Album Details

• Artist: Robert Poss
• Album: Settings: Music For Dance, Film, Fashion, And Industry
• Label: Trace Elements
• Year of Release: 2010
• ME Rating:
• Reviewed by: patchen on 2011-01-10

On his latest, guitar legend Robert Poss (Band of Susans, more experimental solo work) departs a little from his normal sound, or does he expand it? “Settings: Music For Dance, Film, Fashion, And Industry” was written to accompany various dance pieces, and while even a quick listen will let you know that the dancing done in front of the music is conceptual, you can still feel an impulse to move with the sounds.

Commissioned by choreographers Sally Gross, Alxeandra Beller and Gerald Casel, the fourteen pieces are dissonant and droning, yet have a crisp edge to them, a brightness that expresses a yearning that may have been stressed by the nature of the dance. Poss’ use of guitar, piano and, especially percussion, drives tunes like “Border Crossing March,” “Border Piano Walk” and “The Structure” with a tense, provocative vibe. The longest piece, the ten minute plus “Tourniquet Revisited,” is the most stunning, an orchestral, pulsing tune that soars and emits beautiful colors throughout as the simple theme repeats and deepens in emotion.

You may dance to “settings” in ways no one but you will understand, but isn’t that one of the pleasures of music, too? Robert Poss has given us decades of daring and brittle guitar magic, and here provides his benefactors with the proper tones for uplifting, hermetic, joyful dance.

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