When a chamber group calls itself NOISE, you can bet their goal is not to record the complete works of Beethoven. Unless, of course, they were playing Beethoven on plastic tone flutes submerged in a swimming pool and processing the resultant sounds through computer manipulation.

I am happy to report that all the music I observed at Friday’s (June 17) sound.ON Festival 2011 concert at the La Jolla Athenaeum was both above water and aboveboard. Featuring NOISE, the Festival’s ensemble-in-residence, and the Los Angeles-based Formalist Quartet, the program stressed recent, cutting-edge compositions by younger composers, balanced by a pair of string quartets by the distinguished jazz trumpeter Ishmael Wadada Leo Smith.

Two works by Sidney Marquez Boquiren made a strong impression: his “Babalyan,” a mesmerizing suiteof flute, cello and khaen (a bamboo mouth organ that appears to be the cousin of the Chinese sheng) and his “Missa cum Jubilo,” a densely layered paean of spiritual evocation written specifically for the six-member NOISE ensemble. Both compositions tapped into a deep spirituality, the former echoing the quiet intensity and the passionate conjuring of traditional Philippine faith healing rituals, and the latter quoting chant motifs from the traditional Catholic Mass.

The “Missa cum Jubilo” called to mind the impassioned exclamations of Olivier Messaien, not because of any overt harmonic similarity, but because Boquiren’s “Missa” grew into ecstatic, Pentecostal fury propelled by angular, asymmetrical rhythms. Hushed, linear textures opened the piece, and an equally meditative closing section featured harp-like cascades plucked deftly from the piano’s interior by Christopher Adler. I should note that Adler was equally adequate at drawing shapely themes from the khaen in the other Boquiren work.

Sadly, Matthew Burtner’s “Polyrhythmicana” and “(dis)Sensus”did not prove as winning to the ear as they were captivating to the intellect in both the program notes and the composer’s articulate explanations during the pre-concert discussion. A 15-minute suiteof flute, cello, guitar and vibraphone, “Polyrhythmicana” is an exercise in rhythmic distortion among the instrumental lines and sonic distortion of the instruments themselves. Burtner achieved the latter by covering parts of each instrument with tin foil, giving a fuzzy, buzzy alteration to the flute, guitar, and cello.

No doubt critics complained when John Cage first stuck bolts and paper clips into the piano strings to alter that instrument’s sound, but decades later, “prepared piano” has becomecommonplace in new music. So if attaching tin foil to the bridge of a cello to distort its sound eventually becomes a standard technique, I will gladly rescind my observation that covering part of an acoustic instrument with tin foil is just tacky and counterproductive.

Burtner’s longer quartet for piano, violin, saxophone and percussion “(dis)Sensus” (30 minutes) rose above the opening gimmick of percussionist Morris Palter writing a snippet from a French political tract on a pad that transmitted and modified these rhythmic jottings through an interactive computer. However, these transmutations affected the players, the resulting movements cohered convincingly and offered a variety of compelling emotional landscapes.“(vio)Lens,” the furious middle movement, could have accompanied a street rumble in an urban movie, and “ianopianop” proved a languid ballad, with Burtner taking the crooning alto saxophone solo. I also appreciated the clever integration of the toy piano into the texture of that movement. Several movements of this piece featured an unusual instrument, such as the toy piano or a part of an instrument. For example, a saxophone mouthpiecewas used to mock or tease the larger, more respectable instrument, a touch of Dada that Burtner pulled off well.

Two entirely acoustic string quartets by Ishmael Leo Smith, played with great discipline and conviction by the Formalist Quartet, offered another flavor at the new music assortment. At age 69, Smith is no novice, and his quartets sounded precisely structured and plotted with constantly changing clusters of tonality. Parts of “String Quartet No. 5” reminded me of Gyorgy Kurtag’s concise islands of sound, while “String Quartet No. 4” offered a passionate musical brutalism. There was nothing tentative or experimental about these quartets.

Members of the Formalist Quartet are violinists Mark Menzies and Andrew Tholl; Andrew Nathaniel McIntosh, viola; and cellist Ashley Walters. Menzies, Palter and Alder are part of NOISE, as are cellist Franklin Cox, flutist Lisa Cella and guitarist Colin McAllister. Nathan Brock attended to the many electronic duties for NOISE.

This season marks the fifth year of the Athenaeum’s sponsorship of the sound.ON Festival, a collaboration worth celebrating. New music in university concert halls frequently seems sterile and even predictable. The warmth and intimacy of the book-lined walls and Oriental carpets of the Athenaeum’s cozy room makes everything more humanly scaled. May these two forces always be with us.

PRESS HERE for PROGRAM and BIOS