REVIEWS

There is a remarkable clarity in the way he carries out the logic of his materials
and he has an excellent ear for sound color.....in both pieces the composer displays an acute sensitivity
to the differences between live sound and electronic sound and the music contains extraordinary moments
when the sound seems to belong to both worlds.
.....The Village Voice

ALPHA brought a splendid virtuoso performance from solo dancer Celesta.
.....The Cleveland Plain Dealer

SENSATIONS is one of the more attractive and accessible compositions in this style.
.....The Instrumentalist

Stunning for its pinpoint sparklers of sound was Beerman's POLYGRAPH VI.
.....The Milwaukee Journal

Jonathan Kramer's RENASCENCE for clarinet, tape delay system and pre-recorded tape created
a magnificent tapestry in the stunning performance of Burton Beerman.
.....Perspectives of New Music

Beerman's POLYGRAPH V for flute and tape.....was noteworthy both for the smooth integration
of disparate sonic elements and for the emotive force of seemingly abstract musical materials.
.....Musical America

The use of taped sounds in the CONCERTO I by Beerman shows just how musical and human
electronic contributions can be to performance especially on record.
.....The New Records

The CONCERTO I for Saxophone and Taped Instruments by Burton Beerman.....live soloists plays
against pre-recorded acoustical instrumental sounds processed electronically. The work is more Cage-like.....
the electronic part is less homogenized, less predictable; it carries elements of musique concrete
and is timbrally more diverse.....the live saxophone line has multiphonics and other effects, but is no less
melodic for it. A very good work.
.....Fanfare

Burton Beerman's newest multimedia work, ILLUSIONS, strikes right at the heart, and comes close
to hitting a jugular.......Musically the smooth melding of disparate elements was pleasing. There
was some computer processing of sound, but it blended wonderfully with the live percussion
and human voice, making the match with Beerman's clarinet believable.
And Haraszti's choreography, at times writhing and anguished, at times wildly abandoned as if
Isadora were reincarnated and running about the stage freed from societal constrictions,
had more depth and development to it.....The Beermans seem often to charge ahead
into the psychic/sensual interface, but they leave clues, like bread crumbs, along the trail.
.....Blade

Here we have bright, uplifting program by two enterprising clarinetists who are clearly on the hunt
for beautiful sounds, not the usual dour, ascetic avant-garde rhetoric.....Beerman's participation.....the best
being a concerto-like carousel of whirling,ghost-like orchestral electronics called
WIND WHISPERS, SOUNDS AND SHOUTS. Don't let the whiff of academia in the liner credits
put you off. There is whimsy, pomposity, drama, intergalactic space music and plenty of attractive
lyrical solo work here, making this one of the most enjoyable avant-garde wind discs to come
my way in a long time.
.....WindPlayer

If there is any hope for contemporary music, it is because of albums like this. Here is a group
of recent works that are neither self-consciously modern, in an academic, atonal way,
nor condescendingly melodic in the tired, minimalist fashion......Burton Beerman's music is more
intrinsically electronic. In MASKS he uses a synthesized wordless chorus as a backdrop
to echoing cascades of clarinet sound. MOONDANCE draws on primal rhythmic impulses,
featuring jazzy riffing against an electronic patter of drums. The last work on the program,
WIND WHISPERS, SOUNDS AND SHOUTS, is a pleasing hodgepodge of expertly assembled
effects, as the name suggests.
.....Fanfare

Burton Beerman performs his 1990 composition MASKS which combines virtuosic writing for the clarinet
and MIDI-triggering of sampled sounds. The composition vacillates between tightly structured sections
where motives are explored (as in the opening's descending minor seventh Eb-F) and more rhapsodic
segments which have an improvisatory quality.....MOONDANCE, composed and performed
by Burton Beerman, is a crafty display of the clarinet's interaction via MIDI with numerous
sound modules which represent a small, yet timbrally-varied ensemble. This work exhibits a rhapsodic
quality (like his composition MASKS) while expressing hints
of influences from the worlds of jazz and ethnic dance music.
.....The third composition by Beerman, WIND WHISPERS, SOUNDS AND SHOUTS is a
technological tour de force exploiting a number of sound modules controlled by the clarinetist
using a Pitch-to-MIDI converter and a MIDI sequencer. Of the seven works on the CD, this one
best exemplifies an effective and elaborate integration of music technology with live performance.
.....Living Music

With two exceptions all of the pitch material is generated by the single player, something
at times difficult to believe..... Beerman is featured here in three original works. MASKS explores
small pitch cells which are built into large structures by the use of multi-timbral effects.
The contrasts between these cells as they are layered creates textural and contrapuntal interest.
MOONDANCE exhibits a rhythmic, episodic style that seems to imply color and movement.
this is characteristic of much of Beerman's music, juxtaposing fragments of Eastern sounding raga
with jazz idioms. WIND WHISPERS, SOUND AND SHOUTS explores sequenced sounds
added to the processed clarinet solo. A repeated pattern derived from the sequenced ostinato
drives the piece. The imitative effects are layered so thickly that it makes picking out the clarinet
line a challenge.
.....The Clarinet

The lone dance piece for this year's festival was MEDITATIONS(1994) for electric clarinet
and dancer by Burton Beerman with choreography by Celesta Haraszti.....An interactive piece,
with computer routines written in C by the composer, this piece was impressive in conception
and masterful in execution. I would like to call special attention to the wonderfully evocative
choreography of Ms. Haraszti and the beautiful shadow play of the two dancers, particularly in a
sensual duet involving the use of long scrim like material. Beerman and Haraszti, who tour as
the Electric Arts Duo, have created a work of dreamlike images and elegant, luminous
motion, both musically and visually.
.....Journal Seamus