I’ve had this CD by Mary Lou Newmark lying around for a long time – for much too long to be decent, really… but I just haven’t been able to figure it out, or to give any immediate statements. I haven’t really come upon this bewildering mix of musical aspects before, and since some of my reactions at first were hostile, I thought it better to let the CD rest for a while, to see if it and I could share some common ground later.
Well, maybe that time has come now, when fall is looming over my Scandinavian home, and after I’ve been doing tough hikes in the Lapland mountains and also attended the Stockhausen Courses in Kürten, Germany, having me fly airplanes for the first time in twenty years…

The thing that struck me as soon as I shoved the CD into the laser box was the heavy reverberation that sort of hid the music; hid the violin. It felt like the violin was smeared with maple syrup – and I just couldn’t stand it. I thought Mary Lou Newmark had lost all control when experimenting with ways to make the violin sound more pleasing, Americanized or whatever – but hopefully I was wrong. However, the heavy reverberation still puts me off. Compare the sound of some of the heavily reverberated violin of Newmark with the completely dry violin of Malcolm Goldstein, for example, and you get transported from the California candy store or corner church to the barren expanses and rock deserts under the glaciers of Nallo!

However, it must have been a calculated decision on the part of Newmark to make her violin sound, at times, like a heavily distorted electric guitar, or at times like the call of some medieval soul in despair, rising up under the canopy of the Dome of Cologne – but I cannot understand her intentions in this blurring of vision.

This CD presents a strange mix of para-religious impressions, New Age manners, violinistic artistry, poetry and electroacoustics.

I still cannot accept the reverberation, which sucks so much of the strength out of some of the pieces and results in a meaningless wall of violin sounds – sometimes taking on the behavior of a swarm of bees -, but I really appreciate some of the more inventive stuff here, like what you find on track 3; “Voices of Faith”, where you at first hear a dijeridoo, and then the voices of different religious ceremonies around the world. In this piece you also hear this beautiful blessing, from a traditional Jewish baby-naming ceremony:

In every birth, blessed is the wonder. In every creation, blessed is the new beginning. In every child, blessed is life. In every hope, blessed is the potential. In every transition, blessed is the beginning. In every existence, blessed are the possibilities. In every love, blessed are the tears. In every life, blessed is the love.

Now, that may sound dangerously similar to the quasi-philosophical wise-cracks you can find on bulletin boards in offices all over the Western world, and it sounds peculiarly similar – in spirit – to what my wife-to-be (now ex since many years) jotted down and read out aloud at our $10 (in shorts and T-shirts) wedding at the Justice of Peace in a basement in Dallas, just a couple of blocks away from Dealy Plaza… Nonetheless, it holds truths that can change life if heeded.
“Voices of Faith” is one of the longer pieces on the CD, and rightly so, with its varied excerpts from the world of people and cultures, seamed together in an electroacoustic manner by Newmark, even though – it must be said – she lacks the seamless talent of the gurus of electroacoustics, like for instance Francis Dhomont or Michel Chion. In Newmark’s case it’s less of electroacoustic high art and more of a sequence of votive tablets being displayed, one after the other. A similar, but maybe more successful rendering of associated ideas, was presented by Neil B. Rolnick some years back, on his CD “Macedonian Air Drumming”, where you might listen with special attention to “Balkanization” (1988). The CD is on Bridge Records, no. BCD9030, released 1992.

On this Newmark CD you also find certain themes or groupings of related works, as in the case of “Seven Sacred Stones”, which is a collection of seven pieces simply called “One Stone”, “Two Stones” and so forth. Most of these stone variations add up to nothing more than the fat-layered reverberation of the California candy store, but some of the pieces are very interesting, like “Four Stones”, which dances on in a clear-cut candidezza of a close-miked violin which is electronically treated with a fingertip sensuality that outshines almost everything else on the CD. It’s just a pity that Newmark hasn’t allowed herself the space to further develop this hunch. The piece is way too short!
“Six Stones” also stands out of the wall of syrup, holding its own ground in soaring pannings and phase-shifts, recalling faint memories of Jimi Hendrix and his treatment of “Star Spangled Banner” at Woodstock in upstate New York in 1969, with inserted steel droplets falling onto loudspeaker coils! This is where Newmark shows her abilities, and I wish she’d further investigate these roads of innovation and leave that damned west coast candy store and all the maple syrup for good!
“Seven Stones” is also a compelling piece, with intricate, fast staccato rhythms, here and there reminding me of the structure of some of the string quartets of Bela Bartok. (Four “ofs” in that sentence… excuse me…)
About the Stone pieces Newmark says: “There are many different kinds of sacred stones – prayer beads, the ancient Stonehenge, stones left on the grave of loved one, or a stone gathered on a long meditative walk along the beach. Stones are symbols of longevity and a permanence beyond ourselves.”

