…we return to ground…
Other Minds is pleased to present …we return to ground…, a new recording by Irish composer Karen Power and Quiet Music Ensemble. This double CD features three of Power’s large-scale pieces pairing natural sounds with musical instruments, written for and with Quiet Music Ensemble over an 8-year period. Beginning with instruments of ice in 2015, Power's experience of pairing natural sounds with musical instruments has evolved into a transformative body of work. Her approach to composition, creatin…
In Glow of Like Seclusion
Samuel Andreyev’s music is incredibly varied, from the sparse resonance of the Sonata da Camera, the ‘cartoon music’ – as the composer puts it -of Vérifications, characterised by primary colours and strong instrumental timbres; the Sextet in Two Parts which in contrast focuses on minute timbral shadings; and of course the cantata for solo voice and ensemble which is the title track of the album.
Performed by Ensemble Proton Bern, conducted by Luigi Gaggero with the magical soprano voice of Peyee…
Harpsichords
Tip! "Three harpsichords in various states of disrepair were kindly offered to me by Leeds Conservatoire. I accepted, and a memorandum of understanding was swiftly drawn up. The offer was made under the condition that I might make some music from them, given my penchant for infirm instruments, and their conventional worthlessness to anyone wishing to use them for their intended purpose. There seemed to be an auspiciousness surrounding these harpsichords, the stories they might reveal, and more i…
With love
Georgia Denham (b.1997) draws on anecdotal experience to create her music. She studied with Andrew Hamilton at Royal Birmingham Conservatoire and now with Richard Causton at the University of Cambridge for her PhD. She lives with her husband, a theoretical computer scientist, and their many beloved plants. “This collection of chamber music from 2018–2022 wakes scores I thought were long since sleeping, where I first learned to write the delicate sounds I loved. With music written during my studi…
Supports & Surfaces
Paolo Griffin is a composer and curator based in Toronto/Tkarón:to whose music has been described as placing “… the listener in a kind of sonic microgravity” (PANM360) and as “…uncompromising and thoroughly engrossing.” (LvT). Paolo’s work involves ongoing research about the sounding and perception of microtonal rational intonation (Just Intonation) combined with a rigorous, process-based approach to sonic form and structure. The work he creates explores the creation of colour/shading/densities …
Ricercari for rainy days
Eden Lonsdale is a composer of acoustic music living and working between London and Berlin. His music focuses on exploring the various ways that movement and stasis can co- exist, as well as the inter-connectedness of harmony, timbre, melody and rhythm. Often using very limited materials, his dense and immersive sound-worlds attempt to draw the ear into the smallest details and hope to inspire the listener’s self-guided exploration into the music’s manifold layers. The three pieces from this alb…
Bodies of Water
Sarah Hennies (b. 1979, Louisville, KY) is a composer and percussionist based in upstate New York whose work is concerned with a variety of musical, sociopolitical, and psychological issues including queer & trans identity, psychoacoustics, and the social and neurological conditions underlying creative thought. She is primarily a composer of acoustic chamber music, but is also active in improvisation, film, and performance art. She is the recipient of a 2019 Foundation for Contemporary Arts Gran…
The Nordheim Tapes
*2024 stock* Arne Nordheim might not be the best known early electronic music composer, but with this fabulously presented double disc of work it should help his music achieve at least a little wider recognition. He might be best known (at least outside his native Norway) for the discs on Rune Grammofon, but here we get some of his earliest tape work from the 1960s, possibly his most interesting period, at least to me. As a die hard Radiophonic Workshop enthusiast this collection seems to come f…
Dystophilia
Dystophilia: A fascination with the rate of societal decline. An unravelling of order as it careens into a dystopian AI future where melodies pile helter-skelter over phrases, genres melt seamlessly into one another, metal textures crash into chamber-like enclaves, forms teeter on the edge of collapse, violent rhythms transform into ghostly voices, and spiralling polyphonies end in jazz riffs or pop songs.
