Fresh ears

They are young and they play four saxes, like a string quartet only dirtier and noisier, and maybe that's why they are so challenging.  And they were.  I love baroque and the big names but it's refreshing to hear the minimalist textures  moving pitch or key, and the melody sharing between voices, soprano, alto, tenor, baritone, and the varying roles at different times.  And sometimes the huge beauty of a long-held chord or the circular breathing (pretty sure I saw it from at least two players) or the crescendos ending sharply on high.  These were interesting composers, modern, mostly with music for sax quartet, although they did a few arrangements of traditional pieces that had been performed by the Danish String Quartet.  And these seemed to be personal relationships with the composers, Australian or otherwise, obtaining permissions and sampled backgrounds and presumably charts, too.  Not once otherwise have I heard electro-acoustic music on a classical stage.  This was samples of a baby, a Salvation Army band and was it the streets of NYC (?) that they played along to.  Lots of six feels, some fours, perhaps a 7, but maybe just the count challenge of polymeters.  They played composers I didn't know, Jabra Latham, Gemma Peacocke, Alex Turley, Jacob TV and a few traditional tunes, so not really something you know, but I would love to get to know this.  Fabulous fresh ears and sounds.

The Andromeda Saxophone Quartet performed at Wesley.  ASQ comprises Paige Gullifer (soprano sax), Ryan Piccione (alto sax), Henry Docker (tenor sax) and Sam Dong (baritone sax).