Real Quiet: Press

"Real Quiet offers a surprisingly wide range of timbres seemingly ideal for (Mellits') music." - about debut release Tight Sweater

"Ritual" immediately made me want to hear Neikrug's opera. The piece, written for the trio Real Quiet, displays many irresistibly savvy effects. The ensemble is, I suspect, a bit hipper than the composer, but Neikrug has managed to produce something that sounds like a Santa Fe gamelan. The violin and piano writing -- not surprisingly for a pianist who has spent much of his career accompanying violin recitals -- is relatively conventional, but the way in which wide-ranging percussion motivates this 17-minute score is exciting, especially in the Native American feeling to the final, percussion-happy pages.

The opening concert of the ADevantgarde-Festival in the Muffat Hall began in fact after the intermission, culminating in David Lang's powerfully mounted PIERCED for cello (Felix Fan), piano (Andrew Russo), percussion (David Cossin) and strings. Despite its incessant intensity and its recurring harmonic, melodic and rhythmic patterns, one did not tire of listening. The composer's musical ideas were strikingly realized.

David Lang wrote PIERCED specifically for the New York trio Real Quiet. Comprise of percussionist David Cossin, cellist Felix Fan and pianist Andrew Russo, the group fascinated with their precision in this demanding piece full of rhythmic changes.

Real Quiet is really quite good:
Anyone who thinks recorded music always trumps live performance should have heard the Real Quiet ensemble play Monday and Tuesday in St. Francis Auditorium. They’d have had a change of heart on the spot. Opening the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival’s 35th season, the California-based trio — cellist Felix Fan, pianist Andrew Russo and percussionist David Cossin — not only played with the brilliance found on great recordings. Their artistic discipline and emotional generosity also drew the audience along as they went straight to the heart of every piece. That only happens when artists and audiences share the same time, space and goal: to come as close to perfection as humanly possible...Russo’s piano work was sensitively gauged, and Fan’s varied tones sounded like the taste of black walnuts and the color of dark amber...Cossin played a percussion tube with a built-in sound feedback module that changed electronic pitch as the tube changed positions in the air. Impressive.

On the second of the festival, Felix Fan was joined by pianist Andrew Russo and vibraphonist David Cossin in a stirring world premiere: David Lang's "Work," with an integral video component by Suzanne Bocanegra. ”Work” felt like a significant occasion, soaring in the often tricky realm of music-visual collaborations. It's a piece somehow both vaporously subtle and emotionally powerful - the best kind of artistic effect.

“This trio is cut out to be a major presence on the new music scene”

Tight Sweater is the first all-Mellits CD, and likewise marks the debut
on disc of Real Quiet, a promising young post-modern chamber trio made up of pianist Andrew Russo, cellist Felix Fan and mallet percussionist David Cossin. They are a very strong, well-rehearsed ensemble and the "hot," pop-styled production helps to galvanize their sound.

[Tight Sweater] The performances, by the trio Real Quiet, are suitably brilliant and rhythmically hard-edged. They make the works sound significant, as does the very present and slightly dry sound.

“You really cannot take your eyes off of these guys – pianist Andrew Russo, percussionist David Cossin, cellist Felix Fan. They play everything with such concentration and passionate involvement that it is impossible not to be interested in what they are doing. All of them are fabulous musicians, so charismatic and talented, they virtually force you to pay attention.”

Yuppie- fabulous folks turned out in droves to gaze fondly at enobled little people being poor. WORK was stunning, but also condescending.
Video installationist Suzanne Bocanegra extended and slowed down the film while composer David Lang replaced the narration with music, performed by Real Quiet. Bocanegra and Lang spun that alleged strife into the stuff of celebration, the essence of a good, honest life worth a song, if not a dance. Anytime artists get the opera and ski lodge crowd to smile up at the hand- me- down set, they done good.