Ilya Monosov MP3

Ilya Monosov‘s “Music for Electronics and Hurdy Gurdy (2)” will infuriate nearby dogs and intrigue anyone with the patience and concentration to weather its eight and a half minutes, as it builds steadily from a hum to a screech. It begins with sounds pitched high enough to be mistaken for fluorescent lightbulb interference. When the hurdy gurdy makes its presence known, it’s not with the familiar folksiness of the Renaissance Faire favorite, but with rough scrapings that sound like mice are tunneling their way out of your speaker cabinets. Eventually that scraping reveals itself as a harrowingly bowed solo, a gritty howl that occasionally pitches up in the range of that intensely quiet sine wave, the electronic and the acoustic merging in the audiological stratosphere. As intense as some druidic funeral cry, “Music for Electronics and Hurdy Gurdy (2)” is the lead track from Monosov’s Architectures on Air and Other Works, recently released on Elevator Bath label, which has made the piece available as a free promotional download (MP3). More info at elevatorbath.com.