Like his Pulitzer-winning work the little match girl passion, David Lang's 'poor hymnal' tries to get to the core of what a religious experience can be. "What I love about hymnals," the composer writes in his liner notes to the CD, "is that they're a catalog of things a community of worshippers can agree on - a catalog that can be sung. And what the worshippers are singing about matters." 'poor hymnal' is a concert-length work written for the multiple GRAMMY Award-winning chamber choir The Crossing, conducted by Donald Nally. Lang constructed the text by stitching together lines, phrases and poignant utterances from sources as varied as the Old Testament, Mahatma Gandhi and Tolstoy - to name just a few. As Lang explains: "This piece is trying to say: The reason we are coming together is to remember how important we are to each other, and to remember how important it is that we take care of each other."

ART DECADE is a wide-ranging collaboration that unites composer, producer, arranger and multi-instrumentalist Evan Ziporyn with Toronto's renowned ContaQt ensemble, led by arranger and percussionist Jerry Pergolesi. Featuring all-new interpretations of 'art rock' and ambient classics from the early '70s psych-prog output of King Crimson, David Bowie's "Berlin trilogy," and Brian Eno's Ambient 1-4 series, ART DECADE is more than just a tribute album. "Our goal is not to 'elevate' or legitimize this music," Ziporyn and Pergolesi reveal in the album's liner notes. "It's towering artistic achievement and profound influence on an entire generation is self-evident. Instead, by revisiting and inhabiting these groundbreaking works, we hope to ensure they remain a vibrant, celebrated part of the musical repertoire, retaining their punkish sense of gleeful adventure as they continue to subvert expectations and venture into uncharted territory."

Dark Currents is the third full-length recording by Splinter Reeds, the West Coast's premier reed quintet featuring Kyle Bruckmann (English horn), Bill Kalinkos, Nicki Roman, Jeff Anderle (bass clarinet) and Dana Jessen. The album opens with Michael Gordon's majestic "Tall Grass," which cascades upwards into undulating waves of melody before spreading outward on a moody canvas that surges with tension and emotion. By contrast, Paula Mathussen's "Antenna Studies" combines ambient soundscapes and found sounds, while the musicians quietly tease their instruments with breath control and percussive pad strikes as a somber melodic figure gradually begins to take shape. Taken together, these two 20-minute performances propel the listener forward on an ever-changing journey, by turns hypnotic, ecstatic, surreal and spooky, that tests the pre-conceived boundaries of modern chamber 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.

Alex Weiser's latest recording, the follow-up to his Pulitzer Prize-nominated and all the days were purple, is a love letter to New York City. Featuring acclaimed singer Annie Rosen with a seven-piece chamber ensemble, the album comprises two song cycles that explore the city from complementary perspectives. The first cycle, in a dark blue night, features five settings of Yiddish poetry written by newly arrived immigrants in the late 1800s and early 1900s. These poems reflect on the city at night — glowing, quiet, majestic.

It's followed by Coney Island Days, told through the recorded memories of Weiser's late grandmother. It features vivid, buoyant adventures about childhood in the bustling immigrant world of Coney Island in the 1930s and 40s — days at the beach, at the family's knish store, at the Russian baths and much more. "My grandmother grew up in Brooklyn spending summers in Coney Island, living with her family in a single room behind their knish store," Weiser says. "Hers was a multilingual world where she was taught English at school, but where her Yiddish-speaking parents could barely understand the language of their new land."

Together the two cycles celebrate the marvel and multiplicity of New York City, through a look at a little-explored chapter of its history.

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.

Rakhi Singh is a violinist, music director, curator and composer based in the UK. In 2016 she co-founded Manchester Collective, a progressive group that the BBC describes as "transforming all our perceptions of what a classical music group can be."

"Sabkha" is the first single from Singh's full-length debut album Purnima (coming October 27) — a stirring stream-of-consciousness foray into signal processing and multi-tracking for violin, with Singh's own wordless vocals adding to the hypnotic mood. Purnima, which translates literally from the Sanskrit as "she who is the full moon,” is not only Singh's middle name — it's also a source of spiritual inspiration that has guided her own musical journey on her chosen instrument. Interpreting works by composers Alex Groves ("Trace I"), Emily Hall ("Outshifts"), Julia Wolfe ("LAD") and Michael Gordon ("Light Is Calling"), and augmenting them with unearthly electronic and electro-acoustic textures, Singh creates a haunting dreamworld of melody and sound that doesn't quite emit a completely "classical" aura — but instead suggests an altogether new one.

