Another Timbre TimHarrisonbre
at195 John Lely ‘Meander Selection’
Apartment House
Gordon MacKay & Mira Benjamin, violins Anton Lukoszevieze, cello
Bridget Carey & Chihiro Ono, violas Mark Knoop, piano
1 ‘Doubles’ (2012) string quartet
2 ‘Karnaugh Quartet’ (2020) string quartet
3 ‘Pale Signal’ (2020) electronics, John Lely
4 ‘Meander Section’ (2018) version for string quartet youtube extract
5 ‘Nocturne’ (2017) piano
6 ‘Stopping at the Sheer Edge Will Never Abolish Space’ (2020) version for violin, 2 violas & cello
7 ‘for Philip’ (2013) piano
Anton Lukoszevieze on the music of John Lely
The music of John Lely has run a continuous thread through the programmes of Apartment House for some 20 years. A subtle, yet sinuous presence, producing music that has a quiet yet significant sounding air about it. Lely’s titles of his works are ambiguous, yet point to hidden constructs and origins, Pale Signal, Meander Section or Karnaugh Quartets for example. Ambiguous perhaps, but revealing music of great clarity and an etched beauty. The harmonic worlds sound familiar, yet redolent of some hidden, subliminal place, like a photograph by Luigi Ghirri or Eugene Atget. As I wrote that previous sentence the Giacometti sculpture ‘The Palace at 4am’ (1932) popped into my mind’s eye. Lely’s music is there and so are we, listening, eternally.
John Lely
