Artist: Jeff Greinke
Tracklist:
1. Alone on a Long Stretch of Road
2. Unseen
3. A Thousand Year Flood
4. Losing Time
5. The Forest
6. Earth and Sky
7. Upon a River that Still Flows
8. Making Way
Turning shadows into sonic emotional rivers, synthesist and composer Jeff Greinke’s A Thousand Year Flood skirts the edges where modern classical, electronic and ambient music converge. Working with cellist/violist Heather Bentley, Greinke’s first record for Projekt in 26 years is a hybrid of ambient chamber music and electroacoustic beauty. Throughout the near-hour-long set, atmosphere is critical to the impact as Greinke locates his paired-back minimalism within a setting of spaciousness and sensitivity.
“A Thousand Year Flood,” Greinke explains, “represents further explorations in composing electroacoustic music which I began over a decade ago. This time rather than working with an ensemble I focus on one instrumentalist – cellist/violist Heather Bentley. It became clear early on in the process that Heather’s understanding of my approach, sound, and sensibilities had deepened since we began working together in 2019 for the album Other Weather. Whether working with scored parts, improvising under my direction, or freely exploring her own ideas over my sketched out sections, Heather’s thoughtful expressions fit seamlessly within my own. Heather’s voice is unique, lending a more expansive breadth of harmonic richness and emotional body to these compositions.”
“I am greatly fascinated by the mixing of synthetic and acoustic sounds, sometimes blurring them to create an hybrid of timbres and textures as evidenced in the title track, ‘The Forest,’ and ‘Upon a River that Still Flows,’ whereas other times keeping them very distinct yet cohesive as in ‘Earth and Sky.'”
“Although in the last four-plus decades my work has veered in a few different directions, the exploration of raw sound itself and the treating and layering of such sounds to create complex and interesting textures, moods and atmospheres, has always been my primary focus. With A Thousand Year Flood, there’s a richness and evocativeness I achieve by utilizing less sonic material, paring back the amount of instrumental layering which is something I’ve strived towards for a long time. It’s a pleasure hearing it come together like this. It’s quite rewarding and exciting!”
On his 23rd release, Jeff Greinke realizes an engaging balance between consonance and dissonance, timbre and shade, ambience and aura. His impressionistic ambient chamber music shimmers in the passing light of melodic stringed textures and shifting electronic shadow.
