Christopher DeLaurenti

Concert-hall sounds themselves become music

Giga-conglomerate Universal Music Group kept Christopher DeLaurenti’s recent CD Favorite Intermissions out of circulation for several months because the sonic provocateur had used the instantly recognizable yellow Deutsche Grammophon logo in his gently parodistic cover design—a copyright no-no which caught even The New York Times’ attention in a May 2007 article. But with a redesigned cover, the disc—DeLaurenti’s found-sound pieces surreptitiously recorded (with gear hidden under his suit jacket) during hiatuses at orchestral concerts—is available again. The idea’s brilliantly simple: sounds never intended to be paid attention to, much less preserved, are re-contexted, and musicians’ warm-up noodlings and audience noise become quietly murmuring collages—ending where most orchestral music begins, with instruments tuning up and the maestro’s entrance. John Cage-style, DeLaurenti puts an aesthetic frame around inadvertence and turns it into beauty. Tonight’s performance, with Martin Bland and Jonathan Way, celebrates the re-release.

Sat., Jan. 5, 8 p.m., 2008