About:
The image series makes Reynolds's more abstract, organizational ideas about musical form concrete. The imAge ("A") pieces are characterized by discrete, largely unambiguous sections that contain two or more types of highly distinctive material. By contrast, the imagE ("E") pieces actively avoid perceptible internal boundaries, instead containing more continuous evolutionary trends that span the entirety of a composition. Each piece on this recording is remarkably performed by the individual for whom it was written; every performance is expertly executed and demonstrates an extreme sensitivity to the intricate nature of Reynolds’s music.
Reynolds’s image series expresses oppositional conceptual material in a different manner than found in his larger compositions. Contrasting ideas are used to structure a work and are typically associated with different sections of a composition. This series re-imagines how an oppositional conceptual impetus might be realized musically by concentrating each idea into individual shorter works.
One is challenged to consider the core identity of the set as well as the various ways this identity is expressed by Reynolds through each pair of pieces. Indeed one gets a strong sense of either sectional or organic, process-based form through the "A" and "E" works respectively, though the true nature of each is not fully apparent until their contrasting and thereby complementary counterpart is encountered.
