Mutations is Vijay Iyers first album as a leader for ECM, and a
recording that will widen perceptions of the pianist-composers work. At
its center is Mutations I-X, a composition scored for string quartet,
piano, and electronics. A major piece built out of cells and fragments,
it veers through many atmospheres, from moment to moment propulsive,
enveloping, lyrical, luminescent, and strangely beautiful. Through
thematic interactivity, the interweaving of acoustic and electronic
sound-textures, and some decisive improvisational interventions in
notated music, Vijay Iyer has created a multi-faceted suite whose very
subject is change. Iyer gives a positive value to the concept of
mutation in this music, and variously appears in it as an interpreter of
notated elements, as an improviser, and as a sort of laptop artist,
mixing in noise and different sounds, encouraging the transformative
processes: The suite is framed by three solo statements: Spellbound and
Sacrosanct, Cowrie Shells and the Shimmering Sea, a solo piano reading
of one of Iyers early compositions, and Vuln, Part 2 and When Were Gone,
pieces created in summer 2013. The newer compositions put the piano in
counterpoint with electronically generated rhythms and textures which
extend the aura of the suite, making the arc of the whole album a
journey over changing terrain. http://vijay-iyer.com
