3: The Music Of Gina Biver

On 3: THE MUSIC OF GINA BIVER, her debut recording on Ravello Records, composer, guitarist, vocalist and producer Gina Biver presents five selections featuring the concept-based new music/new media performing collective Fuse Ensemble, a group in which she has played an integral part for the past decade. Not only did Biver compose the five tracks on the album, she either performed on, produced, mixed and/or engineered many of them.

On the opening track, Mirror, which draws its inspiration from the poem “Empress in the Mirror” by the American poet Colette Inez – who joins the composer in contributing spoken word to the track – Biver begins her exploration into the very nature of identity. Girl, Walking continues that exploration, flowing through five sections that are shaped as they go along by improvisations of the parts of the bassist, flutist and guitarist. Those improvisations unfold and force the unexpected; awakening new shapes and realities while the repetitive nature of the Biver’s electric guitar maintains an underlying continuing, eternal presence.

We Meet Ourselves is dedicated to fellow Fuse Ensemble member Scott Deal, whose solo marimba triggers audio samples which represent Jung’s theories about the impact of confrontations with the unconscious and of the messages we receive as we go through life. On The Cellar Door, Biver musically explores Jung’s theory of individuation, the process by which the psyche becomes integrated and whole. Its audio track, with the vibrant and ethereal sounds of the waterphone, represents the unconscious, while the piano and cello represent the conscious life.

Perhaps the only piece on the album not deriving inspiration from psychological inquiry is the closing track, No Matter Where. Biver states that she interpreted “No Matter Where, Not Pictured Here,” a painting by the notable American artist Jackie Tileston, as a journey and so decided to sonically travel around it. Captured sound (trains) is constant, suggesting unending movement; piano floats like water. The Asian influenced leg of her journey features tablas and ascending violin and piano lines made from Indian ragas and prepared piano with small Tibetan bells sitting atop the strings. Trains trail off, slowly fading away as the piece ends.

Gina Biver is a composer, guitarist, vocalist and producer. She composes electro-acoustic music for chamber ensemble, choirs, dance, multimedia and film. Since 1991 she has scored music for television and film, winning multiple awards for her work. Biver’s work in inspired by the written word and by visual art. Her life and work involve collaborations with other musicians, filmmakers, choreographers, poets, computer artists, sculptors, painters and video artists.