Abby Fisher - Continuous Interior
- BuzzSlayers
- 1 hour ago
- 2 min read
With Continuous Interior, Abby Fisher unveils a solo album that reimagines percussion and electronics.The album includes two immersive works that explore scale, space, and perception.
The title track – the evocative Continuous Interior by New York composer Robert Honstein – draws inspiration from the modern experience of limitless, bounded spaces – shopping malls, airport terminals, vast warehouses – and translates that feeling into waves of resonant sound, where vibraphone tones sparkle above neon, quasi-techno synth textures.
The album also features Andrea Mazzariello’s powerful and moving Figure to Ground. Mazzariello’s composition explores rhythmic perception on a massive scale, unfolding a single syncopated figure until the sense of pulse dissolves, only to be gently reasserted by a late-breaking melody. It is, in the composer’s words, an invitation to find “a kind of pleasure in this liquified listening.”
“These works are deeply connected by a sense of exploration and scale,” says Fisher. “Honstein’s piece is about moving through a vast, unfolding interior. Mazzariello’s is about focusing on a single syncopated figure, unfolded on a massive scale. Both require and reward deep, patient listening. It has been a privilege to live with and interpret these pieces, and to work with Robert and Andrea.”
Continuous Interior (Robert Honstein): Originally commissioned by the Vibraphone Project with support from New Music USA, the work is a three-movement stroll through a limitless sonic space, moving from rocking waves of sound to wistful lyricism and finally to a churning, dance-like energy. Fisher’s recording with electronics follows the premiere of the vibraphone and string quartet version of the piece with the Bergamot Quartet.
Figure to Ground (Andrea Mazzariello): Written specifically for Fisher, the piece is a testament to their collaborative relationship. Mazzariello praises Fisher’s “fierce advocacy for new music and her commitment to its direct, sensitive, and technically exceptional performance,” dedicating the composition to her. He currently teaches composition and music technology at Carleton College and directs the composition program at the Sō Percussion Summer Institute.
Abby Fisher is a percussionist and educator dedicated to the growth and performance of new music. A seasoned performer, she has appeared at festivals and venues worldwide including the Big Ears Festival, Percussive Arts Society International Convention, One World Trade Center, and the Transplanted Roots Percussion Symposium. She is a co-founder of the praised Fisher/Lau Project, whose debut album was hailed as “an impressive and high-quality contribution to the percussion duo repertoire.”
Fisher serves as the Steven Hemphill Endowed Professor of Percussion and Director of Percussion Studies at Northern Arizona University. She is co-artistic director of Nief-Norf, President of the Arizona Percussive Arts Society chapter, and an active performer with the Flagstaff Symphony Orchestra and the improvisatory trio Parallel Play. She is a proud artist for Marimba One, Black Swamp Percussion, Vic Firth, and Zildjian.
Comments