Three Pieces

Album Review

It is hard to conceive of anyone not approaching the Enrichment Center Percussion Ensemble with respect. The Winston-Salem project combining "adults with disabilities" and percussion instruments is noble, virtuous, and capable of inflicting great genius upon tobacco country, an aspect of which would be a discography consisting of interesting percussion-orientated projects. As of 2005, this collection is still in its early stages. Three Pieces is the second recording to be issued featuring the group, under the direction of multi-instrumentalist and composer Aaron Bachelder. The material was recorded in 2002, pressed and printed nearly three years later.

Bachelder composed the "three pieces" and plays a large part in their unfolding with cleanly played electric guitar parts. He has come up with an interesting style of music with which to make use of this ensemble's talents, accenting instruments such as vibraphone, bells, and drum set in a music that comes to life, for the most part elegantly. Some instruments are not accented enough, speaking in terms of the mix — the trap drums are too far to the background, which is a shame considering the part they might have played in fortifying a tinny drywalling of electronics.

Listeners may hear Erik Satie or gamelan in the repetitive, strongly consonant melodic lines. The opening "Parallax" marks promising artistic heights for the project which unfortunately may not have lived up to itself by the time nearly 20 minutes of "All Lives Intersect" is finished. This must be Bachelder's "Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands" in terms of how this project might be accepted, the material seeming to require its lengthiness in order to properly exist despite any and all negative outcomes.

Eugene Chadbourne, All Music Guide