The recording project "Labyrinthoi" (Labyrinths) is the result of the collaboration between saxophonist Isacco Buccoliero and composer Andrea Siano. Driven by a strong desire to explore the timbral and technical possibilities of the saxophone, the two Apulian artists work on arrangements and compositions of original pieces. Their aim is to expand the saxophone repertoire by drawing from tradition while simultaneously creating new musical forms and styles. The entire project is inspired by the imagery evoked by the labyrinth: a timeless archetype that speaks to humanity and it's inner condition within the cosmos. It reflects the perpetual search for a path that is often winding and whose completion presents itself as a daunting challenge, despite the ease with which one may have entered it. The five tracks collected here appear as five labyrinths from which, as in Spacecraft, maybe it is possible to get out only by moving upwards, in other words by overcoming all centrifugal, centripetal and gravitational forces.

Vivian Fung has long been a friend and admired composer of the Jasper String Quartet. The Quartet first performed one of her works in 2019, and we were immediately captivated by the visceral energy and impeccable craft of her writing. Vivian’s String Quartets Nos. 1–4 span 18 years of her career and reflect a remarkable journey of absorbing, integrating, and synthesizing a unique spectrum of influences into her compositional voice. Unwavering in all of the works is a fierce heart, instrumental fearlessness, and an amazing instinct for texture. We are incredibly grateful to have recorded these works with Vivian in the studio and for the growth we experienced in the process. – Jasper String Quartet

This album is a testimonial to my lifelong adoration of strings, dating back to my beginning cello studies as a middle school student. My cello teacher introduced me to a wide-ranging repertoire and opened up my sonic world with the sound of string quartets, concerti, and Baroque instruments. The string quartet format, in particular, has gripped my imagination since writing Pizzicato, which I originally wrote as a standalone work and later incorporated as the third movement of String Quartet No. 1 and continues to be one of my most performed pieces. Many thank yous to the Jasper String Quartet for their dedication to this CD project; to my husband, son, and parents for their support; and to everyone at Sono Luminus for producing this wonderful album. – Vivian Fung

Chamber music, in it's centuries-long course, presents the most varied and surprising instrumental combinations: strings, woodwinds, percussion and keyboard instruments have, over time, found almost infinite possibilities of combination. If we wanted to limit ourselves to music composed for three instruments, the differences in instrumentation that tradition allows us to know would even number in the hundreds. In spite of this, however, a trio consisting of guitar, piano and harp has never before been thought of or realised by anyone, in any sphere or in any era. The recording proposal presented here therefore offers the listener a unique instrumental perspective, completely new: thanks to the original resourcefulness of the Trio Gynaika, the birth of a new, highly original chamber ensemble is celebrated. Historical tradition offers a multitude of musical examples in which the guitar or harp or piano are used, avoiding the simultaneous use of all three or even just two of these three instruments. Dania Carissimi on guitar, Domenica Bellantone on harp and Chiara Di Muzio on piano are the performers in this original production by the award-winning composers Biagio Putignano and Beatrice Campodonico.

The music of Michael Jarrell has been said to ‘examine states of dream and unreality, searching for a moment of truth’ – a truth which is often found in the lowest sonorities and slowest tempi, a place where time stands still. His works are often interrelated, not only by a certain sensitivity or a distinctive tone, but also by the recurrence of particular features that he reworks in different contexts. The present disc combines three orchestral works composed over a period of almost a quarter of a century. In Paysages avec figures absentes, played here by solo violinist Ilya Gringolts, the composer wished to find a new approach to writing for violin within an ensemble.

Premièred a few months before this recording by the Orchestre des Pays de la Loire and Pascal Rophé, the Sechs Augeblicke for orchestra suggest a concentration or implosion of sound matter within musical fragments, as a sort of reference to Schubert. Finally, the guiding idea of Un long fracas somptueux de rapide céleste with solo percussionist Florent Jodelet is a short, powerful ‘initial explosion’ that recurs, like a punctuation mark, throughout the piece, more or less regularly, in different forms.

At over 80 years old, the ever agile and energetic HK Gruber has become an integral part of the music scene - not only in Austria. As a composer, chansonnier and music educator with constructive depth and his distinctive, ironical jokes, he reliably amazes, moves, and evokes laughter in his audiences, far removed from the contrived, mathematical, contemporary musical art. His genre-spanning works are audible, vibrant journeys through the incredible diversity of music history, thus shaping his own, entirely unmistakable style. In Frank Dupree and the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, he finds his ideal partners, who skillfully realize this distinctive musical language.

