Neil Rolnick: Ex Machina

Composer Neil Rolnick has a thing about machines. He likes to play with them, and he likes to tell other people how to play with them. That is what takes place on this release, Ex Machina. In a concert review in the Washington Post, Anne Midgette said: “A terrific concert. Rolnick plays with the lines between computer and acoustic music…The laptop pieces… were entirely as engaging as the acoustic ones… and nicely contrasting…Bathgate is a glorious cellist… Supove grooved and danced over a piano part that called for everything from honky-tonk to improvisation.” In “Silicon Breath,” Ted Nash uses the alto sax to coax the computer into sounds luscious and swinging. Kathleen Supove in “Dynamic RAM & Concert Grand” trades control of the computer back and forth with Rolnick while romping through a cornucopia of piano styles. Rolnick is alone with his machine in “WakeUp” and “O Brother!”- both mashups which spin and shape alternative narratives from familiar samples.