William Winant - Garland: The Basketweave Elegies (2023) Hi-Res

Peter Garland’s “The Basketweave Elegies” is an elegant and beautiful nine-movement work for solo vibraphone. Garland writes: “Anyone who knows me knows of my lifelong interest in basketry (and my collection!). My admiration for basketry and basket makers also extends to a kind of traditional lifestyle and art practice, one that is often rural, attuned to the natural world and the seasons. . . . I want to write music that is well-made, sturdy, useful, and beautiful—like a basket.” The piece is performed by William Winant, about whom SPIN magazine wrote, “Winant has been the avant-elite’s go-to percussionist for more than 35 years.”

Garland’s music is informed by his well-traveled ear and intense personal vision. For close to 50 years, his work has been marked by a “radical consonance” and simplification of structure, and played around the world by such celebrated performers as Aki Takahashi, Herbert Henck, Sarah Cahill, Guy Klucevsek, and the Kronos Quartet. The late composer-performer Harold Budd wrote that Garland is “a marvelous artist. I admire his work a lot.” (Cold Blue has released eight previous Garland recordings.)

“Garland’s music seems to be about the sheer expressive power of sound itself.... I feel he is one of our true originals.”—Robert Carl, “Fanfare” magazine

“Ever his own man, Garland has moved beyond a strictly minimalist phase of evolving melodic and rhythmic patterns into a hybrid sphere of many influences from the panorama of world music, suggestive of such composers as Conlon Nancarrow and Lou Harrison.”—"San Francisco Chronicle”

“[Garland] is an avatar of an experimental American tradition...a composer of mesmerizing music; and in many ways, the musical conscience of my generation.”—Kyle Gann, “Chamber Music” magazine

The album’s performer, percussionist William Winant, is a Grammy-nominated new-music champion who has appeared on more than 200 recordings. Among his recent recording appearances are Roscoe Mitchell’s “Bells for the South Side” and “Discussions,” Joan Jeanrenaud’s “Visual Music,” Fred Frith’s “Field Days (The Amanda Loops),” John Zorn’s “Malkhut, Fragmentations, Prayers and Interjections,” the collaboratively composed (with Wadada Leo Smith, Henry Kaiser, and Tania Chen) “Ocean of Storms,” John Cage’s “The Ten Thousand Things,” and Alvin Curran’s “Shofar Rags.”

Winant has worked with and collaborated with some of the most innovative and creative musicians of our time, including John Cage, John Zorn, Alvin Lucier, Iannis Xenakis, Pierre Boulez, Frank Zappa, Keith Jarrett, Roscoe Mitchell, Wadada Leo Smith, Anthony Braxton, Fred Frith, James Tenney, Terry Riley, Cecil Taylor, Gerry Hemingway, Mark Dresser, Barry Guy, Marilyn Crispell, George Lewis, Steve Reich, Nexus, Peter Garland, David Rosenboom, Michael Byron, Jean-Philippe Collard, Frederic Rzewski, Ursula Oppens, Joan LaBarbara, Annea Lockwood, Danny Elfman, Oingo Boingo, Sonic Youth, Marc Ribot, Keith Rowe, Joey Barron, Bill Frisell, Yo-Yo Ma, Rova Saxophone Quartet, Lawrence “Butch” Morris, Henry Kaiser, and the Kronos String Quartet. For many years he worked closely with composer Lou Harrison, premiering and recording many of his works.

“Winant is a dazzling virtuoso but also a catalytic presence in adventurous music, a percussive dynamo generating rhythms, colours and textures that blaze life into visionary scores.” (Julian Cowley, “The Wire”)