Benny on the Uke

I just listened to Andy Eastwood's " SpaceScape for Ukulele and String Quartet ," and it is some of the most interesting uke music, as well as some of the most interesting string quartet music, that I have ever heard! "SpaceScape" depicts a space probe traveling farther and farther away from earth. It has three movements, "Out of Orbit," "Journey," and "Discovery," that altogether amount to just eleven minutes. The uke, at first, sounds a bit like a pizzicatto violin, aka the high-pitched, percussive sound that we often hear in string quartets. But it soon becomes clear that this is no traditional string quartet. Familiar-sounding? Yes. But something we've heard before? Definitely not. A propulsive rhythm builds and then slows down. Sparse ukulele chords and string sections call and reply to each other. At some points, the strings seem to carry more of the melody than the ukulele, and the ukulele creates some interesting,