Jessica Pavone - Clamor in PopMatters 20 Best Experimental Albums of 2023

Year end lists are what they are! So much amazing music always misses being mentioned. If they help people find some music that they wouldn’t have otherwise, that feels like a win. We have a few of these to share, but for starters we’re excited to see Jessica Pavone - Clamor in this 20 Best Experimental Albums of 2023 from PopMatters. Big thanks to both PopMatters and Chris Ingalls for this! Some very nice words about the music below:

Jessica Pavone‘s new string ensemble composition, Clamor, began life as Pavone wondered about the origins of the see-saw after writing a swaying, back-and-forth rhythm. This led her to discover that the see-saw was invented by Korean women – who weren’t allowed to leave their homes – to see the world outside. The inventions of women and how they work around societal barriers and norms became the basis for her latest work, Clamor.

Acting primarily as a composer as well as a solo violist on two of the record’s four movements, Pavone is joined, exclusively and likely not coincidentally, by women and nonbinary musicians on Clamor. The four movements are all named after female inventions that were created to overcome barriers and aid in creating a sense of freedom. “Neolttwigi”, the 17th-century see-saw, represents the first movement, which takes the form of swaying and droning, gradually building in power and majesty, at one point executed as blocks of sound, solid and seemingly impenetrable. The piece eventually ends in an all-consuming, mesmerizing wall of noise. –Chris Ingalls