A student of Einar Englund and Einojuhani Rautavaara, Kjell Flem, born in Ålesund in 1943, has long been considered an international insider tip of the contemporary Scandinavian music scene. His compositions are traditionally non-radical, atmospherically unconstructed, and creates an ambience deeply rooted in the natural landscape of his homeland. His oeuvre is not extensive; rather, he allows himself a long creative period because, in his own words, truly magical moments of inspiration are rare.

This collection of string music by Hugh Shrapnel is a powerful, humane response to poetry, history and social unrest. From the poetry-inspired lyricism of The Hazel Nut, through the turbulent, searching drama of Nascence, to the powerful narrative of Easter Rising, these works explore struggle, awakening and the possibility of peace.

Expressing what cannot be expressed, what is sometimes beyond understanding, is a task that has challenged composers of sacred music for centuries. In his latest collection of vocal and choral works, award-winning Canadian composer Christopher Tyler Nickel aims to articulate these complex emotional states. The works range from Stabat Mater, an intimate portrayal of a mother's grief poignantly sung by soprano Catherine Redding; a collection of motets, both a cappella and accompanied, including the wonders expressed in a new setting of the O Magnum Mysterium; a meditative setting of the de Profundis; and an uplifting Magnificat. Chorus master Kari Turunen and the Vancouver Chamber Choir join forces with Clyde Mitchell and the Vancouver Contemporary Orchestra in performances that capture by turns the works' peace, grief, hope and transcendence through Nickel's very personal and spiritual musical language.

Percussion, helped also by alternative playing techniques and amplification, enabled true exploration of the uncharted depths of sound. They revealed a world in constant transformation, where every sound is no longer conceived as a fixed and immutable entity (no longer limited to the notion of "note"), but contains within itself, in it's becoming, multiplicities. An organic yet unstable ensemble in which it is possible to find all the elements necessary for elaborating compositional processes and diverse musical solutions. The pieces presented in Indeterminate State fall within contemporary musical experimentation, as each composition arises as an investigation of the ancestral sonorities of indeterminatepitch percussion, relying on multiple opportunities offered by electronic and digital technologies. The works, commissioned by Keyhole and Loxosconcept for the MA/IN Festival, were realised during an artistic residency in the municipality of Brienza (PZ), where a heterogeneous group of six composers - Maurizio Azzan, Giulio Colangelo, Stylianos Dimou, Marta Gentilucci, Sarah Nemtsov, and Cesare Saldicco - collaborated directly with percussionist Fabio Macchia. The relationship established between composers and performer represented a key element of a shared creative process, typical of contemporary music, developing through a virtuous dynamic. The compositional path originates from the musical language and finds reflection in the instruments used, mutually influencing the stylistic expression of each author and, consequently, the form of each piece. This process, nourished by a multidirectional exchange of knowledge and intuitions, takes shape from the interaction between the composers' imagination, the performer's technical skills, and the percussion ensemble, initially proposed by the musician and later expanded in the compositional phase. The entire path is further enriched by the integration of electronic technologies, resulting in an open map of sonic experiences revealed over the time of listening.

SEAMUS (Society for Electro-Acoustic Music in the United States) releases Volume 36, the 2026 iteration of it's long running series featuring new works by it's member composers. Featuring music by Alex Christie, Simon Hutchinson, Yao Hsiao, Margaret Ann Schedel, Connor Scroggins, and Marcin Paczkowski, the SEAMUS composers continue to push the boundaries of genre, showcasing the aesthetic possibilities of emerging and existing technologies.

Zygmunt Krauze: Konteksty Contexts

Omikuji for spoken voices, violin, flute (including bass flute), clarinet (including bass clarinet), piano, percussion, and fixed sounds

Christoph Croisé channels his prowess as a cellist – “he’s got it all – technical chops, impeccable musicianship and imaginative daring” (Gramophone) – into compositional ingenuity on the first album devoted entirely to his own works. Christoph draws inspiration from a variety of musical role models, including contemporary and centuries past, paying homage to the time-honoured evolution of classical music that has melded current conventions with popular styles. Traditional forms, such as sonata and concerto, are imbued with jazz, blues, bossa nova and improv to create, as Christoph puts it, “a musical and cultural melting pot.”

