Two More Voices in the Din

Many thanks for the plug, Kyle! Not to impinge on the kindness, but I'm from the Canadian part of America...

I've only heard one Saariaho piece -- "Adriana Songs" -- so maybe I'd hate the rest, but the piece I heard I liked quite a lot. I only heard the piece once, so I'm going on recollections of my observations at the time rather than actual current observations, but one of the things I found particularly interesting about her style is that she uses a lot of sort-of sound-mass techniques. So her counterpoint, rather than being line against line, is sound-mass against sound-mass. In my conversation with her about the piece I'm pretty sure she confirmed that that's how she thinks about her process. I remember feeling like the piece was a sort of cross between Ligeti and Michael Gordon's 'Decasia', although I can't recall my precise justification for the Decasia comparison anymore.

None of this actually explains why I liked the piece or why you don't like her work, though. Interesting technical features are not the same as interesting aesthetic features. Oh well :)

HI Kyle,
Thanks for the plug!
Although I do tend to think of myself as an "experimantalist/new music" guy, what with improvisaton being an important aspect of my work. (I'm sure I'll be bloggin about that quite a bit.) My blog site is also my main website, so I'll be filling it with all sort of interesting things in the weeks to come.
Have a great trip!