Album Review: Pythagorean Dream by Rhys Chatham

Although Rhys Chatham is known as a punk purist guitar composer, he actually started his career by studying multiple instruments, like the trumpet, keyboard and flute. On his latest release, Chatham reaches back to his flute roots, as Pythagorean Dream consists of two 20-minute compositions, one composed and performed chiefly on guitar ("Part One") and the other on the aforementioned woodwind ("Part Two"). Though each side of the album features tonally disparate instrumentation, Chatham approaches each track similarly, layering minor key sounds on top of each other (and sometimes within) to create a drone that often crescendos but rarely dissipates, focusing on the buoyant energy and hypnotic tone of each movement.

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Rhys Chatham was a flute player until he heard the Ramones and switched to guitar. That's an oversimplification of the pioneering musician and composer's history, but it still says a lot about his unique methods. Throughout his 45-year career, Chatham has translated styles associated with instruments like the flute—classical, formal, studied—into the primal power of rock-based electric guitar.

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Composer Rhys Chatham is used to working with a lot of players. Consider just some of his most recent work. A Crimson Grail is a composition for 400 guitars. Guitar Trio Is My Life may seem small and spare in its title, but features live performances with players from several bands from Swans to Sonic Youth to even Modern Lovers and more.

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Rhys Chatham — Pythagorean Dream (Foom)<a href="http://foommusic. bandcamp. com/album/rhys-chatham-pythagorean-dream">Rhys Chatham—Pythagorean Dream by Foom</a>Rhys Chatham may have run (and studied, and partied, and collaborated) with minimalists, but he isn’t really one of them.

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