Rose Michael Laurello

• 1 Tell Hope Everything You Hear 04:22
• 2 Big Things 10:15
• 3 Rose 07:18
• 4 Embers 07:11
• Total Runtime 29:06

Info for Rose

On his debut Ravello Records release ROSE, composer Michael Laurello offers a personal and refined style marked by rhythmic invention, visceral directness, and earnest emotional depth. His music reflects his diverse stylistic influences, which include Western classical music, jazz-fusion, progressive rock/metal, and EDM/IDM. Intricate polyrhythms, high-energy grooves, and a sophisticated harmonic palette are distinctive features of his music.

Laurello composes for both traditional and non-traditional musical forces, including symphony orchestra, acoustic chamber ensembles, and works conceived specifically for the recording studio. He has recently collaborated with groups such as So Percussion, the Yale Philharmonia, Sandbox Percussion, and HOCKET.

Rose and Tell hope everything you hear, two pieces from this release, exemplify Laurello’s fascination with seamlessly interwoven soundworlds of acoustic and electronic sounds. Rose (for Clavinet, synthesizer, and electronics) is a nostalgic homage to ’80s pop viewed through a contemporary lens, featuring a complex rhythmic structure and relentless forward motion. Tell hope everything you hear (for prepared steel-string acoustic guitar and electronics) is in some ways a blood relative of Rose, addressing similar compositional concerns, but with a focus on the electronic transformation of the guitar from being unprocessed to becoming distorted.

Big Things, an amplified quintet for electric guitar, electric bass, piano, vibraphone, and modified drum kit, is a high-powered exploration of groove and polyrhythm. Kaleidoscopic in nature, it showcases Laurello’s ability to create gorgeous, elaborate textures from relatively modest musical materials.

Embers is the most introspective piece on the release, and is the only work of fixed media. A musical collage at heart, it is composed of sounds that Laurello recorded and manipulated (including prepared Fender Rhodes electric piano, prepared acoustic piano, analog synthesizer, found object percussion, and toy piano, among others). Conceived as a tribute to composer Conlon Nancarrow, each instrumental layer is playing in a different tempo, creating a beguiling musical universe that can be at the same time hypnotic and disorienting.

Michael Laurello, guitars, electronics, Clavinet, synthesizers, piano, Fender Rhodes, percussion
Doug Perry, vibraphone
Sam Suggs, electric bass

Michael Laurello
is an American composer and pianist. He has collaborated with ensembles and soloists such as Sō Percussion, the Nashville Symphony, HOCKET, Triplepoint Trio, The Videnia Quintet, Sandbox Percussion, the Yale Percussion Group, The Brass Project (Curtis Institute of Music), the 15.19 Ensemble, NotaRiotous (The Boston Microtonal Society), and bassist Sam Suggs. His music has been performed at Weill Recital Hall (Carnegie Hall), Lincoln Center, the Bang on a Can Summer Festival, the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, the Carlsbad Music Festival, Music from Angel Fire, and the 2015 National Conference of the Society of Composers, Inc., and has also been featured on I CARE IF YOU LISTEN. Upcoming commissions include new works for the Icarus Quartet and Tala Rasa Percussion. In September 2016, his music was performed by the New York-based musicians' collective, ShoutHouse, as the winner of their call for scores, and he also released his debut EP, Rose, in collaboration with PARMA Recordings.

Laurello studied composition at Yale, where he received the Woods Chandler Memorial Prize. He also holds an M.A. in composition from Tufts University and a B.M. in music synthesis (electronic production and design) from Berklee College of Music. His mentors include David Lang, Martin Bresnick, Christopher Theofanidis, and John McDonald. Recent honors include a commission from the American Composers Forum, selection for the SCI 50th Anniversary National Conference, participation in the Nashville Symphony Composer Lab and Workshop, participation in the EarShot Berkeley Symphony Readings, a Baumgardner Fellowship and commission from the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival's Chamber Choir and Choral Conducting Workshop, and an Emerging Artist Award from Boston's St. Botolph Club Foundation. He has attended the highSCORE and Etchings composition festivals, and was a composition fellow at the 2015 Bang on a Can Summer Festival. During the summer of 2016 he was in residence at the Avaloch Farm Music Institute with Triplepoint Trio.

This album contains no booklet.