Christoph’s compositional urge was spurred by the pandemic and lockdown. The four works on Voyage Exotique were written between 2020 and 2022. He also cites current world events as a motivating influence. His first cello concerto, imbued with high-wire virtuosity that makes full use of the cello’s – and Christoph’s – capabilities, opens a programme that also includes an imaginary intergalactic journey in the form of a clarinet trio, and a sonata for cello and piano that is by turns pensive, agitated and longing, yet ultimately hopeful. The title track, a “Grand duo” for two cellos is, in the truest sense of the word, an “exotic journey” through foreign sound cultures and myriad cello effects.

REVIEW:

It is a bit difficult to categorize this release by cellist Christoph Croisé. The music borrows heavily from popular traditions, bossa nova and other tropical sounds, lots of jazz, and, in the finale of the grim, Ukraine-inspired Cello Sonata No. 1, Op. 9, Eastern European folk rhythms. Several pieces, most of all the Cello Concerto No. 1, are quite virtuosic, and this fits with the general concept; Croisé is adept at writing lines that show off his abilities on the cello, but he is also an alert chamber player who interacts well with the other musicians in the chamber pieces. A genuinely fresh album.

-- AllMusic.com (James Manheim)

Chyrzynski: Chamber Works

Violinist Patrick Yim's One documents his activities commissioning, premiering, and recording new solo violin works by some of the contemporary music scene's most active composers, including Juri Seo, John Liberatore, Takuma Itoh, Ilari Kaila, Pall Ragnar Palsson, and Matthew Schreibeis.

The family tree of Giulio Castagnoli's music is extensive. It's roots lie in the ancient music of the Maghreb and Andalusia, and while the strongest branches are formed by the vibrant colours of Monteverdi's madrigals and the complexity of Giacinto Scelsi's orchestral music, the foliage, to stay with this metaphore, is the composer's understanding of the physical realities of life and music. The fact that his mother's family was of Sephardic Jewish origin brought him closer to the sound and spiritual world of the Middle East, but it should not be overlooked that the music of India and the Far East has also influenced his compositions over the decades. Among the string instruments, the cello is undoubtedly Castagnoli's favourite. The depth of it's timbre, the masculine power of it's middle register and the availability of a rich spectrum of harmonics (and thus of scales of natural tone series, which contain fascinating echoes of the harmony revealed centuries ago) make the cello rather more than a docile instrument that embodies abstract musical ideas. By composing for one instrument, for it's body and soul, Castagnoli also honours it's evolution, that is, the numberless experiments which have led it's current ideal form, as well as it's origin from the three kingdoms of nature.

Oboist Kyle Bruckmann, founding member of the wind quintet Splinter Reeds, releases "of rivers," a collection of vanguard music for the instrument that highlights its integration with electronics, improvisational practices, extended techniques, and microtonality. The album features music by Jessie Cox, Hannah A. Barnes, Helen Grime, Linda Bouchard, Christopher Burns, and Bruckmann himself.

In 2019, Jessica Meyer’s first composer/performer portrait album Ring Out highlighted her lyrical, expressive works that celebrate the arts of interpretation and performance. In her sophomore effort, I long and seek after, she focuses solely on vocal music that features poetry by female and underrepresented writers who tackle universal themes such as loneliness, desire, love, heartbreak, justice, and the courage to embark on a journey of discovering oneself.

Following up on a debut release with New Focus that was hailed as "spectacular" by The Whole Note and "remarkable" by textura, Ekmeles vocal ensemble, led by director Jeffrey Gavett, brings their crystalline performance style to new works by Zosha Di Castri, James Weeks, Hannah Kendall, Shawn Jaeger, and Erin Gee on "We Live the Opposite Daring."

String Works As a teenager, I studied violin privately for about a year. Despite my best efforts, I never truly learned to play-couldn't even manage a simple melody. Yet the raw, untamed sounds of the violin-the fleeting, wild noises it could produce-captivated me. Even now, though I still can't play a tune, I remain enchanted by it's voice: the subtle, mournful cries and the bright, shimmering whispers. String instruments have long been my silent idols, their voices resonating with a deep, almost mystical beauty. Since I began composing, I've been drawn again and again to their warmth, vibrancy, and the intensity of their impassioned screams. Over the years, I've written many works for strings-each one an attempt to enter, and perhaps never fully master, their enigmatic world. String Works gathers pieces I've written for strings across the past decade. Creating them has been my joy, my privilege, and my constant fascination: an unfolding journey into a soundworld as elusive, strange, and beautiful as the strings themselves.

