Matthias Engelke: Resonant Dowland
Gruenrekorder
Classical purists might balk at the idea of giving John Dowland songs an electronic makeover, but they would be wrong to dismiss Matthias Engelke's project out-of-hand. While his ‘digital recomposition' of the Renaissance composer's material is thorough, it's not disrespectful, and the results repeatedly reveal the care with which the German sound artist has crafted the twelve productions. Engelke ensures the songs don't get lost, even when the arrangements re-position them within digitally sculpted spaces. The temporal divide separating Dowland's time and ours collapses in these treatments; at the same time the electronic intervention can't help but put distance between them, and as a result balance and tension are both present. Such melding of analog-generated and electronic material has been, it seems, a long-standing area of interest for the producer.
Rather than overwhelm the male singer's voice, Engelke smartly opts for a stripped-down electronic design; consistent with that, he generally refrains from manipulating the voice, though in a few places it's subjected to bold stutter-funk treatments to reinforce the pulse of the rhythm track. In general, however, the singer's original delivery remains intact, with Engelke's newly created backing the radical contemporary component. The combination is so seamless, the result could convincingly pass for a live duo recording by a vocalist and electronic producer. A range of moods and styles is explored, with everything from lamentations to buoyant celebrations featured.
With the vocals removed, “Sorrow, stay,” “Lady if you so spite me,” and “Fine knacks for ladies” wouldn't sound dramatically unlike the kind of pulsating electronic material someone like Carsten Nicolai might create under the Alva Noto guise. However one feels about the extensive doctoring applied to the voice for “Come again: Sweet love doth now invite,” there's no denying the infectious propulsion of the backing track; the cut's so driving, in fact, one could imagine it filling a club floor. In stark contrast to it, “The lowest trees have tops” stands out for its acoustic arrangement, with strums and strings providing a rustic backdrop. “Go crystal tears” also merits mention for the fine cello playing of Axel von Huene, the only time a musician other than Engelke appears (the singer aside).
At eighty minutes, there's a lot to absorb, but Resonant Dowland is never boring. As Christian Lemmerich states in an essay included with the release, the project connects “a creative musician of the Elizabethan age, on the threshold of discovering musical individuality, with his colleague who, separated by centuries, lives in an age of digital absorption of sound, in music whose unequal layers shine iridescently through each other.” It's a fascinating project by Engelke, but one also marred by a questionable omission: the vocal dimension is pivotal to the outcome, yet the vocal credit reads “Classical voice recorded 2013.” Surely the singer—Peter Pears, or someone who sounds very much like him—warrants identification.April 2021