By DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent News
If there’s one piece of music that captures the totality of the sound of Collect/Project it hasn’t been composed yet.
The transatlantic quartet that is devoted to stretching the boundaries of sound is just getting started. The ensemble’s flutist Shanna Gutierrez dates its genesis to a performance in Chicago with herself, singer Frauke Aulbert, and Francisco Castillo-Trigueros on electronics. Later Eva Zöllner brought her accordion into the mix.
They worked in various permutations, but it was only last fall, Gutierrez said, that the quartet was able assemble all four members on the same side of the Atlantic. That was in Germany, the home of Aulbert and Zöllner.
Now Collect/Project is making its maiden tour of the United States as a quartet. The brief swing through the Midwest includes a concert Monday, March 4, at 8 p.m. in Bryan Recital Hall on the Bowling Green State University campus. The free show is part of the Music at the Forefront concert series sponsored by the MidAmerican Center for Contemporary Music.
The logistics of sustaining a group that has two members in Germany, one in New York, and the fourth, Gutierrez in Chicago, are daunting. Add in the other musical projects they are involved as individuals. Still “the rewards are worth it,” the flutist said. “We really enjoy working together. It’s really a fantastic experience.”
The three instruments on stage — the flute, accordion, and voice — all “breathe in their own way,” she said. From this comes a unity of sound. Castillo-Trigueros’ electronics add another dimension.
The title of the concert, “Road-Trip,” is the program notes state: “designed to focus on the experience of musical performance through a diversity of pieces that look at relationships between performer, creator, composer and audience— a virtual road trip across continents and musical styles and experiences.”
Christopher Trapani’s “Hafenlieder” celebrates the sound of the harbor. It opens with a raucous chorus that evokes a port-side bars frequented by sailors. It could be in the composer’s home New Orleans, or Hamburg, Germany. The piece, Gutierrez said, is the first art song written in Plattdeutsch, a northern German dialect.
Lisa R. Coons’ “Essay 1: Mater (2019) for voice, flute, accordion and electronics” is a commentary on the various forms of gender and social inequality, a fitting topic given the ensemble has three women and a Mexican immigrant, Gutierrez said.
Castillo-Trigueros’ electronics off-stage control the performers, lighting cues direct the performers as to how they should act.
“We have to be attentive,” Gutierrez said. “It’s a fun way to work. Sometimes it puts you a little bit out of your comfort zone, and that’s also good.”
The quartet’s sonic journey also moves into ethereal spaces on Castillo-Trigueros’ “En la orilla gris, silencio,” a piece originally for flute, voice, and electronics, but re-envisioned to incorporate Zöllner’s accordion.
The sounds are spare and haunting, blurring the boundaries between the voice, electronics, accordion, and flute. The quiet reverberates throughout the piece.
Gutierrez said Collect/Project is intent on continuing its journey. The next major project is a composition from George Lewis, a master composer who straddles the worlds of contemporary classical music and avant garde jazz. Arrangements for the premiere in New York are still being settled.
“There are more pieces in the works, and more tours planned,” Gutierrez said. “We shall see where it goes.”
