James Opstad is probably better known as the double bassist with Apartment House than as a composer. But this should change with this release—the first CD of his music as a composer. Five beautiful pieces tracking the evolution of Opstad's work as it moves from textural electro-acoustic music to pieces exploring the layering of instruments playing at slightly different tempi.
The album begins with "Nymphaea" (2020), performed by the GBSR Duo (Siwan Rhys, piano; George Barton, vibraphone), followed by two brief studies for string quartet played by Apartment House (Mira Benjamin & Gordon MacKay, violins; Bridget Carey, viola; Anton Lukoszevieze, cello). The album then presents "Eluvium" (2018)—a work for clarinet and resonating tam-tam performed by Heather Roche - which marked a decisive turning point in Opstad's compositional development.
As Opstad explains: "Eluvium marked a bit of a turning point for me. In the period prior to writing it, I had been exploring electroacoustic music and the use of live electronics. This had led me towards writing music that was very sound based. I was starting to long for a return to using pitch in a more deliberate way–even just the act of writing one note after another. I was still interested in using technology but was more keen on how it could be used within a primarily acoustic context." The work's unusual instrumentation creates "this gradual transformation, but also a feeling of erasure. There's this sense in the clarinet part, resulting from the way that the tempi are alternated and layered, that it sort of wipes itself out. This is heightened by the blurring effect created by the tam-tam, which eventually engulfs the clarinet altogether."
The title piece, "Drift" (2021/24)—at over twenty-two minutes, the longest and most substantial work on the album—features the GBSR Duo with Heather Roche on clarinet. The piece has an unusual instrumentation (clarinet, piano, temple blocks) and a distinctive temporal structure: "In terms of the piece itself, each instrument occupies its own tempo and, together, these tempi all slow over the full duration. There's often this sense of falling in my work–a sort of gravitational pull–and that's what is present here. Progressive lowering of the pitch material also leads to a gradual thickening of the timbre that, I feel, enhances this sensation." When adding the clarinet, Opstad notes it was important that it "didn't feel like a solo instrument. I wanted the three instruments to be blended and equal, and for the listener's attention to be able to drift between them without hearing one as the primary focus."
Composer Howard Skempton writes: "Much of James Opstad's 'Drift' seems like Feldman's music in its pace, and in its proclivity to alternation. I'm reminded of the opening line of Beckett's 'Neither': 'to and fro in shadow from inner to outershadow'. The back-and-forth, however, is softer and more companionable. We warm to a consoling sense of cadence. This is 'either' rather than 'neither'."