When one first imagines the sound of a magisterial bass voice and a pipe organ, one cannot help but imagine some sort of glorious Vox Dei pronouncing eternal truths from the numinous beyond, but in this extraordinary recital from Danish-Spanish organist and composer and acclaimed Danish bass-baritone Jakob Bloch Jespersen, Eros and Agape are twined and intertwined. Three incredibly different song cycles from three outstanding Danish composers explore this unique sound world; the late Pelle Gudmundsen-Holmgreen is represented in what may well be his musical Last Will and Testament, a set of transcriptions from his opera Sun Rises, Sun Sets, based on the Biblical Song of Solomon. Bent Lorentzen, one of the key figures and pioneers of early Danish electronic music, explores the themes of love, sensual, and divine in a manner somewhat reminiscent of a Nordic Messiaen in his song cycle Erotic Hymns. Our recital concludes with Nicolai Worsaae's emotionally (and sonically) devastating theatre piece for bass voice and organ, A Shipwreck, which explores the themes of life, death, and resurrection, pushing the magnificent organ at Our Saviour's Church (Vor Frelsers Kirke), Copenhagen, to it's expressive limits, all captured vividly by one of Denmark's most celebrated recording engineers, Preben Iwan. A MUST HEAR for vocal and organ aficionados!

Ever since he was a child, Norwegian composer Henrik Hellstenius has sought to explore music more freely than by simply mastering the classics. His language, which draws its inspiration from the modes of expression of his time, takes shape in the course of his work through sound, movement, rhythm and silence, as well as in his encounters with musicians and their instruments.

Here, much of what is expressed is part of an intense inner monologue: a litany of doubt, affirmation and frustration being whispered, said, sung and shouted. Everything about these two works, from their titles to their modes of expression, suggests that they are directed outwards towards society in general and towards individuals in particular.

Public Behaviour is about how we act together in an age of extreme individualism. The work presents musical situations in which the soloist, vocal ensemble and orchestra depict encounters and conflicts around the theme of the individual versus the collective space. Together is a meditation on the relationship between ‘me and the other’. The question is how we relate to the people we meet, work with and live with. The versatile vocal ensemble Nordic Voices performs both works and is joined by some of the best musicians on the Norwegian contemporary scene.

Rudersdal Chamber Players is one of the Nordic region's leading ensembles for contemporary music, and this recording represents a special tribute to their friendship with the composers, which dates back to 2019. London-based Elena Firsova and Dmitri Smirnov are internationally acclaimed composers. Their catalogue is extensive and includes commissions and performances by, among others, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, London Sinfonietta, RSNO - Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Gidon Kremer / Kremerata Baltica, Ensemble InterContemporain (Paris), Ensemble Modern (Germany), Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, The Hallé Orchestra, and BBC Proms. Elena Firsova and Dmitri Smirnov formed an extraordinary composing couple who spent almost half a century of creative life together as wife and husband. They met and fell in love while studying at the Moscow Conservatoire, and from the start, they shared a passion for the arts and the world around them. As young composers, Smirnov and Firsova's music was heard in "unofficial" concerts outside the USSR, away from the judgmental ears of the Union of Soviet Composers. Despite this, they still ran afoul of officialdom and were denounced as members of The Seven, a group of non-conforming composers that included Denisov, Firsova, Smirnov, and Gubaidulina, at the 6th Congress of the Union of Soviet Composers. Ironically, this rebuke only served to generate more foreign interest in the composing husband-and-wife team. When Smirnov died in 2020, at the start of the COVID pandemic, he left behind not only a prolific musical legacy (200 opus numbers), but also poetry, artworks in various media, and several books, including Song from Underground, one of the most important chronicles of later Soviet music. For Elena Firsova, her first critical influence as an artist was her father, an internationally distinguished thinker in the field of atomic theory. As if to balance her father's scientific perspective, Firsova found inspiration in the great Russian poet Osip Mandelstam and has composed numerous works based on his texts.

The album Reconnaissance was, of course, never intended as an epitaph. Nonetheless, It is difficult to imagine a more fitting summary of, or introduction to, the character, spirit and life’s work of Kaija Saariaho (1952-2023) on a single disc, especially where her choral repertoire is concerned.

This recording presents Kaija Saariaho’s works for choir, a cappella and with electronics, and displays her virtuosity in the treatment of texts, which she endows with the full range of verbal expression. Nuits, adieux, presented here both in its a cappella version and with electronics, could be described as a lullaby, not so much for a sleeping child as for an elderly person sleeping out of our world. Funny and very serious at the same time, Horloge, tais-toi was conceived for a children choir.

Écho! deals with the myth of Echo and Narcissus, with the idea of echo being naturally extended with electronics that process and reverb the voices of the singers. Based on poems by German poet Friedrich Hölderlin, Tags des Jahrs display an archaic choral treatment expanded by sounds of the human voices, birds, wind and other natural phenomena. Überzeugung engages with medieval music and treats the contrast between light and dark as a trance-like interplay between past and present. Finally, Reconnaissance can be seen as a ‘science-fiction madrigal’.