The ostensible follow-up to So Percussion co-founder and composer Jason Treuting's ambitious work Nine Numbers, Go Placidly with Haste is a multi-movement sonic meditation that actually bears a more distinct connection to Treuting's early work Amid the Noise (2006) - which began as a soundtrack, then morphed into So Percussion's third album, and from there into a communal music-making project that can occur with a flexible number of musicians in almost any combination. Go Placidly takes up that thread and weaves it into a vivid tapestry of moods, styles and genres, from the oddly folk-inflected strains of "1927" (featuring Irish singer and Afro Celt Sound System mainstay Iarla o Lionaird) to the Eno-esque keyboards and electronics of "White Diamond," the frenetic and angular "Build Up," the mournful and stately "Slow Moving Chords" (with singer-songwriter Sam Amidon), the groove-chasing "Four Lines" (with composer and singer Angelica Negron) and plenty more. By turns whimsical, expansive and exploratory, this is new music in the most thrilling and adventurous sense of the word.

Composer, violinist, and NYC impresario David Handler composes acoustic and electronic music that has been described by the New York Times as "eerie and superbly wrought... exploring polarities of light and dark, the sacred and the profane." This attraction to juxtaposition is also evident in Handler's role as co-founder of (Le) Poisson Rouge (LPR), the boundary-breaking downtown New York venue that has opened doors for his fellow performers and connected audiences with unheard music since 2008. Life Like Violence explores the everyday tumult of the mind: fear, whim, rage, pain, fancy. As Handler puts it: "this is the sound of my psyche." It's music that attacks itself, eating itself from the inside out. Ideas invade and gnaw at each other. They undermine, taunt, assault, exalt, and tease. Physical gestures disrupt long narratives whose melodies are obscured, revealed, decayed, destroyed, and mourned. What emerges is a broken beauty of spirit that has endured.

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

A Western is Michael Gordon's extended musing inspired by the legendary 1950s film High Noon, starring Gary Cooper and Grace Kelly. It's about the Wild West, the way of the gun, classic American TV fantasies, and of course the good guys versus the bad guys. Caroline Shaw's How to fold the wind is a mesmerizing choral work that expands on the vocal acrobatics the composer has explored with her Grammy-winning ensemble Roomful of Teeth. The piece is inspired by Japanese origami, using speech, inhaled notes, wordless melodies and innovative vocal effects to fold individual voices together into a complex whole. Released together as a "split album" on CD, the two works mirror each other in a compelling array of contrasts and similarities. Each was recorded by one of Denmark's premier vocal ensembles -�A Western by Theatre of Voices, How to fold the wind by Ars Nova Copenhagen -�with each performance conducted by Paul Hillier. And although the lyrical forms of each piece couldn't be more strikingly different, somehow they elevate each other into a revelatory listening experience that expands the scope of modern choral music.

Deeply challenging, even confrontational, to the classical string quartet format, composer JG Thirlwell's Dystonia is a leap forward not only for listeners, but for musicians as well. Mivos Quartet's fiery interpretation of these five pieces — each in its own way difficult, harrowing, engaging and uplifting — is also a tribute to their dedication, skill and sense of adventure as artists.

"This is bold, insistent music that grabs you and takes you where it wants to go," writes Bang on a Can co-founder Michael Gordon in his liner notes for the album. That sentiment lands with a fury in the recording's central piece "Ozymandias," a not-for-the-faint-of- heart excursion that channels the tension and dread of, for example, Bernard Herrmann's famed Psycho score, but expands on it with the subtle, stately majesty of Bartók and Cage

Premiered online between October and November 2020, Campaign Songs is a collaboration with Kronos Quartet intended to galvanize voter turnout in the upcoming election. Recorded in isolation by each member of the Quartet, the eight short pieces that comprise Campaign Songs were accompanied by specially-made video works touching on racial, climate, and economic justice issues. The pieces, arranged by Michael Gordon, draw from the canon of American patriotic, political, and folk music, including Woodie Guthrie’s “This Land is Your Land,” “God Bless America,” (a campaign song for both Franklin Delano Roosevelt and his 1940 opponent Wendell Willkie), “When Johnny Comes Marching Home,” (a campaign song for James A. Garfield), “America the Beautiful” and “The Star Spangled Banner.” (Limited edition 7-inch vinyl)

When composer Philip Glass started work on his solo Piano Etudes back in 1991, his goal was “to explore a variety of tempi, textures, and piano techniques,” but also, as he mentioned in a 2012 interview, to become “a better player.” Ever since, the Etudes have occupied a place of unrivaled prominence in modern music as a proving ground for up-and-coming, and established, classical pianists to test their mettle. It seems only fitting, then, that Vicky Chow should take up the challenge. For more than a decade, she has exerted her star presence with her standout work as part of the Bang on a Can All-Stars, while also teaming up with such composers as Michael Gordon, Tristan Perich, Jane Antonia Cornish and more to release a series of compelling, and at times even physically demanding, solo performances. She has also shared stages with Glass himself — experiences that have given her a more immediate and personal grasp of the composer's original intention.

