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Buchla & Friends
Dennis Weijers - Accordion and Modular Synthesizer

Dennis Weijers - Accordion and Modular Synthesizer

by Ellison Wolf

As the title plainly states, this album is made up of only accordion and modular synthesizer and features renditions of all six pieces from Philip Glass’s Glassworks as well as Steven Reich’s 1979 piece, Variations for Winds, Strings and Keyboards. If you’re a fan of either, it’s hard not to fall in love with the way the accordion bellows throughout the album under Weijer’s deft touch. The accordion is such a pleasing sounding instrument, especially when used in this way, and it works well to highlight just how gorgeous these compositions are to the point where you almost forget what the originals sound like. Weijers never lets the instruments get ahead of the pieces and all of the Glassworks pieces have a fragile wobbliness that underscores the beautiful and evocative repetitious nature of each piece's musical themes. Weijer’s version of Reich’s Variations for Winds, Strings and Keyboards, also shines, or somewhat twinkles rather, but in a much more direct, sturdy way.