Composer Yu-Hui Chang's Mind Like Water presents three ensemble works and one solo cello piece that all feature a dialogue between musical elements. Sometimes this dialogue unfolds between contrasting energies, such as the percolating rhythms of the opening movement of In Thin Air versus the dramatic gestures in its second movement. Other times the conversation is between smaller musical elements, like the cells in Germinate or the flowing, through composed unfolding of the title work. The recording features performances by the Lydian String Quartet, Dinosaur Annex Music Ensemble, Composers Conference Ensemble, and cellist Rhonda Rider.

Composer Michael Hersch's epic setting of Poppaea turns the classic tale of Nero inside out, examining it from multiple angles and unearthing the powerful lessons it holds for contemporary society. Hersch, along with vocalists Ah Young Hong, Steve Davislim, Silke Gang, with Ensemble Phoenix Basel and Ensemble SoloVoices, delivers a wrenching version of the tale, challenging assumptions and forcing the listener to ask difficult questions about history and the inherent biases that are ingrained into its mainstream understanding.

Composer Osnat Netzer releases her debut recording, featuring performances by Ensemble Dal Niente in full ensemble and chamber settings, saxophonist Geoffrey Landman, Mivos Quartet, flutist Eric Lamb, violist Michael Hall, pianist Marianne Parker, and the ~Nois saxophone quartet. Netzer's music engages with various abstract concepts, including cognitive linguistics and the experience of physicality.

The album Intrecci New compositions and arrangements for Guitar, produced with the support of the MiC Ministry of Culture and SIAE as part of the 'Per Chi Crea' program, presents a singular listening itinerary that sees Giacomo Susani's two souls as an interpreter and composer dialogue in an original way. The program unfolds in four pairs of songs: four original compositions, accompanied by four repertoire arrangements created by Susani himself. "Mine was not an operation of transcription as faithful as possible to the originals - says Giacomo Susani - but I decided to move in an arrangement dimension functional to the narrative arc of the CD and therefore aimed at enhancing the intrinsically identifying qualities of the guitar." The first pair of songs that opens the album sees two works brought together and characterized by a fundamental contrapuntal architecture: a very short Fuga by G.F. Handel, taken from Voluntary X for organ, and the original piece Dialogo (homage to Lauro), born from a commission received by Pixaudio for an upcoming documentary on Antonio Lauro. With a change of interior landscape, we move on to Caprice 4 for solo violin by Pierre Rode, a composer and famous French violinist who lived between the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, associated with the piece that gives the album it's title: Intrecci (homage to Paganini) by Susani, a work commissioned by the Paganini Guitar Festival 2024 and which pays homage to Paganini by developing a dialogue between the two gestural worlds, that of the violin and that of the guitar, both loved by the Genoese composer. The third pair of pieces leads into the more abstract dimension of melancholy and meditation, with the very famous June by P.I. Tchaikovsky for piano in the version for guitar created by Giacomo Susani and the original piece by Susani Gems dreaming which the author considers his most abstract work among those on the album. The listening ends with an arrangement of Moon River by Henry Mancini and an original piece in three movements inspired by three paintings by the British author Frederic Leighton. An album that develops in an eclectic meeting of sound worlds and artistic illuminations, where the classical repertoire is singularly intertwined with contemporary expression.

UN is the result of many hours of practice, concerts and a lot of work done, but above all it is the result of five people who, although time has passed and making five very different lives coincide with each other has become difficult, can't wait to meet up to play together, giving life to a project that connects the contemporary Italian repertoire to the American Jazz and Blues ones. Luciano Berio, through the blasts of Call, captures the attention and prepares the listener for the inexorability of the four movements of For Brass by Giuseppe Garbarino; an electric History of Mok by Alessio Manega involves and charges the audience with energy which Corrado Saglietti, with his Blues and Encore from the Any Time Brass Quintet collection, welcomes and transforms into dance, transporting the listener overseas. Who better than Duke Ellington and George Gershwin to squeeze the juice of so much passion? Summertime is just one of the themes that greet listeners with the same warmth felt by the musicians when recording them. Erika is still trying to understand if she is reading an 8 or a B on the score; Michele consolidates his career as Major with the patience that distinguishes him; Marina, extricating herself from the numerous instruments that she inexplicably plays at a level beyond human comprehension, is determined to divide Nicolò and Federico, engaged in their usual umpteenth and eternal squabble: immersed in their very well known calm and relaxed mood, the five members of the Canaja Brass Quintet have never been so proud to wish you happy listening.

