Recital is proud to publish the first album of American Gamelan composer Daniel Schmidt (b. 1942). Schmidt, who emerged in the Bay Area music scene in the 1970s, wove the threads of traditional Eastern Gamelan music together with American Minimalism (repetitive music). Schmidt was (and is still) a prime figure in the development of American Gamelan music – studying and collaborating with Lou Harrison, Jody Diamond, and Paul Dresher. He currently is a teacher at Mills College, teaching instrument building.
The recordings on Flowers date from 1978 – 1982, selected directly from Schmidt’s personal cassette archive. It holds two studio tracks, along with two live performances. The first track, Dawn (commissioned by composer John Adams), employs an early digital sampler provided by Pauline Oliveros. It holds the sound of a string quartet. The nature of this piece is breathtaking, an ocean of strings pulsing beneath the gliding bells of the gamelan – such a lovely interplay. Furthermore, the title track, Flowers, features the addition of a rebab, a traditional bowed instrument, which reels through the piece, netted and taught.
The final two works are strictly gamelan compositions. Ghosts is a a dynamic piece; rife with dexterous euphoria- it well displays the skillset of the percussionists heard on the LP. The closing work, Faint Impressions, is a somber elegy. Demonstrating the fragility and grace possible with the gamelan; sounding almost as an evening piano sonata.
This is album is unique document from an under-represented movement of American New Music. An account of the curious beauty and woven emotions hidden within resonating pieces of metal.
1970年代、サンフランシスコ・ベイエリアの現代音楽シーンに現れたダニエル・シュミット（b. 1942年）は、アメリカのミニマリズムと伝統的なガムランをミックスさせた作曲家。ルー・ハリソン、ジョディー・ダイアモンド、ポール・ドレシャーとコラボレートし、アメリカにおけるガムラン音楽の発展に寄与した主要な存在である。現在、彼はミルズ・カレッジで楽器製作を教えている。「In My Arms, Many Flowers」は、1978年-82年の間に録音されたシュミット自身のパーソナルなカセット・アーカイヴから選ばれた、2つのスタジオ録音と2つのライブ・パフォーマンスで構成されている。ジョン・アダムス委嘱による "Dawn" は、ポーリン・オリヴェロスから提供されたデジタル・サンプラーを使った曲で、弦楽四重奏のサウンドを感じることができる。滑らなガムランのもとで波打つ弦の海──息をのむほど美しいインタープレイ。続くタイトル曲では、伝統的な弦楽器ラバーブがフィーチャーされている。後半の2曲は、忠実なガムランのコンポジション。"Ghosts" は、彼の精巧なスキルがよく表れた、多幸感に満ちたダイナミックな曲。"Faint Impressions" は、暗く沈んだ哀歌。夕刻のピアノソナタのように鳴り響くこの曲は、ガムランが有する可能な限りの繊細さと気品を実証してみせる。このアルバムは、共鳴する金属の断片に隠された複雑な感情と不思議な美しさを映し出す、アメリカ現代音楽に埋もれたムーブメントのユニークなドキュメントである。 - Recital

Boomkat Product Review:
The second album by the American Gamelan composer and instrument builder, Daniel Schmidt, following 'In My Arms, Many Flowers', his majestic debut on Recital. Abies Firma lies next chronologically, collecting works from 1976 to 1991, considered the second phase of his compositional form.
“We were like children playing with new toys,” Daniel recalls of the early days of American Gamelan music. “Though, as we moved into the 1980s, I moved away from Javanese traditional formalism completely, no longer using a constant stream of notes.” Daniel became a father twice over in the early 80s, transforming his compositional voice, finding himself open to new affects. Notably, the Sierra fir species, ‘abies firma’ … “These trees gave me a sense of rising and rising, all their branches reaching toward sun and sky. Looking at them across open spaces, I felt myself part of their upward striving. The tall mountain trees became rising themes and arpeggios, sometimes even sweeping across the six octaves of the gamelan.”
This album holds a variety of recordings including an especially immersive tape-delay piece for the rebab, a bowed Javanese instrument. A sort of Eastern Frippertronics weaving the stereo field. Another standout is a semi-improvised flute and gamelan work, ebbing in slowly like a night’s wind. “Accumulation” and “Abies Magnifica,” the spirited opening pieces, exemplify the precision and dexterity of Daniel’s group, The Berkeley Gamelan, who at this time were constantly performing around North America. Two pieces on the album were co-composed by Schmidt and the late Lou Harrison, who helped conceive of the American style of gamelan and enjoyed a similarly long and varied musical career. “Unempins to Sociseknum” is based on arranging Harrison’s social security number against Schmidt’s unemployment insurance number. A window into the cooperative spirit and experimentation of the late 70s.
With each LP comes a CD including the addition of “One White Crow,” a three-part tapestry of melodic fragments which epitomizes the second phase of Schmidt’s composing; a divergence from both Javanese and European music. Daniel states, “William James once said that one white crow would suffice to overturn science’s assertion that all crows are black. I felt myself to be ‘one white crow’ amidst the prominent, established musical styles.”
Sean McCann, September 2019