Judy Dunaway: Balloon Music

Judy Dunaway has developed techniques allowing her to play rubber balloons the same way avant-garde musicians use extended techniques on, say, the saxophone. This album in CRI's "Emergency Music" series offers a selection of works from the mid-'90s. The balloon allows many microtonal and textural possibilities, but its range of sounds is limited and can be, well, unpleasant. Still, her work surprises and fascinates; it can just become tiresome with time. "Piece for SoloTenor Balloon" and "Blown Uncut" feature the artist in solo, untreated performances. The latter is particularly satisfying. She squeezes the mouthpiece, uses breathing techniques, and uses various types of rubbing to make incredible noises — some of them make Merzbow's noise arsenal superfluous. The highlight of the set is "Everybody Loves Somebody Sometime," an impossible variation on Dean Martin's melody scored for eight balloon players (all Dunaway, overdubbed). All the other pieces imply a certain level of sampling. In "Bluebird," Yasunao Tone plays a prepared CD of balloon sounds. The two "Champagne in Mexico City" numbers consist of fragments from improvisations with Dan Evans Farkas processing in real time the sounds of Dunaway, later cut up and assembled in two sequences. "Rubber Patchwork Quilt" is also a collage of samples. These tracks are less satisfying, mainly because as a sampler artist Dunaway becomes less interesting than her sound source (definitely a flaw in this case). More than a curiosity, Balloon Music makes an interesting statement (fed by a complex network of symbols associated with the object). But they won't be teaching the balloon in elementary schools any time soon. ~ François Couture, Rovi