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New looks at old images
Boston Globe
November 18, 2008
by Matthew Guerriri
Ken Ueno's viola-and-string-orchestra "Talus" is named for a bone soloist Wendy Richman fractured in 2006 - the basic harmonic content was derived from a sonic tracing of the corresponding X-ray image. It's a gimmick, as is the slasher-movie scream Richman emits at the outset, but the music's dramatic engine hums, as Ueno builds up blocks of sounds normally left between the lines of the classical tradition: scratches, whistles, the rustle of bow hair, the exotic outskirts of the overtone series. It's a concerto that engrossingly reinvents the discourse.