Vinny Golia - Even to This Day​… Movement Two: Syncretism: For the Draw… Music for Orchestra and Soloists (Nine Winds, 2023)

By Lee Rice Epstein

In 2021, Ron Coulter reviewed the first movement of Even to This Day…  and concluded, “each track leaves the listener eager to hear where the next track will take them, even after the first 157!” At that time, we already knew there would be two more movements, and now Syncretism: For the Draw, the second movement, has been released on Vinny Golia’s own Nine Winds record label.

Golia’s been composing and producing some of the most radically inventive large ensemble and orchestral music of the past 40 years. Even to This Day… Movement Two: Syncretism: For the Draw… is, arguably, the maximalist fantasia he’s been building towards his entire career. Much like Anthony Braxton’s epochal Trillium operas, the whole of Even to This Day… will absolutely be a landmark in Golia’s impressive and ongoing career. Scored for “guitarists, electronic musicians, brass, woodwinds, percussionists, voices, and orchestra,” Movement Two highlights featured soloist and Cypriot musician Alkis Nicolaides, along with guitarists Susan Alcorn, Nels Cline, Michael Fink, Josh Gerwitz, Henry Kaiser, Alex Noice, GE Stinson, and Jake Vossler; Tany Ling, Will Salmon, and Andrea Wolper on vocals; Ethan Marks and Dan Rosenboom on brass; Mason Moy on tuba; Wayne Peet on piano, organ, and keyboards; Clay Chaplin, Cheryl Leonard, Stueart Liebig, Tim Perkis, and Chas Smith on electronics and homemade instruments; Tim Feeney; Gregory Lewis, and Ellington Peet on drums and percussion; and Golia on various woodwinds and aerophones, gongs, singing bowls, and crotales.

Much like Wadada Leo Smith’s Organic, featured on his 2011 album Heart’s Reflection, Golia’s ensemble sounds remarkably loose and open (almost in spite of the dense orchestration). Passages of shredding guitar are paired with extended moments of calm and sparse instrumentation. Solo lines slice through seemingly Xenakis-inspired brass and metallic percussion, as on “Brass Trio.” There are bold, Western landscape motifs, such as the spectacular, canon-like “Elide.” Meditative, textural pieces like “Bonecrusher” mix with pulsing, vocal showcases like “There it is!, 1328 Elm… is Freddy home?” The humor in the titling throughout (see, for example, the mid-album features “Wilfred’s lycanthropian desires have a dilemma with Dr. Yogami's needs”—not as bracingly mired in binary opposition as its titles source inspiration—and “The Lennie Tristano Memorial Homecoming Lunch”—punchy but not as Zappaesque as its name and rhythms occasionally gesture towards) along with the wry compositional is what one could call classic Golia. Like his predecessor Braxton, Golia’s music is truly post-modern, the sanctity is within the players and music, it doesn’t necessitate a false sense of preciousness towards the notes on the page. This frees up the ensemble to move lightly through even the knottiest passages.

The set’s core is undoubtedly the five-part “Suite for Alkis,” a feature for Nicolaides that precipitated all 110 tracks of the movement. Taking up 45 minutes of the total time and distributed throughout the album, when reordered and played on its own, it opens with caffeinated, surging energy. Gradually leading to the third movement’s crystalline into, which gently evokes the night sky over the California desert or, perhaps, the inland city of Nicosia, and its mountain vistas. By the midpoint, interlocking whorls of winds and guitars churn forwards like a great machine. Nicolaides’s masterful guitar returns again to the fore during the smashing fifth movement, which also features a standout drum solo and Peet playing heavy, funky runs on organ. As an EP, it would undoubtedly stand on its own, as part of the larger whole, “Suite for Alkis” is a launchpad for all the places this took Golia, inspiring the remaining 105 compositions.

I think I cannot stress enough how much any fan of the Trillium operas should dig into this. With a forthcoming third movement, Golia’s just over halfway there. Yes, there’s plenty of music to appreciate while one waits. As with many Oulipian writers, Golia has noted the album can be listened to in any order, and of course "for any duration" can be inferred from there. As we recommend often, dip in and out, don’t worry about taking in the whole at once. A celestial landscape, Movement Twocombines the astral with the terrestrial, and a listener’s openness begets tremendous rewards.

Available on Bandcamp.