they now work in a deregulated
aesthetic environment where, say, the deployment of digital samples and the
influence of jazz/trip-hop/Balinese gamelan/your non-classical music of choice
must be addressed with as much rigour as traditional instrumental virtuosity
or the conventions of the sonata form. "I loved this disc! Why the exclamation? Because it's such a rare pleasure
to hear contemporary music that is so well crafted, original and God forbid
- immediately accessible. The fact that it's so well performed and beautifully
recorded as well is a bonus....If, like me, you generally shy away from percussion
music, listen to this disc. It's a real Mindshifter." 'Every solo percussionist, however brilliant, faces the same problem: how
do you generate a repertory for yourself? In Dave Maric, Colin Currie has
found a composing collaborator with an ideal range of skills. All six works
here are for different duet-style combinations, with varied and listener-friendly
soundworlds to match. The most striking creation is Borrowed
Time itself,
for percussion and organ - a surprising-sounding idea that really works.
Håkan Hardenberger features on flugelhorn and trumpet in Lucid
Intervals;
and Maric himself plays in Predicaments for percussion and piano. Well worth
exploring.' "warmly recommended. **** "
"In Dave Maric's Lucid Intervals,
the process was reversed, with Hardenberger initiating a sequence of commanding,
almost baroque solos while Currie stooped over his instruments as if in acquiescent
subservience. Enthralling stuff, every second of it." "Lucid Intervals was written for Currie
and Håkan Hardenberger for the Verbier Festival in 2006. ...the sound
is unified and both percussion and trumpet are deployed both melodically
and to maintain the rhythmic flow....There is a strong rhythmic energy, perhaps
as one would expect of a percussion CD.... Hardenberger’s reputation
is such that one expects greatness, and he has not let us down here. His
sound is rich, emotive and highly satisfying to listen to. The third movement
of this piece is perhaps one of the most beautifully played trumpet lines
I have ever heard." "Just as effective, though in a completely different way, is the gorgeous
three-movement work written for Currie (marimba, vibraphone and crotales)
and Hardenberger (flugelhorn and trumpet), Lucid
Intervals. Maric's sparse, rarefied sound world is here matched by
an extraordinarily sensitive response by both players. It's just magic." (First Run: 22-25 September 2005, Linbury Theatre, Royal Opera House, London) "An original score by Dave Maric for five musicians - strings, harp,
clarinet and marimba - in a moody minimalist, percussive style, augmented
by dark electric sounds...punctuates the action like a rapier and layers
on the doom that surrounds all on stage." "Dave Maric's score avidly played by a small ensemble, jabbing through
the sticky atmosphere like a knife or marking the domestic tedium with a
ticking pulse." "Dave Maric's haunting strings and percussion - perfectly echoing the
dancers locked into neurotic fantasies of rampant libidos and smothering
intimacy." "Dave Maric's original score, played live, makes effective use of viola,
cello, harp, marimba and bass clarinet. Subtly supplemented by electronics,
the music gives the dance its pulse." "Ghosts is a compact, 60 min long
individual reading of the drama, (Second Run: June 2006, Linbury Theatre, Royal Opera House, London) "It was the organic freshness and the spirit of collaboration which so impressed me - Dave Maric's astonishingly vivid score (so delicately orchestrated for marimba, harp, strings and clarinet and astutely conducted by David McCallum) pacing the dramatic trajectory so brilliantly and dressing the choreography in the most fitting of weeds. There is something uniquely special about the collaboration between composer and choreographer (a collaboration which surely reached its peak with Stravinsky and Balanchine) where each artist feeds off the other, energizing and refreshing themselves, learning from each other and ultimately creating a work of art which is so alive, so lucid, so thrilling." (Third run: April - June 2008, Stadttheater Bern, Switzerland) "Fast-forward to the first-night proper and a first-rate performance,
the inflections of Maric’s music matching those on stage and the result
was choreographic bliss. " "Maric took pains to ensure that the organ writing was carefully subdued
beneath the patterns that Currie played on marimba before shifting the balance
gradually in the organ's favour. And in the second half of the piece, where
the vibraphone takes the marimba's role in a kind of surreal echo, he achieved
something genuinely atmospheric." "The title track of the CD, Borrowed Time is
another fascinating example of Maric’s work, with the somewhat unusual
pairing of percussion and organ. Recorded at Westminster Abbey, the different
acoustic gives a sense of space to this piece compared to the others on the
disc, but it has been carefully balanced and the change is a welcome addition
to the recording. The marimba dominates, with the organ’s bass notes
giving support for the moving percussion above it. The organ part takes on
a mostly accompanying role, emerging from the texture and then disappearing
again to allow the percussion to take center-stage. It is a relationship
that is highly effective and enchanting." "The opening work is Predicaments...From
the outset, we are taken on a journey into Dave Maric’s captivating
sound-world. Even the slower paced opening of the first movement has energy
and momentum which maintains the listener’s interest. The movement
drives forwards towards syncopated piano chords, over which the percussion
line demonstrates Currie’s more than impressive virtuoso technique.
