A Special Light collects works by composer David Macbride spanning the last decade. Throughout, Macbride explores his relationship with his Chinese heritage (his mother was from China, his father from Scotland), a part of him he'd never directly addressed in his work before. But beyond cultural signals or specificities, Macbride’s music has what he calls “a basic sense of serenity and focus.” Underlying the diversity of each piece is a reflective and meditative awareness.

Salamander, the debut album by Brooklyn bassist/composer, Peter Kerlin takes the listener through five bass-driven compositions scored for two vibraphones, two basses, organ, drums, percussion and viola. The range of each piece's compositional core reaches from the through-composed 'Bulbs' and 'Snake Eats Electric Blanket' to the open cosmic jazz expression of 'Ballad of the Bewildered Herd.' Along the way, post-rock staples like Stereolab and Tortoise and Krautrock luminaries Can, Faust and Neu! Serve as jumping off points, as well as Terry Riley, Sonny Sharrock and Eric Dolphy. It's a soaring, melodic flow of ecstatic energy that sweeps the listener along a sustained ride. Salamander is Kerlin's first foray into a more ambitious compositional work, employing detailed notation as well as guided improvisational passages.

Not quite a school, a movement, or a tribe, the composers that decided to form the Common Sense Composers' Collective in 1993 nevertheless share musical and professional dreams and values that find strength together. As critic Kyle Gann once put it: "Like aliens in a sci fi movie scouring one planet after another for resources, Common Sense approaches an ensemble, raises money to commission all eight members, plays and maybe records the pieces, then moves on... This way, when one Common Sense member gets a commission, they all do... Smart thinking." Now in it's third decade, the Collective has still got it going on, as it's fifth album, Spark, amply demonstrates. It is kindled by the Oakland-based Friction Quartet, that spent many months breathing their own unique fire into these works. The group performs them here as if they had known these compositions all their lives. Their ability to move from virtuosic precision to a deep, timeless, almost telepathic mode of communication is remarkable.

Award-winning Areon Flutes, now in their fourteenth year, make use of the entire flute family and beyond in their second release with Innova, No Era. The trio of Jill Heinke Moen, Kassey Plaha, and Meerenai Shim each take their turn on alto, piccolo, and bass flute, respectively, in addition to flourishes of other surprise "instrumentation." The result is a fusion of sounds that can be at times soothing, melancholy, funky, joyfully vibrant, or when used in a less traditional manner, overtly dissonant, puzzling, fractured, and otherworldly. The album features post-minimalist pieces by San Francisco-based composers Sahba Aminikia, Ryan Brown and Danny Clay. "Broken Birds" by Danny Clay turns the concept of "flutes as birds" on it's head using unconventional flute textures along with call bells, wine glasses, and slide whistles, creating an unforgettable soundscape of un-birds. Sahba Aminikia's "Bade Saba" for flute trio and film accompanies a 15-minute excerpt of a mesmerizing documentary by Albert Lamorisse of Iranian landscape, people, and culture. In "Get Go!" by Ryan Brown, the influence of math rock is apparent through Brown's use of flutes as a drum kit. All three works were commissioned by Areon Flutes. This is Areon's fourth release, and Aereon Flutes are proud to be Miyazawa Artists.

An ensemble of passionate young musicians, Contemporaneous is a New York-based ensemble devoted to the promotion of the most exciting music of our rising generation: energetic and fresh music that describes our world and captures our existence. This debut album consists entirely of world premiere recordings of works written specifically for Contemporaneous by it's founding co-artistic director, Dylan Mattingly.

Classical Music

There is no serious shortage of saxophone records, but precious few of them are about the saxophone in quite the way that James Romain's Howl is. It is not simply virtuosic, although Romain displays a full command of the instrument. It is not simply textural, although the pristine recording combined with the different settings and even digital manipulation create other-worldly soundspaces. At the heart of the album are the connections Romain has made with the composers whose work is represented here.

Classical Music

Classical Music

Kurt Rohde's innova debut ONE: Chamber Music of Kurt Rohde features performances by violinist Axel Strauss pianist Genevieve Feiwen Lee the Left Coast Chamber Ensemble and the Empyrean Ensemble in various settings. Rohde has received the Rome Prize the Berlin Prize a Radcliffe Institute Fellowship and a Guggenheim Fellowship.

Classical Music

Composer Neil Rolnick has a thing about machines. He likes to play with them, and he likes to tell other people how to play with them. That is what takes place on this release, Ex Machina. In a concert review in the Washington Post, Anne Midgette said: “A terrific concert. Rolnick plays with the lines between computer and acoustic music…The laptop pieces… were entirely as engaging as the acoustic ones… and nicely contrasting…Bathgate is a glorious cellist… Supove grooved and danced over a piano part that called for everything from honky-tonk to improvisation.” In “Silicon Breath,” Ted Nash uses the alto sax to coax the computer into sounds luscious and swinging. Kathleen Supove in “Dynamic RAM & Concert Grand” trades control of the computer back and forth with Rolnick while romping through a cornucopia of piano styles. Rolnick is alone with his machine in “WakeUp” and “O Brother!”- both mashups which spin and shape alternative narratives from familiar samples.

Classical Music

Classical Music

An auspicious debut release by NYC based composer Patrick Castillo with his two vocal chamber works that feature the acclaimed mezzo-soprano Abigail Fischer in gorgeously contemplative musical settings scored for alto flute, bass clarinet, violin, cello, percussion, and electronics. Including texts by Emily Dickinson and W.B. Yeats, Castillo's musical journey through what he calls a "meditation on reconciliation" result in a cycle that manages to suggest ancient connections in a very modern world.