AMN Reviews: JG Thirlwell & Mivos Quartet – Dystonia (2023; Cantaloupe Music)

My revelatory experience at Big Ears 2024 was being able to see JG Thirlwell perform two times. In the first, he sang in a dark cabaret style accompanied by a chamber rock band. The second was a live electroacoustic piece with abstract visuals. Both were high points of the weekend.

Thirlwell is a musical polymath, adapting numerous genres to his own proclivities. He has recorded over 30 albums under half a dozen pseudonyms and written for the screen. Here, he is joined by the new music aficionados Mivos Quartet for a series of five pieces composed over 10 years. Yes, they are indeed string quartets, but not like any other that you’ve heard.

Thirlwell’s writing is jumpy, uptempo, and angular. Each piece moves along at a pace you would expect out of rock music, and yet rarely repeats itself for long. The structures are generally grounded in staccato sawing from one or two of the Quartet while the others play a short-lived melody or explore with extended techniques, tone, and color. In contrast, some passages employ a cinematic minimalism.

Thus, these pieces are dense, intricate, and shifting gears quickly enough that you can barely get your head around what they are doing before they move on to doing something else. The raw tension is virtually overwhelming. And the technical demands on the musicians are significant but they rise to the challenge.

Dystonia is classical music for the non-classical listener. Thirlwell’s sheer audacity shines through to make this a remarkable and highly recommended offering.