The second movement is faster, with a relentless driving semiquaver pulse.
This is thrilling to listen to, with the playing having a sense of liquidity
and ease, and the string rhythmic accents urging the listener to dance along.
The piano here comes into its own, with impeccable evenness and clarity." "The opening work, 'Predicaments', is another of the album's highlights.
Maric, on piano, adds subtle nuances with poignant chords beneath a responsive
vibraphone. But the bombardment of sound(s) perhaps points to a broader problem:
will the listener hear past the initially bewildering 'surface' of the music
and be rewarded by repeated listens? The answer, categorically, is yes, if
the listener bothers. This two-movement work draws on a swathe of instruments,
but its two movements hold together excellently. With its postminimalist
tendencies, 'Deadlock', the second movement, begins with a turbulent piano
rhythm and accented melodic line but ultimately shines another light on Currie's
talent, that is, the exceptional virtuosity that first brought him to our
attention. The movement engages the listener with its strident, polyrhythmic
gestures." ‘**** Pianist Katia Labèque's current band brings together acoustic and electronic music in an inspired collaboration with New York percussionist Marque Gilmore and British composer Dave Maric. Their 2003 album, Unspoken, moves seamlessly between Labèque's grand piano and Maric's digital electronics. The writing is ambitious and dense without being laboured, and Labèque's refined pianism lends a lyrical quality to Maric's complex material. In Breathe, the strongest track on the album, Maric introduced
the touching device of a sampled second piano, which continued to sound like
a memory after Labèque's live playing had faded away. The live and
sampled pianos interacted, and later when Labèque was given space
to play alone she occupied it majestically. Once the band returned, you realised
how much each member of this remarkable trio contributes, and how little
they need special guests.’ ‘… moody avant-fusion. The compositions by Dave Maric are extremely
sophisticated and highly effective on their own terms.’ ‘This is mood music of an extremely sophisticated sort…an indelible
fusion of free jazz, Latin American, modern country, and minimalist procedures,
projected via exultant melodic arches and rhythmic twists that impart a compelling
sense of direction to the various tracks. Mesmerising stuff.’ ‘…a curious, intriguing piece of electro-acoustic music. Scraps
of minimalist laptop, shrouded in synth textures…Labèque’s
crisp piano tone sounds magnificent throughout.’ 'Superbly Original' 'breathless sections of wild piano, virtuoso synth bass and hustling drum
kit, peppered with spontaneously triggered synth sounds and samples... stylish.' ‘the music, mostly by Maric, is full of interesting textural contrasts
and sudden shifts in dynamics or mood. The results veer giddily between elegant
classical stylings, outbreaks of nu-jazz...an entertainingly cutting-edge
jazz unit.’ ‘The results are wonderful, if amazingly difficult to compartmentalize – a
genuinely fresh music. There’s a consistent beauty in the pieces… it
is the sincerity of their collaboration that makes the Katia Labeque Band
a truly mature new achievement.’ 'Breathtaking from note one...Purely imaginative through and through...Truly
a masterpiece in atmospheric, programmatic, and epic sound landscape.' "...This was set to music by Dave Maric, played live here by the ensemble
Between the Notes (onstage). The instruments were an interesting mix (including
cello, percussion, piano, electric guitar). Live music in this venue was
a real plus, and it was good to see the musicians get such a warm response – it’s
a strange, restrained haunting piece of music. " "Exile is an ingenious layering of
subtle percussion over obsessive, inexorable piano rhythms. Maric cleverly
uses core live electronics (eg sampled bowed vibraphone, gong scraped with
metal, echoing eerie piano), which incidentally help link the percussionist's
discreet moves between instrument groups. Notable sweet, bell-like crotales
contrast beautifully with delicate temple block patterns over ghostly disembodied
recorded sounds." "Exile is a lively, evocative, complex
piece that incorporates the sounds of music from around the world and the
styles of Western art music. It works chronologically backward, starting
with minimalist gestures and moving to a stately, Bach-like section before
returning to the opening energy. But what were then starts and stops now
become tight and continuous. If the title is meant to evoke a desolate image,
