In his effort to expand upon the tuba's harmonic range, musician Benjamin
Klein has paired it with a laptop, using electronic mediation to plumb the
deep end as have few others before him. The result is A Hymn to Zoltan
Abbassid, on the Luv Sound netlabel (luvsound.org). A rumbling, ruminative
piece (MP3), it's a single track that in nearly 25 minutes (or nearly 34
megabytes) moves from the sort of didgeridoo aura inherent in such a project
to a sound far too buried in its own resonance to be comparable to anything
but itself. And don't imagine that this digitally enhanced tuba is merely
an excercise in depth for depth's sake. Klein is just as pleased to explore
spacey zones that are more ethereal than they are earthy.
- Mark Weidenbaum, Disquiet