Energy, Ambition Mark EAR Unit’s Experiments

Wednesday at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the California EAR Unit plugged in, but only partially. That was the point. The program, “Circuit Breakers,” explored electro-acoustic compositions, the fertile ground between human- and machine-driven sounds.

Eric Chasalow’s “Suspicious Motives” is an impressive, virtuosic work, a nervous canvas of gestures and textures on both sides of the electro-acoustic divide. The humans involved did a masterful job. Mark Grey’s world premiere, “Grinder,” uses live computer processing, playing off organ-grinder music and falling into a monkey-ish minimalism to close.

A different sort of energy came with the intimacy of solo performers in “duets” with tape. Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho’s “NoaNoa” combines extended techniques on flute--played with sympathy by Dorothy Stone--with a subtle, sensual tape part. On Andrew Lovett’s colorful “Jacob Dreaming,” violinist Robin Lorentz did the honors beautifully, against a tape part in varying proximities to the live sound.

*

David Rosenboom presented the world premiere of “Naked Curvature,” an ambitious amalgam of ideas and procedures. The ensemble played stylistically rambling material, while the tape part included whispered texts, e.g., “adventure excites individuality.”

The concert ended with C. Bryan Rulon’s “MessMixExpress,” a postmodern hodgepodge, culminating in a phone gag. The ensemble played in and out of rhythmic focus and ensemble tautness. The computer, meanwhile, was the guiding rhythm section, at one point lapsing, without shame, into a post-disco groove. At least it’s Ives-ian disco.