the ending suggests triumph." "Currie for spare and spooky “Sense and Innoncence”...melds well with Maric’s moody electronic sampling, and it was a crisp, thoughtful work." "Perhaps the most engaging music came from English composer Dave Maric, a classical pianist whose wide tastes also include jazz, pop and electronic music. His eclecticism is fully evident in the 2002 Sense and Innocence, which combines a wide array of percussion with pre-recorded and sampled percussion sounds. Here, even more than in the 2001 Trilogy commissioned by Currie, there was an other-worldly atmosphere, sometimes vaguely tinted with funk, often deriving its forward energy from weird ostinatos, availing of countless sounds and colours, and all demonstrating the immense concentration and expressive control of the performer. " "Sense and Innocence inhabits a different
world of sound. Using percussion and sampled percussion, for me, this is
the highlight of the disc. The ethereal sounds of the opening are captivating
and take on a new dimension. The music bursts into repeated riffs with a
beat which is reminiscent of pop music and once again encourages dancing.
The more upbeat sections are juxtaposed against bowed cymbals and electronically
treated sounds, moving without warning from light into darkness. The return
to the opening mood is all the more spooky, as a result of having interrupted
the flow of the previous material. The performance is again flawless, to
the extent that one is hardly aware of the performance, but instead drawn
towards the musical world which it presents. At times, it is impossible to
tell what is electronic and what is live; the sounds merge to form a unified
whole. There is tremendous variety within this ten minute work, and I long
to hear it in live performance. This is excellent music, superbly played." "Commissioned by Mullova and Labèque, this three-movement work
is a bold and imaginative take on the potential of each instrument, bonding
them close together in discourse which is compelling for the audience. Static works
out cunning and stark abstracts of duetting and self-duetting from a skeleton
of a Dies Irae-type theme; Endless plays
with baroque and folk figures; and Hyper dances
both soloists off their feet. " "On Friday night, the Russian violinist Viktoria Mullova played a recital
at Carnegie Hall, with the French pianist Katia Labeque...."Falling
to the Sky."...has three movements: Static, Endless,
and Hyper. Mr. Maric is true to his descriptions,
in each case. The second movement gives the impression of continuity in space
- and, frankly, it, too, is hyper, although not as hyper as the third movement. "Falling
to the Sky" is a clever composition, and I will pay it a high compliment:
I would like to hear it again." "Dave Maric's Shapeshifter was a typically
challenging, inventive piece for marimbas and percussion, bursting with ideas,
protean in its moods-from laid-back and easygoing to huge outbursts of driving
energy-all put together with real brain-power and inspiration, and capped
with a supremely effective chordal sequence at the end. Dazzling playing
throughout...." "Shapeshifter is a standout track,
an extremely impressive example of putting percussion to experimental use,
creating complicated rhythms and, through their combination, teasing out
structural references." "The big showpiece was left till last - the first performance of Dave
Maric's sensational Trilogy for live and
sampled percussion. Its language is expansive, pulsating, dynamic and virile." "...hard-edged, punchy beat (irresistible), the stomping rhythms, and
the pulverising drive. Not that it was all in-yer-face stuff: there were
enormous subtleties woven through it. But the total effect of the whole piece
was overwhelming, genuine orchestral textures built out of a battery of live
and sampled sounds" "It's a real tour de force, with a striking (forgive the pun), funky
opening movement that is followed by a kind of slow movement with an oriental
flavour and an exciting final movement that often recalls Steve Reich. It's
really quite sensational and one understands why it was such a success." "Percussion soloist Colin Currie was the headliner, and deservedly so with a virtuoso performance of British composer Dave Maric’s first and final movements of Trilogy for solo live and sample percussion. With Currie playing against and with an acoustic track, the first feel was funky pulsating dynamism taking you to a range of percussive places you hadn't known existed. The virile excitement of the final movement recalled hearing Steve Reich for the first time."
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