BandCamp Daily: Telekinesis Review
ALBUM REVIEW
December 2, 2022
In the press release for this work from Tyondai Braxton, the composer calls Telekinesis “the latest and largest example of intersections between my electronic music and notated music, both sonically and philosophically.” On first listen that statement confused me, as the sounds on this recording are primarily orchestral, but it didn’t take long to realize Braxton was describing an approach more than a palette. Performed by 87 individuals including the vocal choir The Crossing, the Metropolis Ensemble, and the Brooklyn Youth Chorus, the work treats those various musicians and the composed material in an oddly modular fashion, as if Braxton wrote the music by cutting and pasting on his computer. I have no idea what his process actually is, but this album has proved seriously addictive; its richly detailed timbre is impossible to resist.
Braxton used the manga classic Akira as a thematic framework, tracing the destructive hubris inherent in humanity in a harrowing sonic journey. He references vintage suspense and horror film scores, dissonant orchestral work brilliantly able to transmit ominous foreshadowing. This was historically a crossover point for avant-garde 20th-century music to move into the mainstream, such as Ligeti’s work appearing in Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). While the needling, spindly guitar passages by Taylor Levine (Dither Quartet) and Braxton’s synth washes and squiggles feature prominently in the dense soundscape, there’s a kind of post-modern pastiche at work that prevents Telekinesis from sounding staid or old-fashioned, even with the references noted above. Endlessly entertaining and beautifully put together.
- Peter Margasak, Bandcamp
