Transmission

"The impressive transmission closes the disc with a tour de force for solo electric guitar and live electronics, using a hybrid sound that mixes acoustic and electric guitar output. Guitarist Daryl Buckley had a hand in devising the guitar timbres that slide effortlessly from dense electronic structures to fast, distorted passages reminiscent of jazz-rock guitarist John McLaughlin." Gramophone 2006

Transmission ... is written for a hybrid guitar that functions as both an electric and acoustic instrument, with outputs that are then computer-transformed in real time to create a wonderfully tangled and totally unclassifiable sound source, sometimes evoking the feedback-laden world of heavy metal, or the cheesy twang of massed Hawaiian guitars. The other pieces may be more conventionally virtuosic but they still pack enormous physical impact, as if, through some symbiotic process, the music had been derived from the very essence of the instruments themselves.

These six pieces are essentially solos, but two have frills: interference (Barrett titles are typically lower-case) is for a contrabass clarinettist (Carl Rosman) who sings across a range of four-and-a-half octaves (for the most part into the instrument while playing "normally") and pedals a bass drum; transmission, the most substantial item, links electric guitar (Daryl Buckley) and live electronics (Barrett), and a glorious collection of grungy, enveloping sounds it is. All the pieces - the others are for percussion (Peter Neville), trombone (Benjamin Marks), violin (Susan Pierotti) and the rare clarinet in C (Rosman) - belong to larger-scale Barrett works. Despite their conceptual complexity at every level, they have a real dramatic presence.