Bach Artillerie is a new project that features Curt Sydnor and Greg Saunier of Deerhoof, playing the Goldberg canons of J.S. Bach. Their self-titled debut comes out on April 24 on Ernest Jenning Record Co.
Sydnor explains:
Bach Artillerie is pretty obviously an expression of our love and fascination with the music of JS Bach. We both like to approach classical music on our own idiosyncratic terms, just as those composers did in their own lifetimes with the music that inspired them. We both benefited from conservatory training but reject the notion that classical music is somehow privileged, deified, and off-limits to creative reinterpretation. With Yonatan Gat and Mikey Coltun we had the rich experience a decade ago of reimagining Dvorak's "American" string quartet for improvising rock quartet (Greg and I had earlier collaborated on my 2020 album Deep End Shallow and several keyboard compositions of Greg's). Ever since that experience I've been imagining other projections in that vein. Bach Artillerie is just one of those imaginings and I'm overjoyed that it's finally been realized.
My hope is that the uninitiated listener will be turned on to the infinite possibilities of music that is formally controlled to this almost absurd degree. In the hands of a musician like Bach the immense inward pressure of canonic composition compacts musical expression to produce diamonds upon diamonds upon diamonds.
Bach Artillerie Tracklist
Side A
1. Canon à l'octave des Variations Goldberg
2. Canon à la seconde des Variations Goldberg
3. Canon à la tierce des Variations Goldberg
4. Premier mouvement du Concerto Brandebourgeois №5
5. Canon à la septième des Variations Goldberg
6. Canon à l'unisson des Variations Goldberg
7. Canon à la quarte des Variations Goldberg
Side B
1. Deuxième mouvement du Concerto Brandebourgeois №5
2. Canon à la neuvième des Variations Goldberg
3. Canon à la quinte dans motion contraire et canon à la sixte des Variations Goldberg
4. Troisième mouvement du Concerto Brandebourgeois №5
