Nicholas Isherwood made his début as Lucifer in Stockhausen’s Donnerstag aus Licht at Covent Garden, and has since collaborated closely with composers such as Crumb, Henze, Kurtág and Xenakis. His initial exposure to the music of John Cage left him less than convinced, but after corresponding with Cage he acquired a taste for it – something which soon developed into what he now calls ‘a love affair’. On ARIA, Isherwood presents most of Cage’s music for solo voice that is not included in the composer’s Song Books, and most pieces are here recorded for the first time by a male singer.

In addition to electrifying performances and exciting repertoire, this fascinating disc offers several world premiere recordings to the Cage canon. Flautist and Cage expert Roberto Fabricciani is joined by percussionist Jonathan Faralli in anticipation of John Cage’s 100th birthday in 2013, turning out a disc that reveals a rich interpretation couched in intimate knowledge of the composer’s game-changing aleatoric music. An historic disc for an historic event.

In the last years of his life, John Cage wrote a great many so-called "Number Pieces" the title indicating the number of performing musicians. While most of these pieces indicate which instruments are to be played, as well as the sounds that are to be produced, other pieces offer only general tone descriptions or a framework for choosing the tones oneself. What these pieces do have in common is time\-organization: Cage designates the measure within which the tones must be played. Should one play these sound\-sequences within the interval quickly, then one must wait for the beginning of the next measure in order to continue; should one play with an even slowness, the separate intervals are joined without interruption. And so, each performance of the same piece is different: in one instance an even flow of sounds, in another a pulsation of rapid responses accompanied by pauses (including all variations). An exception is "Two²". Here the two pianists do not play according to a stopwatch, but rather by reacting to one another: Although the piece indicates measure, it does not assign tempo or even pulse. While both interpreters play independently of each other, they may continue on to the next measure only when the other player has finished his. Cage decided on the number of tones within a measure by drawing upon the rules of Renga, Japanese linked poetry, in which the number of syllables per verse are set at 5, 7, 5, 7, 7. As the pedal is continuously depressed, the notes sound into one another and this inner structure remains undetected.