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David Crowell: Point/Cloud review – minimalism that sparkles with joy

The New York multi-instrumentalist, who has played with Philip Glass and Steve Reich, shows great flair for making minimalism rich and harmonically complex

Crowell has been an in-demand musician around New York for more than a decade – playing saxophone, flute and guitars with the likes of the Philip Glass Ensemble, the Bang on a Can All-Stars, Steve Reich and in his own outfits Empyrean Atlas, Spirit Stout and Eco-Tonal – but Point/Cloud foregrounds his work as a composer. Cover art for Point/CloudMinimalism is often robotic, repetitive and melodically stunted, but Crowell’s minimalism is wonderfully rich and harmonically complex: busy arpeggios sketch out dense, extended chords that constantly mutate and move in unexpected directions. They describe their music as “the darker fringes of dub”, but their self-titled debut LP (released 29 April on Pointless Geometry) is a lot weirder than that: a series of subaquatic funereal dirges, using reverb effects, slowed-down drums, eerie vocals and distorted drones.

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