Eric Klaxton Holds Faculty Recital
By ESTHER CHAE, ERIN HAN, FORREST ZENG, and ANNIE ZHU
On the night of Friday, Oct. 25, Instructor in Music Eric Klaxton and guest artist Mike Effenberger filled the Bowld with waves of dreamlike synth and electric keyboard, enveloping the audience in a spellbinding soundscape.
Inspired by the Greek word “rhegos,” meaning “blanket,” the recital was an eye-opening experience of a “blanket” of sound, sprinkled with nature-inspired textures. The concert ran for one hour, without breaks, featuring the pieces “Finding Moments,” “Rigidly Defined Areas of Doubt and Uncertainty,” “Stereoscopic” and “Dreamland.” Between each piece, Klaxton and Effenberger improvised seamlessly. They ended the concert with a brief Q&A session with members of the audience, where Klaxton discussed his compositions and also the unique medium of electronic music.
“I really enjoy sharing music with audiences, so whenever I have an opportunity to play, especially original compositions, I try my best to take it,” Klaxton shared. “This was framed as a faculty recital, so it allowed me to present a side of my artistry that isn’t as well known, publicly or to my students. The repertoire I chose and the set I designed was really flexible and left a lot of room for the unknown but still had a nice arc across 60 minutes and explored a variety of moods.”
Klaxton continued, speaking on his nuanced experience as a multi-instrumentalist. “This work focuses a lot on texture and pattern. It also structures the listening experience across longer periods of time than a lot of my work as a saxophonist. It also presents melody in a less hurried and sometimes less obvious way.”
He added, “I think I ended up making music like this because of how much I enjoyed playing freely with a band as a sax player. A couple of the pieces we played Friday night were originally presented by my quartet, with me on sax accompanied by a rhythm section. Both mediums, however, allow me to improvise quite a bit, which certainly connects all of the work I do as a musician.”
Many audience members found the contemporary music fresh and intriguing. As one listener explained, “There were some times where it was nice and flowing, and sometimes it piqued my curiosity.” She went on to add that the performance “pulled out different things — different things you might think about, different sensations, different aspects of the music that you might associate with something else.”
Upper Asha Masoudi, one of the students in the audience, echoed this idea. “I felt like I was having some sort of epiphany. The music reminded me of biology for some reason, and it felt very natural. I wasn’t expecting to like it that much considering I’ve never listened to that genre before, but it was an incredible experience and I felt like the music flowed well.”
She added, “I also really liked how they didn’t take breaks in between pieces, as it made the whole performance super cohesive and continuous.
For some, however, the experience was slightly overwhelming, as the repertoire contrasted with the classical melodies that they were used to. One audience member stated, “I guess it just wasn’t what I was expecting. I love it when the faculty plays on the pianos, the orchestras, or the violins. I mean, the faculty is amazing and I love that. I was expecting [the performance] to be sort of like [traditional music], but it wasn’t. And it was so loud. I mean, I’m challenged with speech, but not with hearing music, which is really kind of weird. And I prefer songs that maybe I’ve heard in years past that have a melody. There was no melody to these.”
“This isn’t bar music,” joked Klaxton in his Q&A session after the performance. He expressed hope that more people would explore synthetic music, whether that was in producing it, or simply listening to it.
“I make this music to encourage the audience to let their imaginations run wild,” Klaxton told The Exonian. “I hope the music is able to temporarily offer the listeners greater personal insight or spiritual awareness.”
Forrest Zeng / The Exonian