Like Wool E. Bull, the Regulator Bookshop and (until recently) LocoPops, pulsoptional is one of those rare pheonomena you can only find in Durham.
And after seven years of wowing the Triangle with its avant-garde experimentalism, the ensemble of mostly current and former graduate students in the Department of Music will finally release its eponymous debut album Friday at Broad Street Cafe.
And after that... well, they're not sure. For any other band armed with a brand-new album, a tour would most definitely be in order. But pulsoptional isn't like most other bands.
Most bands you read about on these pages probably couldn't even tell you what an English horn looks like, and they'd eye a bassoon with suspicion (pulsoptional's arsenal of instruments includes both). Most bands don't read notated music at their shows, meticulously executing each polyrhythm and metric modulation with the fervor and intensity of a symphony orchestra (pulsoptional does, and with electric guitars, no less). And most bands don't compose doctoral dissertations based on Einstein's Theory of Special Relativity (pulsoptional's John Mayrose has).
So, they're not like most bands. But they're not like most composers either. For one thing, their compositions aren't commissioned for outside chamber groups-they're commissioned for themselves.
"As a composer, it's hard to get your music played," said marc faris (like his ensemble, he doesn't capitalize his name) a visiting assistant professor in the Department of Music who composes and plays electric guitar in the group. "This is a way to get your music played with more care and attention than you'd otherwise get."
faris admits though, that the casual nature of the groups practices-relative to more traditional ensembles-can lend itself to introducing half-baked compositions to hash out as a group. "I'm sometimes shocking myself with the sloppy crap I bring in to play," he said.
pulsoptional's composers also tailor their pieces to the specific players they share the stage with, a point faris called "one of the most satisfying aspects of this group."
And unlike most contemporary classical groups, this band of composers frequents rock clubs like the Duke Coffeehouse, usually to surprising acclaim.
"There's a certain energy to everything we do," said Thom Limbert, pulsoptional's percussionist. "The feeling I have in practice is similar to the feeling I get when I'm playing rock."
But he added, "I was in a rock band for several years before this, and I'd never gotten the reception I've gotten for this group."
Their pieces are cerebral and complex, but there's a strangely compelling sense of urgency to them that keeps you engaged. Influenced by minimalist composers such as Terry Riley (whose compositions inspired the Who's "Baba O'Riley"), pulsoptional is powerful and playful at the same time, all the while pushing the boundaries of the American experimental tradition.
You'd expect to find a group like this in a place like London or New York City. But pulsoptional feels right at home in Durham, a creative community saturated with rock bands where faris says the group has carved out a niche.
"We're not as loud as they are," he said. "And we happen to be really lucky here that there are a lot of people who are open to approaching music in a lot of different ways. We kind of fit into that because we don't make sense, in a way."
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