The music of this album from MC Maguire’s apocalyptic aural imagination, is poured into tw…
Kinesis, Vol. 2
In 2021, the Galan Trio – an epic classical piano trio hailing from Athens – built a bridge from Greece to the USA in the form of ten new works for piano, violin, and cello from composers based in the Southeast and Northeast. The project, aptly named Kinesis, met with such acclaim that their odyssey now continues with another phase: twelve commissioned works covering the Midwest and South Central states. Praised by Fanfare magazine for the “open ears and flexibility they display in so many idiom…
The Night Shall Break
Violinist, Hanna Hurwitz, is a musician who champions the very latest contemporary classical works – she is a member of Chicago’s cutting-edge Grossman Ensemble and Ensemble Dal Niente after all – but she is equally at home among solo and chamber works from past eras. For this album, she goes back one hundred years into neglected jewels of the repertoire from that time, bringing her fresh perspective to current ears. She writes, “I wanted to highlight my orientation toward collaboration through …
Infinity Avenue
Robert Carl is no stranger to space. Standing on the shoulders of such visionaries as Charles Ives, Carl’s early compositions ranged far and wide through musical history, the “ultramoderns,” and beyond. Recently, however, his works have forged a new direction: a personal take on the ever-expanding spiral structures of the overtone series. Infinity Avenue offers six of these monumental sound experiences, taut in their simplicity yet expansive in consciousness. A state of being “close to nature” i…
Cello Unlocked
It is often said that the cello seems like an extension of the human body; the intimate, resonant pairing melds the two into a larger instrument. It is said too that the cello ‘sings’ when played well. In this album, however, it becomes an even larger whole and enters the realm of speech and language, melody and narrative. In the hands (and vocal cords) of Bryan Hayslett, the cello-human bond takes on new dimensions. Cello Unlocked is a foray into the synthesis of language and melody, blurring t…
Curva Triangulus
'Curva Triangulus' is a superb composition from 2021 by Catherine Lamb, written for and played by Ensemble Proton, who are based in Bern, and have access to some of the unusual instruments used in piece, including arciorgano, baroque triple harp, lupophone and contraforte. More details about the piece can be found in Catherine Lamb's and Richard Haynes's sleevenotes, which are included as bonus items with the music.
Outermost Melodies
Double CD of percussion works by Jürg Frey, featuring definitive recordings of works composed between 1994 and 2022. Performed by Ian Antonio, with members of Talujon percussion ensemble on one track. Comes with a pdf of the cover artwork, plus jpegs of the photos used on the cover, and an interview with Ian Antonio about the music
Nieuw Amsterdam New York
If music grows out of a sense of place, then it follows that related places might have related musics. That idea is the springboard for this album that nods at 400 years of links between two vibrant cities. When the Dutch founded Nieuw Amsterdam in the 17th century, they provided the impetus for the growth of a city that shared many values of its model. The multitude of languages, ethnicities and nationalities, as well as an atmosphere of religious tolerance, made for an astounding uniqueness of…
Where Songs Go at Night
During the Covid doldrums of 2020, the wind faculty at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, like so many of us, experienced acute loneliness and isolation. As musicians accustomed to the musical and social connections that come from the intimate art of chamber music, they longed to channel their creative loss into something meaningful. Bandwidth – a mission as much as a group – emerged to champion chamber repertoire for wind instruments, foster connections between faculty, and provide a mode…
Ice Door
To the bemusement of the rest of us, mathematicians often describe certain equations, processes, and proofs as “elegant,” “beautiful,” or even “sensuous.” Artworks based on algorithms, conversely, might seem less predisposed to such descriptions. But what if those complex calculations actually produced perceptibly emotional qualities? Take, for example, the work of Spanish composer-mathematician Juan J.G. Escudero. His cult classic, Shapes of Inner Timespaces (Neuma 134, 2021), evoked such respo…
River of January
The journey of River of January began in early 1969, when as a freshly arrived 14-year-old from Los Angeles, standing by the ocean in Rio de Janeiro [transl., River of January], Rick Baitz heard a crescendo of rhythmic chanting, followed by a parade of women sashaying down the sidewalk, joyfully singing and swaying to the beat of their own samba. He didn’t know at the time that one day he would write a piece honoring the name of that city, but In 1991 he was commissioned by The Juilliard School …
Plucked & Struck
Plucked & Struck is a collection of works for Celtic (lever) harp and small percussion. Many feature the Orff xylophone, a miniature didactic instrument developed by the German composer Carl Orff in the 1920s as part of his early childhood music education system. This album might be the first to explore the classical compositional potential of this particular combo. The music is deeply rooted in New York City. All three performers—and most of the composers—are from “the world’s borough” of Queen…