“Comments on the Cosmos” is again a larger piece, with Newmark’s text and voice and her way of mixing sound pictures together in her own semi-structured way. A few minutes into the piece an interesting fluttering sound occur, and Newmark once again gives one of those rare glimpses into what she indeed is able to achieve artistically and electroacoustically, but which she only does incidentally, as if she hasn’t realized where her real talents dwell.
About “Comments on the Cosmos” she says: “…is written for voice and electronic soundscape. The texts consist of quotes from famous scientists as well as my own thoughts. This piece reflects my interest in theoretical physics and its confluence with eastern religious beliefs.”
Hmmm… Wonder is she has read “The Tao of Physics” by Fritjof Carpa?! (This is one of my favorite subjects too; the apparent merger of modern physics and old eastern wisdom! It’s headed somewhere wonderful!)
A quote from Einstein appears a few times in “Comments on the Cosmos”, and I love it dearly: “The distinction between past, present and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion!” I in fact have my own way of saying this, which I use for a signature of all my emails – so it should be plenty spread by now – and it goes: All places are here! All times are now!

The title of the group of pieces – three of them, to make sure – called “3 On the Green” refers to the violin they’re performed on; a green son-of-a-gun! Mary Lou Newmark utilizes an effects processor to lure some extra qualities out of the violin, and the venture starts with rhythmically plucked sounds, soon to be relieved by long strokes of the bow in the candy store… but wait, this time there is humor and glissandi added, and the effect is much more interesting than the usual blurring of vision, and the duration proceeds the clarity of the violin arises out of the maze, and for once you really hear the beauty of the clear-cut strings, vibrating at high pitches all around you! The last of the Green pieces explodes in a mighty rock n’ roll idiom, in electrified staccatos run through the effects, interspersed with gallant movements of the bow along singular strings. Too much reverb destroys the impression once more, though. Why does she want to hide inside all that!!!

“Pele” is the last piece of the set. The name makes me think of a legendary Brazilian football player that I wrote my first essay on in school in the 1950s, but here the title refers to “Goddess of Earth and Fire”. The work has a feeling of carnival, black magic, voodoo and dark heat.

As a last remark I’d like to state that Mary Lou Newmark – in my humble opinion – is to be likened to an unpolished diamond. Seen from certain angles she displays splendor and innovation, but that impression is in too high a degree blurred and distorted by all this friggin’ reverberation. With all this talent, though, I’m sure much more brilliance and innovation is bound to rise out of Newmark’s violin and studio in the future, without this self-imposed blurring of vision. Look us straight in the eye, Mary Lou! You’ve got what it takes! Come out of the reverberation!

And I finally just have to relate a dream I had when I first encountered Mary Lou's music: I was dreaming, just before I woke up, that I was walking across the town square of this little town in Sweden, when I noticed something going on up ahead. A big dump truck was standing in the middle of the square, and on the back of the truck they had put a giant big-screen televison. On the screen, in a live broadcst from California, Mary Lou was playing a green, transparent violin!
The TV was hooked up in a conference mood, so I knew that she could also see what was going on at the square in Nykoping, Sweden, where I was. As soon as she stopped playing I started to holler her name, and I saw her looking around, bewildered, but just the instant she looked into the TV on her side, the technician said he had to cut it short because the time for the broadcast was up.

Visit Mary Lou’s interesting and good-looking website, where you can also buy the music: http://www.greenangelmusic.com