Ritual - Feature Review

By Colin Clarke

It takes guts and skill to bring this off. Composer Jonathan Beard’s stated intent is to create a “contemplation of agnostic devotional repetition” via a suite of six pieces that explore the principle of repetition. In doing so, he deliberately brings in the elements of “contemplation” and “timelessness.” Cue, one might have thought, another “New Age” disc. 

But no. By freeing instruments of their historical connotations and melding them with an electronic soundscape, Beard has created what might be termed an effect of “floating distance.” His intent is to place the music “outside of time” and, to a large extent, he succeeds, and we should remember that some of the equation is the state we, the listeners, are in when we listen. It could certainly be argued that we all need to center at this particular time in history, and Ritual aims to achieve just that. 

The piece is billed as an “electroacoustic suite” and is perhaps best thought of in six “panels,” each with its own individual character. The first, Quest, seems to emerge from nothingness, with blanched violin phrases against dark, deep rumblings. There’s no missing the chill in the sound in Midwinter, prolonged to chilling levels (pardon the pun) in Thanatosis, a depiction of the ability of some animals to feign death to escape unwanted attention (remember that Thanatos was a Greek god of death). Although less than five minutes long, the Thanatosis panel is the most effective (although personal preference, along with a predilection for horror movies, might well play some part in that sweeping judgement). Intriguingly, the reintroduction of a defined, indeed chthonic, rhythm in the final movement, Battalion, not only brings expected momentum (which turns out to be cumulative) but also works emotionally on a deep, primal, level. This is a musically and emotionally satisfying piece, superbly recorded and performed. 

Jonathan Beard has worked on a multitude of films that pretty much everyone will be familiar with, from Child’s Play to Terminator Dark Fate, Godzilla King of the Monsters, Jumanji, or television such as the magnificent fantasy series Once Upon a Time, plus Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., and many others, in which he acts in capacities such as music consultant, orchestrator, arranger, and composer. His experience certainly shines through, as the production values are faultless, and he himself acts as composer, producer, engineer, and mixer as well as eloquent cello soloist. Beard also teaches electronic music composition and music technology at the Herb Alpert School of Music.