Search - Martirano :: Computer Music 22: Martirano Retrospective

An essential avant-gardist's retrospective

DAC Crowell | 04/11/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Salvatore Martirano is one of the little-sung luminaries of the American avant-garde...and that's bad. His works have always posed amazing challenges, both to listeners and performers, and they're things which should've gotten more exposure during his lifetime. But only "L'sGA" got any major attention, notably during the 1960s, and even with that, went out of print not too long after its release. Now we have it back...along with some other Martirano gems...on this release. Some of these I've heard in Martirano's own studio, as I studied with him for a period in the early 90s, not too long before his death in 1995, and I recall then how fresh and different his approach was to the musical directions that came out of the American avant-garde of the 1950s and 60s. The only work here I didn't get to hear en toto as I recall was "SATBehind Demo", which was still being worked on at one of our final meetings. But even in its unfinished state as Martirano worked with the Kyma team, there was a real sense of Martirano's mastery of line and his kaleidoscopically-playful sense of change. His work for his Sal-Mar Construction presented here, also, has been long in coming, but essential for anyone curious as to how this complex live performance electronic instrument sounded, as well as what its Master could do with it. And having a version of "Underworld", even without the video part, is a treat for its pushing of the envelope of 'classical' electronic studio techniques of the 1960s. One to get for anyone into some serious New Music, as well as an excellent statement that not _all_ of what came out of academia in America was dry musical self-indulgence."