Composer Matt McBane and the renowned Sandbox Percussion ensemble team up on Bathymetry — a 40-minute piece in eight movements scored for monophonic Moog analog synthesizer and percussion. Drawing on classical minimalism, electronic production, ASMR Youtube aesthetics and the diverse palette of ambient modular synth music, Bathymetry features McBane’s Moog synth with Sandbox Percussion performing on a veritable playground of found instruments (mixing bowls, ping pong balls, glass bottles, etc.), orchestral percussion (vibraphone, tam tam, etc.), and drum sets.

Hadal Zone, written by composer Žibuokle Martinaityte for bass clarinet, tuba, violoncello, contrabass, piano and electronics, seeks to plumb the lower ranges of these instruments, shaping a listening environment that is defined as much by sound and vibration as it is by the musical intent of the composer. Performed by the adventurous Lithuanian ensemble Synaesthesis, and featuring recorded samples of the San Francisco-based choral group Volti (conducted by Robert Geary), the hour-long work takes its title from the scientific name for the region of the ocean that extends below 6,000 meters, where sunlight can never reach.

Acclaimed by the New York Times as "an alluring, mystical new work" when it premiered outdoors at the city's Lincoln Center in July 2014, John Luther Adams' Sila: the Breath of the World is so carefully orchestrated that the recording itself pushes the limits of how to capture multiple ensembles of musicians in one setting. Thanks to modern technology and the magic of multi-tracking (with producers Doug Perkins and Nathaniel Reichman at the controls), Sila maintains the composer's vision as a grand invitation to the listener "to stop and listen more deeply." Put simply, like Inuksuit (2009), widely known as Adams' large ensemble piece for percussion, no two performances of Sila are ever the same, due in part to the freedom that is given to the musicians, each of whom plays or sings a unique part at his or her own pace. But on a macro level, Sila can also be described as an intelligent entity all its own — a living, breathing organism that takes on the collective intent of its performers, and its composer, to transcend the forces of nature and become, in a sense, a "breath of the world."

In his third solo recording for Cantaloupe Music, Florent Ghys radically retools his approach with Ritournelles & Mosaïques — a wide-ranging two-part opus that pulls back the curtain on an intrepid composer, double bassist and electronics bricoleur in full sonic exploration mode. Ghys began work on the project in late 2019, but like the rest of the world, he soon found himself in the midst of a prolonged isolation period, which inspired him to expand his creative palette. On his previous album Télévision, Ghys had begun with an audio-visual idea; this time, he started at the root: with the sound. “I just wanted to make something that sounded great,” he says, “so I spent a lot of time studying the sound of my bass — analyzing it, making sample libraries, recording it — and then studying the different microphones, different rooms, different basses too. So it really started from the sound, and then adapting my audio-visual ideas to that.” Ritournelles is essentially the electro-acoustic, ambient instrumental portion of the program, while Mosaïques is more sample-based and electronic, seething with textural complexity. “Despite the differences though,” Ghys explains, “they really come from the same initial artistic impulse.”

Introspective, multi-layered and quietly majestic, composer Jane Antonia Cornish's Sierra is a vivid meditation on how our deep connection to nature can move us to an inner stillness and awaken the creative impulse. Sierra consists of five separate pieces composed for multiple pianos, ranging from the poignant solo excursion 'Last Light' to the cascading, undulating 'Ocean' and the epic 15-minute title piece. Performed with confidence and commitment by pianist Vicky Chow, whose ability to flex in different interpretive directions, depending on the composer's intention, is renowned in the modern classical community, Sierra captures a palette of subtle but insistent emotions - wonder, wistfulness, joy and awe - that can elevate and transport us with astonishing power.

Playful, eloquent, intimate and existentially cool, Terry Riley's Autodreamographical Tales is a musical dream diary - a no-holds-barred journey into the creative unconscious, rendered with a compelling joie de vivre by one of the most influential composers of our time. Each of these ten songs offers an uncommonly special connection with Riley, who narrates, sings and adds his signature minimalist piano filigrees to a sprawling narrative that can turn poetic, picaresque or downright kaleidoscopic. Backed by the ever-flexible Bang on a Can All-Stars, Riley challenges the ensemble by digging deep into a wide range of musical flavors that includes free jazz, blues, rock, pop and classical. And through the vivid storytelling of "Long Bus Ride" and "Zucchini" to the Jabberwockyan wordplay of "Science Fiction" and the raucous confessional "Cannabis," Riley also bends and stretches the very limits of language - conveying a multivalent message for these times that is pithy, positive and powerful.