Nils Schweckendiek and the Helsinki Chamber Choir initially performed this program in concert in August 2022 as part of the celebrations surrounding Saariaho’s 70th birthday.

REVIEW:

The album Reconnaissance was, of course, never intended as an epitaph. Nonetheless, it is difficult to imagine a more fitting summary of, or introduction to, the character, spirit and life’s work of Kaija Saariaho on a single disc, especially where her choral repertoire is concerned. To quote her artistic statement on choral music from the booklet, ‘the entire range of verbal expression is available to be woven into a multi-layered and heterogeneous whole’. The remarkable array of works showcased here – and mostly in recording premieres, no less – demonstrates just how dedicated she was to this principle over the course of so many decades.

In addition, by presenting two contrasting versions of the same piece (Nuits, adieux) together, the album provides a rare example of a composer’s process of revisiting the same material for different times and places, allowing us a glimpse into a whole other dimension of Saariaho’s musical thinking. Lastly, the album is a testament to her ongoing collaboration with other members of the musical community, including high-profile colleagues and young family members alike. How fortunate we are to have this one last gift from Saariaho, a document that not only expands the discography of her critically important oeuvre but also serves as a testament for future generations to the example of a composer’s life exceptionally well lived.

-- Classical Music Daily

The opening work, Nuits, adieux, is as good an illustration as any of the manifoldness of Saariaho’s sound-world. It exists in two versions: the original (with electronics) from 1991, and the a cappella version from 1996. Together, they bookend this delectable programme...A particular attraction is the recurring solos by the marvellously beautiful soprano voice of Linnéa Sundfær Casserly. In the a cappella version, the electronics are replaced by eight-part chorus, while the solo parts are practically identical with the original. It is a special treat to return to the work in that modified version at the end of the programme.

Écho! from 2007 for eight voices and electronics, was inspired by a double-choir motet by Claude Le Jeune (c. 1528/30–1600), which deals with the Echo myth...It is immensely beautiful.

To me, [the title work, Reconaissance] is the most important choral work composed on this side of the turn of the millennium, and in harness with the rest of the programme, which is just as valuable, this is an indispensable disc for all lovers of choral music. The performances are tremendous. It is also a worthy memorial to Kaija Saariaho.

-- MusicWeb International

The versatility and timbral richness of the modern transverse flute have made it a protagonist of twentieth century music from Claude Debussy to Edgar Varese up to the latest generations of composers. It's melodious timbre has always been compared to the human voice. It has also been associated with the intimacy of the psyche (from the madness scene in Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor to Schonberg's Pierrot Lunaire lieder cycle). This is most likely because the flutist transforms breath into the sound of the instrument through direct contact without intermediary elements. The interest in the timbral peculiarities of the flute has gradually extended to all sizes of the instrument (from piccolo to double bass), this has allowed us to rediscover the expressive potential of a flute ensemble, as has already happened for centuries with stringed instruments. The result of this expressive exploration is a repertoire capable of inspiring the different technical and artistic solutions present in the recording of this CD: works written or revised between 2021 and 2022 for the Impetus Quintet. This recording is a series of musical "snapshots" that are as significant for those who listen to it as for those who recorded it. They are photographs of the present that surrounds us, moments of musical life and soundscapes. The sounds form an eclectic panorama made from different techniques and languages, sometimes transfigured or stylized-allusions and glimpses into worlds that intersect almost by chance in the present time.

Is it a love story? Undoubtedly. Is it a play about the strange relationship between people and their computers? Likewise (after all, among other things, quite a few annoying spam emails are given musical honors in it). Is it experimental literature? Indeed, at least in part, because one of the actors from the Oulipo circle of authors around Raymond Queneau and Georges Perec is involved in it. Is it film music for an abstract film with letters instead of actors? In a way, that too. When musician and composer Pascal Schumacher, typographer Michel Welfringer and writer Ian Monk join forces to write variations on CTRL (control? the control key? the sounds C, T, R, and L? the letters?) for the ensemble United Instruments of Lucilin, a kind of controlled loss of control is preprogrammed.

The Schumann Quartet dedicates its latest studio production "1923" to that year in which new musical paths were sought, found, or questioned, and at the same time, the birth of radio heralded a new age for composers and the dissemination of their works. The CD program combines selected quartet music by Paul Hindemith, Alban Berg, Erwin Schulhoff, and Leoš Janácek.

Violinist Alda Dizdari presents two major works by Robin Holloway in this focused and thoughtful recording. The Concerto for Violin and Orchestra, completed in 1990, is shaped around a sequence of 'Windows' inspired by poets Rainer Maria Rilke and John Ashbery. Dizdari and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, conducted by Alexander Walker, bring clarity to it's layered form and shifting character. The Sonata for Solo Violin, Op. 47, written in 1981, is a four-movement work full of contrast-from a bold opening to a playful scherzo and a final movement that asks and answers in equal measure. Dizdari, who has performed the sonata for over a decade, brings a deep understanding to it's structure and expressive detail. This album offers a clear view into Holloway's musical language and the strong collaboration behind it's performance.

