December 16, 2009

Former Valley resident Matt Haimovitz, who has since departed for Montreal, takes the classical cello to places it’s seldom, maybe never seen. The first track is a highly unusual mash-up of acoustic cello, electronic beats, record scratching and sampled segments of strange musical talk. The friction has perhaps only one musical cousin: a combo of swing and hip-hop by the band Jurassic 5. From there, Figment travels to modern pieces (by the likes of Elliot Carter) whose strange melodies fly out of the speakers with a jagged beauty. Haimovitz coaxes unlikely sounds from his instrument (with the aid of electronics at a few points), and Figment is a sound voyage that constantly surprises with its sonic landscapes and its playfulness. The last track returns to multi-instrumental strangeness, with percussion and piano joining cello to back up nightmare-strange vocals. This is the work of a monstrously inventive player cavorting in uncharted territory.

by James Heflin

View article at Valley Advocate