Michael McNeill is a pianist, improviser, and composer based in Buffalo, NY. While living in eastern Virginia, he started the quartet Allegories, with Baltimore-based musicians Susan Alcorn (pedal steel guitar), Dave Ballou (trumpet), and Shelly Purdy (vibraphone & percussion).
Barcode Poetry is the culmination of this quartet’s first tour in June 2022. The band spent a week on the road, developing McNeill’s tunes and deepening the band’s chemistry. In studio, the band distilled its sprawling improvisations into concise, focused performances. The record is marked by a gorgeous fluidity, with the diverse sororities of the four instruments often merging and emerging from one another in vividly colorful textures. The titular “Barcode Poetry” refers to McNeill’s approach with the band, employing a rigid compositional framework—the black-and-white patterned keys of the piano, the mechanisms of valves, strings, pedals, and bars on his collaborators’ instruments—to empower these machines to yield to the musicians’ poetic impulses.
“Somehow this seemingly unwieldy combination of instruments proved to be an ideal vehicle for our individual and collective explorations,” McNeill explains. “Perhaps most importantly, our personalities meshed well, too. For those who didn’t get to hear us on the road, I hope the distilled recorded performances will provide a window into the collective energy we cultivated that week.”
For complete credits and liner notes, download the Barcode Poetry booklet.
Praise for Barcode Poetry
“Michael’s expansive approach to the piano and composition takes you on an unexpected and immersive journey. In Barcode Poetry, he masterfully weaves together a fascinating blend of human, animal, lyrical, and angular sounds, creating a vivid sonic landscape that is both captivating and unpredictable. Each composition tells its own story, shifting effortlessly between moments of beauty and intensity, keeping the listener on edge. The combination of lyrical grace and raw terrifying energy makes his music feel alive and dynamic, constantly evolving in ways that surprise and excite. Rather than following traditional structures, Michael’s work is full of twists and turns, inviting listeners to experience something truly original and deeply engaging.”
—Angelica Sanchez, pianist and composer
“Barcode Poetry is an album that provides a different aural experience on each hearing. The musicians usher the listener through this journey document, a collection of unique moments that occurred one time, never to be duplicated. By entering their artistic sphere without expectations, we can be rewarded with fresh sounds and a cleansing of our listening ears. Maybe this is the ‘Double Memory’ that the last track refers to, or as the alternative Negative Memory.”
—Jon Nelson, Founder – Meridian Arts Ensemble; Professor – University at Buffalo
“‘Double Memory,’ which closes the album, is so quiet, intimate, light in how it will touch the listener that it almost sounds like Morton Feldman decided to try jazz. And I can’t think of a higher compliment to pay this record.”
—Mehmetkrljic, Cveće zla i naopakog