Phaedra Ensemble: The Music of Meredith Monk review – fleeting rough edges amid polished beauty

Kings Place, London Works by the not-quite-minimalist composer’s included her Realm Variations and quartet Stringsongs in a compelling concert There’s no one quite like Meredith Monk . So often grouped with her lionised contemporaries Philip Glass , Steve Reich , Terry Riley and La Monte Young , she is 83 to their 90-odd years and sports long plaited hair as reliably as Reich wears a baseball cap.

Yet she refuses the label “minimalism” for her music, and composition is just one element of a creative life that also takes in singing, choreography, film-making and drawing. Monk was not present at this performance marking the launch of Phaedra Ensemble’s new album of her music , though she did loom briefly over the audience on video, professing “it’s a dream of mine for this music to be recorded and played”.

(Compare that to the fortunes of Glass’s works. ) But she had been closely involved, having invited the group to record some of her music after hearing them play. Continue reading...