Quiet Rhythms Live at Spectrum NYC

by William Susman

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Comes in a beautifully designed digipack gatefold case with a 12-page booklet insert including photos of the venue, artwork by Sicilian artist Valeria Di Matteo, detailed liner notes by music journalist, editor, and radio host Maggie Molloy, and composer remarks.

Includes unlimited streaming of Quiet Rhythms Live at Spectrum NYC via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

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Full Digital Discography

6

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Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Music for Moving Pictures, Quiet Rhythms Live at Spectrum NYC, Scatter My Ashes, Quiet Rhythms Book I, Collision Point, and A Quiet Madness. , and , .

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	1.	Quiet Rhythms No. 10 03:47
	2.	Quiet Rhythms No. 3 04:28
	3.	Quiet Rhythms No. 7 04:12
	4.	Quiet Rhythms No. 4 06:22
	5.	Quiet Rhythms No. 13 03:25
	6.	Quiet Rhythms No. 1 04:49
	7.	Quiet Rhythms No. 18 04:45
	8.	Quiet Rhythms No. 16 04:17
	9.	Quiet Rhythms No. 20 06:20
	10.	Quiet Rhythms No. 21 03:58
	11.	Quiet Rhythms No. 2 03:36
	12.	Quiet Rhythms No. 5 05:12
	13.	Quiet Rhythms No. 22 03:38

about

Interlude praises Quiet Rhythms Live at Spectrum NYC as "... mesmerising music ...", "... a haunting and subtly powerful performance …” and, “… profoundly expressive …” while, "the recorded sound is immediate, crystalline yet warm and colourful..." and, “… beautifully lyrical…” by Harmonious World.

textura describes the sound as "...basking in the wave-like resonances..."

On a cold winter night in Lower Manhattan, tucked amid a row of old New York walk-ups on Ludlow Street, one second story loft window glowed a warm yellow light.

To most passersby, it was just another old New York building with a lot of old stories behind it. But to a faithful few, this was a place for creation and connection, a beacon for musical experimentation and innovation—a space for creating new stories.

That brisk winter Wednesday evening, an intimate crowd of a couple dozen people trickled up the staircase to that second story loft, took off their coats, sat down on chairs and couches crowded around a nine-foot Steinway concert grand piano, and waited to hear something new.

William Susman was the featured artist that evening, performing selections from his work Quiet Rhythms, a piano cycle at once sprawling in scope and introspective in practice. The venue was Spectrum, a passion project of the musician and biotech entrepreneur Glenn Cornett—a legendary New York venue that is perhaps less a physical space than it is a state of mind. Spectrum has taken many different shapes over many years. In this particular reincarnation, it was equal parts studio apartment and performance space.

An intimate stage for an intimate piece of music. Quiet Rhythms has the warmth and immediacy of a late-night improvisation—an artist following the melodies where they lead him. Many of the pieces began in exactly this way, with Susman following his fingers across the keyboard late at night, his hands falling into familiar patterns: blue notes coloring the chord voicings, Latin percussion echoing in the rhythmic gestures, melodies jumping from one hand to the other like the mesmerizing hockets of medieval sacred music.

The resulting collection brings together traditions he has spent a lifetime studying: the harmonic language of jazz, the rhythmic pulse of Latin music, the circling melodies of minimalism, the complex structures of medieval fugues, the ingenious simplicity of the American Popular Songbook. New patterns are constantly emerging: repetitive isorhythms shift, layer, and unlock new colors, Afro-Cuban clave and montuno rhythms bring life and movement to the canvas.

In this way the music fits the shape of Susman’s hands: a musical mélange born from a deeply personal and visceral experience of these wide-ranging traditions. Interweaving melodies, chords, and patterns evolve and devolve one note at a time, the music’s subtle and incremental changes enhanced through the quiet nature of the music. Repetition gradually turns to transformation.

Quiet Rhythms is comprised of four books of piano music, each one a set of 22 short pieces: 11 Prologues and 11 Actions. Similar to a book, each prologue acts as a preface for the story to come: a simple but stirring introduction, a glimpse into the musical world about to unfold.

Quiet Rhythms is united in its sense of quiet introspection, its lush pastel colors, its soft syncopations. The works are not harmonically loud, but they are dynamic. The pulse ebbs and flows: the music is at times delicate, reflective, even meditative—at other times fervent, urgent, and hypnotic.

The music’s “quietness” then is less about volume than it is about connecting with the inner voice; listening in those fragile, delicate moments where quiet prevails. As the composer describes it: “a rarefied tightrope between vulnerability and sublimity.”

There was something quietly sublime about this particular performance—a certain spirituality about this space. The building, which dates back to 1893, was formerly a synagogue and, in a life before that, a Jewish burial society. It echoed with the warmth of a sacred space; the front of the amber brick building was crowned with the Star of David. At the top of the staircase, visitors were greeted with a large stone plaque engraved in Hebrew, covered with the names of dozens of devoted Jews whose lives had taken them through this corner of the world.

In its turn-of-the-century heyday this New York neighborhood, just around the corner from Delancy Street, was home to a flourishing Eastern European Jewish community. Susman’s own distant relatives may have crossed paths with the people in this synagogue. The hardwood floors creaked with stories of time gone by, the golden glow of the lights offered a rare moment of introspection.

The night was Wednesday, January 16, 2013. Susman, still in the midst of composing Quiet Rhythms, performed selections from Books I and II, giving the audience a glimpse into a work that was still unfolding. On the tenth anniversary of this deeply personal performance, Susman invites us to join that audience of a couple dozen friends and neighbors. In this live recording, we find ourselves sitting right at the foot of the piano, the chaos and clamor of New York City having melted away, if only for an evening.

Gathered around this beautiful concert grand, it is easy to get lost in the orbit of these circling melodies, the hypnotic pulse that shapes Quiet Rhythms. But there is an intimacy to this instrument as well—and at this close a distance, we can hear the heartbeat. This close to the piano, we can hear the moments of subtlety and nuance that color this music.

The occasional creak, shuffle, or quiet inhalation blends into the living, breathing nature of Susman’s compositions. An evening of quiet music, played in the composer’s own hands.

-Maggie Molloy

credits

released October 16, 2023

Produced by William Susman
Recorded by Lawrence de Martin at Spectrum New York City, January 16, 2013
Mixed by John Kilgore at Kilgore Sound, New York City, 2021
Mastered by Alan Silverman at Arf! Mastering, New York City, 2022
Liner Notes by Maggie Molloy
Album Design by Valeria Di Matteo
Special Thanks to Glenn Cornett, founder of Spectrum
All compositions © 2010-2012 by William Susman & Susman Music (ASCAP)
© 2023 Belarca Records.

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about

William Susman San Francisco, California

William Susman is a composer and pianist.

His music has earned praise from Gramophone as “texturally shimmering and harmonically ravishing,” from Fanfare, "crystalline . . . and gloriously lyrical,” and The New York Times, “vivid, turbulent, and rich-textured.” Textura describes Susman as “not averse to letting his affection for Afro-Cuban, jazz, and other forms seep into his creative output.” ... more

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