[Editor's note: Selected reviews are posted on the Web at http://www.computermusicjournal.org (click on the Reviews tab). In some cases, they are either unpublished in the Journal itself or published in an abbreviated form in the Journal.]
Compact disc, vinyl, and digital download, 2023, available from www.denovali.com and www.bandcamp.com.
Reviewed by Ross Feller
Gambier, Ohio, USA
So much of today's “serious” concert music does its best to ignore trends or sounds from contemporaneous pop music. Occasionally, a concert music composer claims to pay homage, appropriating some myopic aspect of pop music, couching it in highbrow fancy fare, as a way to obtain current cachet. It also helps to establish credibility if these composers played in rock bands in their youth. Mario Diaz de Leon is a composer whose work might be confused with this cachet-seeking enterprise, if one merely takes a superficial listen to his compositions, or a glance...