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I and Thou
VC2 Cello Duo: Amahl Arulanandam, Bryan Holt, Paul Widner and Andrea Stewart, cello; Ben Reimer, drums; Stephanie Chua, piano
Leaf Music, 2023
VC2 Cello Duo’s new album, I and Thou, is not for the faint of ear.
The Violet Hour and Heist 2 give listeners a brief introduction to the cellists’ performance style on the album: busy and chaotic. Amahl Arulanandam and Bryan Holt highlight how they clash and co-operate as musicians in a joint performance that is more tense and disturbing than the sum of its parts. This is the strained nature of human relationships, the duo says through I and Thou.
Ironically, Discord is the easiest work to listen to. A personal story by composer Laura Sgroi about removing the stigma around sexual harassment, it’s an uplifting respite from the complex surrounding pieces; it remains positive in the face of such pain.
The following series of seven suites are where the album gets intense. Each suite starts off sounding like a Bach cello duo before quickly devolving into what can only be described as discordant noise. The duo manages to maintain the tone, intensity, and notation pattern of each composition while uniquely twisting them into unsettling echoes of their former melodies.
Final Glimpse then catches listeners off guard with a radio announcement about the fall of the Hindenburg blimp. This is the culmination of the album’s built-up tension, and it’s so powerful that VC2 manages to capture feelings of dread and physical discomfort. A power of expression to be reckoned with.
This page is also available in / Cette page est également disponible en:
Francais (French)