In the planning phase of this CD, which evolved together with the talented performer Miriam Garagnani playing the acoustic part of compositions on the piano with great virtuosity, it was decided to create a musical path that included the double version of two previous compositions of mine: Achernar (2014) for piano and orchestra and Nan (2019) for solo piano. It is the new interpretation of two particularly relevant songs which can best summarize my musical poetics, experimentation and research work as well in the years 20142019, especially on the piano - but not only it, together with several masterful performers. Nan (2019), for example, is a composition created for pianist and researcher Giusy Caruso, a performer mostly committed to playing music of the present day. That composition is proposed on the CD both in the original 2019 version for solo piano and in the 2024 version for spatialized piano, while Achernar (2014), originally composed for piano and orchestra, is presented in two recent 2024 versions, the first one for spatialized piano and the second one for piano and 'imaginary orchestra.' The second version has been a chiseled work in which we wanted to recreate a sort of electronic orchestra starting from the acoustic sound of prerecorded and electronically processed piano. With the aim of achieving that particular sound result, we worked on modifying the previously recorded audio material with the help of various sophisticated audio editing tools.

... The works collected here, written for different orchestral settings, with or without voice, offer a certainly not exhaustive but solid and truthful image of the specificity of the figure of Matteo D'Amico on the contemporary compositional horizon: the ability and will to weld thought to musical matter, gesture to form, sound to sense. In his vast catalogue, it is always possible to find this trail, transmitted with firm persuasion and happy results. Like an identifying mark, an author's scratch, an opening passage frequently recurs in his works that opens the curtain, only to then perhaps stop, look around, listen to the voices of his fellow travellers, and resume the journey: thus, immediately, in Le creature di Ade (The Creatures of Hades), a 'concert ouverture' composed in 2004 and dedicated to Daniele Gatti, who was it's first conductor. The title alludes to The Creatures of Prometheus, Beethoven's work written for a choreography by Salvatore Viganò. The darkness of Hades, the opening up of it's abysses, the terror induced in those who cross it, a sense of fearful waiting that allows a more encouraging trace to filter through, the reemergence of the anguished expectation: the exemplary journey of instrumental theatre precedes the final twist, marked by a lively rhythmic charge, which in it's sudden conclusion leaves one gasping for breath, while in the body of a classically structured orchestra the colours of the saxophone and the pressing variety of the percussion set emerge... Sandro Cappelletto

Exploring the oeuvre of Mauro Montalbetti is like moving through a labyrinth made of glass, in which the apparent simplicity of the surfaces hides, in full view, the multilayered interplay of references and reflections. Since the late 1980s, the composer from Brescia has progressively tackled almost every genre, in a succession of experiences that have been described as phases in their own right, but which are surprising for the coherence and naturalness of their development. This recording by the AltreVoci Ensemble and Laura Bersani has among it's merits precisely that of allowing us to discover the path that Montalbetti has traced in his now more than 35 years of activity through his output for transverse flute, an instrument deeply loved by Montalbetti, who cites among his references the great flutist Annamaria Morini, whom he met and listened to several times in the 1980s, and the works of Varese, Debussy, Messiaen, Berio, Maderna, Matsudaira, Hosokawa, Takemitsu and, of course, his teacher Giacometti.

Indiana-based composer Eugene O'Brien and the 21st Century Consort (contemporary ensemble led by Christopher Kendall in residence at the Smithsonian Museum) release Algebra of Night, featuring two ensemble works that highlight O'Brien's rich harmonic palette and carefully articulated structural approach.

The pieces in this recording belong to Messiaen's first compositional period, from the 1940s to the early 1950s. The music of O. Messiaen had a major influence on the Japanese composer Toru Takemitsu (Tokyo, 1930 ibid., 1996). Raised in militaristic Japan during the Second World War (at just 14 years old, in anticipation of an American invasion, he was drafted into the Japanese army), Takemitsu initially had a sort of rejection of the culture and philosophy of his own country and instead showed great interest in the various musical trends of the Western avant-gardes, especially French. The pieces in this recording cover a compositional span of about fifty years.