Zack Browning, associate professor emeritus at the University of Illinois, frequently mixes acoustic instruments and electronics, but this album consists entirely of acoustic works for a variety of forces ranging in size from solo piano to percussion ensemble with flute. Five of the pieces are from 2006 and 2007 and were written using "planetary magic squares, ancient Chinese magic squares and feng shui" to determine the musical structure. Extra-musical devices like these are essentially neutral, and they don't guarantee a ...
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Zack Browning, associate professor emeritus at the University of Illinois, frequently mixes acoustic instruments and electronics, but this album consists entirely of acoustic works for a variety of forces ranging in size from solo piano to percussion ensemble with flute. Five of the pieces are from 2006 and 2007 and were written using "planetary magic squares, ancient Chinese magic squares and feng shui" to determine the musical structure. Extra-musical devices like these are essentially neutral, and they don't guarantee a musical outcome that delights and intrigues any more than the use of a system like serialism. Browning, though, clearly has a knack for creating fascinating, dynamic, and often beautiful material, so that when it is run through the processes of the magic squares, the results really are wonderfully delightful and intriguing. The music is for the most part hyperkinetic, quirkily hurtling forward, with startling, unpredictable juxtapositions whose oddness is almost guaranteed to make...
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