Timebending by Devin Maxwell

Timebending is the latest release by Park City, Utah-based composer and multi-instrumentalist Devin Maxwell. Following his 2016 album Works 2011-14, this is the second album on Infrequent Seams to solely feature Maxwell’s compositions.

The album features five recent compositions, including two acoustic works (“Bonneville Park 4” for flute, violin, vibraphone, and bass clarinet, and “blusnoblues” duo for cello and piano), plus two trio pieces with acoustic instruments together with live electronics (“PH1LL" with viola, cello, and electronics; “Wasatch Front” with saxophone, cello, and electronics), plus a final work, “blusnoblues 2,” created by Maxwell on electronics alone.

Maxwell’s attention to space and texture reflect his view that “the only thing the world asks of any composer is to bend some time.” Dedicated to Phill Niblock, Timebending is the first in a series of four releases of Maxwell’s compositions, appearing over a 24-month period. Each of these releases will appear as a limited-edition LP (40 copies each), with the HD digital album available through Bandcamp.

Maxwell’s compositional methods vary, but are loosely organized into categories. The four LP releases will reflect these groupings, including Cloudseeding, the PH series, the Bonneville Park series. This first release offers an overview of Maxwell’s various methods of integrating attention to the materiality of sound, the capacity for electronic and acoustic sounds to reference each other, and the possibility of conceptualism to provide structure that keeps gesture and form in constant dialog.

“PH4” and “blusnoblus” both constantly play with expectations, continually playing stasis and calm against angular or disrupting shifts in tone. “PH1LL” and “Wasatch Front” are both more consistently focused on meditative or ruminative textures, by contrast. “Blusnoblus2” is most consistently focused on disruptive textures, and mixes synthesized sound with fragments of electric guitar. This piece appears only on the digital album, though each LP comes with a download code fro the full digital album.

Maxwell’s eclectic career includes being drummer and producer for Anni Rossi on her Steve Albini recorded debut release “Rockwell” on 4AD Records, along with other projects across the musical spectrum. Originally from northern New Jersey, Maxwell spent much of the early 2000s in New York (following the completion of his MA studies at CalArts in 2002).

Before moving to Utah, Maxwell frequently performed at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Columbia University, Roulette, Issue Project Room, The Kitchen, Joe’s Pub, Monolith, Mercury Lounge, and The Stone, among locations in and outside New York. He has recorded with record labels including 4AD, Polyvinyl, Parlophone, Cantaloupe Records, and Mode and can be heard on music for TV, film, and video games including Grand Theft Auto IV, The Independent Film Channel, Grey’s Anatomy, and BBC. An avid supporter of new music, Maxwell has commissioned and performed dozens of solo or chamber compositions throughout the course of his career.

Maxwell co-founded the LoudLouderLoudest Music Production Company in Brooklyn, NY, and was responsible for many firsts in wireless music and mobile game sound for clients such as Sony, Warner Music Group, Universal Music Group, Atlantic Records, HBO and Disney.

composer
performer
experimentalist