Seven Pillars by US composer Andy Akiho is not a piece for the faint of heart. Anyone who hadn’t known that before would be in no doubt following this performance at the Forbidden City Concert Hall as part of this year’s Beijing Music Festival. An eighty-minute wall of sound, it was a showcase of supreme virtuosity, grit and groove by Sandbox Percussion, comprising – Ian Rosenbaum, Jonny Allen, Terry Sweeney and Victor Caccese. The Brooklyn-based quartet commissioned it and whose 2021 recording of it was nominated for a Grammy Award.
Excerpts from review by Tom Stewart for Seen and Heard International
"While the standard kit – vibraphone, marimba, bass drum et al. – had been hired locally, the Sandbox boys had flown halfway across the world with the rest, including glass bottles and sets of tuned metal pipes. They also brought with them a lighting setup designed by US director and filmmaker Michael McQuilken. Unassuming when switched off, these tubes of multicoloured light were spaced between the instruments and controlled by the players themselves. They transformed the hall, deep within Beijing’s most famous landmark, into something that more resembled the inner sanctum of a spaceship."
"In a pre-concert press conference, the composer told an array of Chinese journalists about the intricacies of the palindromic structure of Seven Pillars, though the piece’s length and unrelenting force meant it was not really evident in performance. Instead, the players quickly created an almost trance-like state that seemed to beat time itself into submission. Four solos – one for each player – and seven movements for all four of them together. Akiho, who is also a percussionist, worked closely with the players as he wrote the piece – and it showed. No doubt each of them has his own weak spots but you would not know it from this almost superhuman display of rhythmic prowess and laser-cut ensemble playing."
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