There are a several ‘uns’ involved in the music of Andy Akiho. Unwavering. Unflagging. Unequivocal. Uncompromising.

If you’ve met Andy, you know that he can be much the same – especially if he’s working with you on his music. There is no ‘sort of’ in Andy’s music nor in his execution of it. Andy is relentless in his quest for every performer of his music to feel it the way he intends it to feel. In a way, his music harkens back to that of J.S. Bach, whose music feels most alive – and paradoxically the most free – when it is pinioned on a rock solid rhythmic foundation.

The Pyxis Quartet and pianist Yoko Greeney were working on his monumental piano quintet Prospects of a Misplaced Year recently, when Andy just happened to show up. Immediately he started taking apart a 20-bar section of the third movement. He had us play against different rhythms, clap, and count out loud without our instruments. “If you get it this way, you won't be able to screw it up ever again,” he said. Two and a half hours later, exhausted and with bruised egos (and palms) we left for home.

That’s the experience of working with Andy. Every musician who plays one of his works for him knows this feeling – regardless of their perceived level of rhythmic precision. It can always be better. Because once you find that groove that lies underneath the complexities of his surface rhythms, there is an ease and flowing grace that is unlike almost any other music being written right now.

I hope that you join us on April 12 at Straub Collaborative for what promises to be an incredible show – with music by Andy Akiho, Anna Thorvaldsdottir, György Ligeti, Anna Meredith, and inti figgis-vizueta – all accompanying ground-breaking immersive visualizations of the remnants of the great Missoula Flood by Bradley Johnson.

Charles Noble
Violist, 45^th Parallel Universe