Colin Currie & Håkan Hardenberger - Borrowed Time (2007)

English composer Dave Maric was a pianist in Steve Martland's band in the 1990s, where he met percussionist Colin Currie. As a result of their friendship, Maric has composed a number of pieces for Currie, some of which are recorded here. Most of the pieces include another instrument (piano, flügelhorn, organ, a second percussionist) or tape. Maric is skilled at creating virtuosic music for percussion that fits well with his idiomatic writing for other instruments, and each of the pieces has a strong individualistic sound. He draws on his background in jazz and pop, which preceded his involvement in the classical new music scene, and he is largely self-taught. His pieces have the disciplined structure and finesse of a composer with extensive training in composition, but a vitality and spontaneity born of improvisation that classically trained composers sometimes lack. Borrowed Time, for percussion and organ, played by Clive Driskill-Smith, was written for the instrument in Westminster Abbey, and has both the ethereality and the weight to be an effectively evocative meditation on mortality. Shapeshifter, for two percussionists, features Sam Walton as the second player. Its rhythmic sophistication, playfulness, timbral variety, and clever unpredictability make it especially attractive. Håkan Hardenberger plays flügelhorn and trumpet in Lucid Intervals, the album's most unconventional combination. Maric has a knack for inventive melodic writing that plays nicely against the frequently manic percussion part. The CD is a terrific showcase for both Maric's and Currie's talents and should be of strong interest to fans of new percussion music.