Press

 

"Katharina Rosenberger's "parcours III" matched crackling, burbling instrumental parts with recorded sounds from "Room V," an earlier interactive sound installation. Bernhard Lang's "DW5" derived a bracing vitality from obsessively repeated rhythmic cells.

"Passages of luminous tenderness occasionally surfaced in the restless, abrasive flux of Richard Barrett's "Codex V." In Eric Wubbels's "Euphony," two saxophonists, Eliot Gattegno and Alex Mincek, used methods derived from post-1960s avant-garde jazz to chirrup and squall over a vivacious sequence of sharply contrasted episodes. Throughout, Carl Bettendorf conducted with exacting care, and the performers combined technical finesse with a palpable commitment that made these formidable works approachable."

- Steve Smith, The New York Times (reviewing Wet Ink's performance at the Jazz Composers Institute at Miller theater in 2010)

"The musical language spoken, sung, struck, plucked, and bowed - most were meticulously notated, some improvised within the score - sounded sometimes primal, surprisingly witty, and very often playful. But each of the five compositions was unique and all were performed with precision and artistry. There were moments of high energy, with ear-splitting intensity followed by silence and relief ("ATD V" by Sam Pluta), places where my eyes and ears played tricks on me ("Nucleus" by Alex Mincek), and times when words had special meaning (or perhaps not!) ("Only the Words Themselves Mean What They Say" by Kate Soper). And all of the works seemed not only relevant but also important to understanding the nexus between contemporary life and art."

- Karen E. Moorman, The Online Arts Journal of North Carolina

"No group was more bracingly thought-provoking and expansive than the Wet Ink Ensemble. These seven New York musicians/composers are fearless in testing the limitations of what instruments or musical forms can be. Best of all, they don't shy away from integrating the spoken word as a tasty and dramatic counterpoint to the music. "

- Edward Ortiz, The San Francisco Classical Voice

"Several composers performed as well. Kate Soper, who sings with the Wet Ink Ensemble, presided over her "Door" (2007), an exquisitely quirky setting of six poems by Martha Collins. Ms. Soper's vocal lines combine a childlike lightness and playfulness with a modified form of Sprechstimme, and her accompanying ensemble - electric guitar, saxophone, flute and accordion - alternately follows the vocal line and envelops it in inventive, contrapuntal textures.

"Ms. Soper and a differently configured Wet Ink (this time piano, accordion, clarinet, flute, saxophone, violin and percussion) also performed Matthew Welch's "Symphony of Drones, No. 1" (2001), with Mr. Welch conducting. The work's title is appropriate in the sense that each of its movements is built on a steady underlying pitch or chord. But it is also misleading: anyone lulled into expecting a proto-Minimalist meditation would have been startled by the wild, amusingly cacophonous outbursts that drive the piece."

- Allen Kozinn, The New York Times (reviewing Wet Ink's performance at AACA festival in 2010)

"Wet Ink, deployed in various groupings, brought admirable precision to its task. Mr. Abrams's Trio for Violin, Clarinet, and Cello came across as a careful study of spatial relations, with one instrument frequently working against the others. 'He Didn't Give Up/He Was Taken,' by Henry Threadgill, featured alto saxophone, piano, voice and violin, often in coordinated rhythm. Its use of dissonance felt less icy and more playful.
...
'Wonderlust,' by Leroy Jenkins, employed 11 pieces in a forward-tumbling mass, starting with a unison line for violin and electric guitar. Its dynamic variation was broad and rewarding: one stretch had a bassoonist barking percussively; another involved a tenor saxophone essay by Alex Mincek, Wet Ink's artistic director. If he was reading his part, he did a good job of suggesting spontaneity."

- Nate Chinen, The New York Times (reviewing Wet Ink's October 2008 concert of the music of AACM composers at The Kitchen)

"A survey of Wet Ink programs from its eight-year history reveals that the group doesn't so much cross boundaries as disregard them."

- Time Out

 

"The glowering overtones and stabbing riffs of Mincek's [Viola] proposed a sort of common ground between Morton Feldman's glacial gestures and the amplified swarms of Glenn Branca and Sonic Youth... At several points, the piece abruptly shuddered from near-silence to cacophonous rumble; even at its gnarliest and most confrontational, the overall effect was intoxicating."

- Steve Smith, Night after Night (reviewing Wet Ink's December 2006 concert)

"Not all young composers have a yen for pop; many still engage in the venerable avant-garde pursuit of making music from dense, difficult combinations of sounds, thus striking an attitude of resistance to mainstream culture. Composer-led groups such as Wet Ink... are active at the noisier end of the spectrum, although they don't rule out sweeter sounds."

- Alex Ross, The New Yorker

 "Ma i giovani di Wet Ink... hanno scelto una via più sofisticata di quella dei Bang on a Can... e questo spiega l'interesse preponderante nella loro musica per le ricerche sul suono e l'elettronica. Nei loro programmi... il linguaggio formalizzato e la precisione di scrittura delle avanguardie, le scoperte della psicoacustica e del minimalismo sono contaminati con le forme più libere e improvvisate delle musiche metropolitane."

- Alberto Bosco, Il Giornale della Musica