Classical Music

John Luther Adams' ‘Become Desert’ is a remarkable expansion on the ideas he developed for his Pulitzer-winning (and Grammy-winning) work, ‘Become Ocean.’ While not necessarily a "sequel" in the literal sense, the recording certainly shares multiple elements with its predecessor — including, most significantly, the renewal of Adam's creative partnership with conductor Ludovic Morlot and the Seattle Symphony. In his 2018 essay for the New York Times, Adams prepares us for listening to Become Desert with a map, of sorts, to help us find the state of "swimming in light" that the music is meant to convey. Along the way, "You begin to feel that this music you had thought was suspended in time is slowly leading you somewhere, pulling you somewhere. It continues upward, rising with inevitable force, like the wind or the light."

Also included in this release is a video which includes a 5.1 surround mix of the recording, as well as a slideshow of desert images (all still photography by John Luther Adams) that loops during playback.

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REVIEW:

His latest symphony shimmers in majestic stillness. Through intricate orchestration, Adams conjures glistening shafts of light, distant rolling thunder, and flickering colors, refracting in the haze of desert heat. The closer one listens, the more is revealed.

– NPR.org (Tom Huizenga)

Haunting, poignant and relentlessly physical, Julia Wolfe’s Anthracite Fields is a lovingly detailed oratorio about turn-of-the-20th-century Pennsylvania coal miners, and a fitting recipient of the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Music. NPR Music’s Tom Huizenga describes the piece as “...almost a public history project and a music project at the same time,” which hints at the work’s universal appeal.

Featuring the always adventurous Bang on a Can All-Stars and the renowned Choir of Trinity Wall Street, Anthracite Fields merges multiple styles with classical themes—from the deep, ambient sweep of the opening movement “Foundation” (with the All-Stars’ Mark Stewart wrenching waves of keening sound from his electric guitar) to the athletic work-song mood of “Breaker Boys” and the elegiac, contemplative drift of “Flowers.” In the socio-politically engaged “Speech,” Stewart takes the lead with boisterous rock vocals, while “Appliances” spells out the economic weight of coal power with ruthlessly mechanical precision.

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REVIEWS:

A powerful entry into Wolfe’s catalog and, for at least the second year in a row, a fully deserving Pulitzer winner. Its debut recording makes the case that it ought to be heard far and wide.

– Arts Fuse (Boston, MA)

A thrillingly versatile tribute — by turns elegiac and celebratory, rambunctious and reflective — to the world of coal mining and miners in the composer’s home state of Pennsylvania. The music encompasses everything from mournful minimalism to hard-driving rock ’n’ roll, yet there’s an underlying cohesiveness that ties that stylistic range together superbly.

– SF Gate

Classical Music

Ever wondered where the worlds of progressive bluegrass music and microtonal synthesis might intersect? The EZRA ensemble is game to answer the question on their adventurous second album, Earth to EZRA. Convening in an intimate studio in the Berkshires of western Massachusetts, the core quartet - composer and multi-instrumentalist Jesse Jones (guitars and vocals), Jacob Jolliff (mandolin), Max Allard (banjo) and Craig Butterfield (double bass) - teamed up with musical polymath Mark Stewart and keyboardist Xak Bjerken to craft a complex recording that is by turns whimsical, uplifting, haunting and otherworldly. And you can dance to it. More succinctly, Elizabeth Ogonek describes the project, in her liner notes for the CD package, as "a wild, surreal, and totally joyful album - a 'cycle' to be listened to from beginning to end." The sonic beast at the center of Earth to EZRA is a microtonal organ designed by David Rothenberg and built by synthesizer pioneer Robert Moog in the mid 1960s. The 478-key instrument divides the octave into 31 equal parts, but was never actually functional until 2023, when electronic music scholar and instrument builder Travis Johns began the meticulous process of making the organ playable.

As Grammy-winning composer John Luther Adams puts it, his latest work An Atlas of Deep Time "... is grounded in my desire, amid the turbulence of human affairs, to hear the older, deeper resonances of the earth." Commissioned and recorded with the South Dakota Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Delta David Gier, the piece taps into an ancient resonance that seems to hover imposingly, but benevolently, over our own existence -�itself a blip in geological time. "You can sit for a long time with the history of man like a stone in your hand," said the late author Barry Lopez, a lifelong friend and mentor to Adams. His words serve as the written invocation to a work that beautifully captures the sense of majesty, mystery and vulnerability that we, and the natural world, hold within us.

Classical Music

Songs and Symphoniques: The Music of Moondog features brilliant new re-imaginings of the music of Louis Hardin, aka Moondog, the blind composer who lived on the streets of Manhattan and became known in the 1960s as "the Viking of Sixth Avenue" for his striking appearance. His beautiful and haunting music was an inspiration to Philip Glass and Steve Reich, who referred to him as "the godfather of minimalism." Conceived as a collaboration between the Brooklyn-based Ghost Train Orchestra and the legendary Kronos Quartet, the project quickly expanded to include numerous guest vocalists -including Marissa Nadler, Joan Wasser (aka Joan As Police Woman), Jarvis Cocker of Pulp fame, acclaimed singer-songwriter Rufus Wainwright, and vocalist Petra Haden, known for her striking a cappella works. Collectively it's a stunning and talented lineup, digging deep to revitalize Moondog's uplifting message for a new generation

For his latest feat of magic in the studio, composer and bassist Florent Ghys presents Télévision — an epic foray into classical forms, musique concrète, samples and sci-fi that warps the very edges of contemporary music. + As Ghys himself describes it, “Télévision is about weather reports, digital music, plastic beauty, synesthesia and dance.” + All 13 pieces were composed, played, recorded, filmed and mixed by Ghys — and we say filmed, because Ghys has taken the extraordinary step of creating a video to accompany each piece, in playful tribute to the medium that inspired the message.

When it comes to seminal alternative rock albums, Pixies’ 1988 debut Surfer Rosa qualifies as a true game-changer. + With strong production and even stronger songs, the album tore a rift in the rock ‘n roll continuum, influencing everyone from Kurt Cobain to Radiohead. + That influence remains as steadfast as ever among the feverish minds behind Asphalt Orchestra, the 12-piece New York-based marching band with an eclectic ear for new music, unpredictable repertoire and boundary-blurring arrangements. + AOPP remains true to the punkish attitude of the original.

Classical Music

Ken Thomson debut recording features his four-part suite that melts, liquefies, refreezes and realigns the composer's demands on the traditional string quartet, making Thaw a project that only the famed JACK Quartet could tackle. Thomson, a Brooklyn-based clarinetist, saxophonist and composer is a permanent member of the Bang on the Can All-Stars.

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music