Concertante works featuring the recorder, tenor saxophone and accordion are few and far between. Stimulated by daring soloists, the prolific Finnish composer Kalevi Aho has composed such works, contributing in his own way to the development of an original and attractive repertoire. The Concerto for Recorder requires the soloist to play four types of recorder, from bass to sopranino. The work explores extended techniques and also does not shy away from flashbacks to the golden age of the instrument. Aho received the initial impetus for his Concerto for tenor saxophone after a concert by Esa Pietilä. Aho wrote a concerto with contrasting sections that gradually exploits the full potential of the tenor saxophone and also makes use of an oriental goblet drum (darabuka) that sometimes also takes centre stage. The origins of the Sonate Concertante for accordion and strings goes back to Aho’s first Sonata for accordion of 1984. Noting its orchestral character, soloist Janne Valkeajoki suggested making a concertante version with strings. Here, Aho sought to extend the technical possibilities of the instrument to the maximum and to write for it a work of astounding virtuosity, like Franz Liszt’s most demanding piano compositions.

Ever since it quietly emerged on the international scene in the late ‘60s; Scandinavian jazz carved out for itself a distinctive niche. Drawing on the influence of Miles Davis and Gil Evans; Scandinavian jazz embraced a free, spacious; experimental; and contemplative aesthetic. It has also been open to modern or contemporary classical music and collaborations with European folk and ethnic-musicians. This is not OUR Recordings first journey into Scandinavian Jazz; the critically acclaimed album Going to Pieces Without Falling Apart; with legendary trumpeter Palle Mikkelborg; has proudly taken its place with other genre-defying Scandinavian jazz classics. Composer; trumpet and flugelhorn player Jakob Buchanan writes music specifically with the musicians he is working with in mind. Joining him on this important project are regular collaborators the Aarhus Jazz Orchestra, conductor Carsten Seyer-Hansen and percussionist Marilyn Mazur. Together they conjure landscapes of beauty, power and sometimes deep melancholy. Mazur’s panoply of percussion function as an emotional “basso continuo,” speaking a language built out of pure rhythm while Buchanan’s solos emerge almost like ancient cantilations from the choral/orchestral textures. The Aarhus Jazz Orchestra is carefully orchestrated; and the Copenhagen Royal Chapel Choir provides an aura of ethereal beauty to this soundscape song and wind. In every way; Buchanan’s Song & Wind is a worthy successor to his earlier award-winning Requiem; (also written with Marilyn Mazur and the Aarhus Jazz Orchestra in mind); a major work; expressive and full of beauty; drawing equally on the music of the past while charting a further course into the future.

Due to an overload of the right hand and the resulting epicondylitis (golfer's elbow), Nicola Stock was initially no longer able to play the guitar normally. Inspired by Lars Wuller's "Left Hand Guitar Challenge" and due to the fact that guitar works for the left hand alone had hardly existed up to that point - unlike in the piano world, where numerous pieces by well-known composers such as Scriabin or Ravel already exist - the idea arose together with Professor Gerhard Reichenbach to commission new pieces from various composers and thus create a repertoire for the left hand alone that combines innovative ideas and old and new playing techniques. Nicola Yasmin Stock (*1998) is a multiple prizewinner in international guitar competitions. As a soloist, she regularly performs at festivals in Asia, Europe and South America and gives master classes. She studied classical guitar with Professor Gerhard Reichenbach at the University of Music and Dance Cologne/Wuppertal and has also taken part in numerous master classes with renowned artists such as Margarita Escarpa, Pavel Steidl, Judicael Perroy and many others. In addition to her current studies in musicology at the Robert Schumann University in Dusseldorf, Nicola Yasmin Stock is the artistic director of the Rotenburg Guitar Week and an instrumental teacher at the Bergische Music School. She is involved in a variety of chamber music formations and orchestras, including as conductor of the Dortmund Guitar and Mandolin Orchestra. Because of her special commitment to the largely unknown guitar repertoire of female composers, she was awarded a scholarship for female guitarists by the Equal Opportunities Commission at the Cologne University of Music and Dance. She is also involved in cross-disciplinary projects, such as the interdisciplinary annual project of the College of Music and Art in Montepulciano/IT.

Sebastian Fagerlund’s orchestral music, which has held a central position in his work, is known for its pounding rhythmic energy and the quiet, gripping intensity of the more static passages. The flute concerto ‘Terral’ was written in close collaboration with Sharon Bezaly. Referring to a land breeze in Spain, ‘Terral’ is like a constant variation in a transparent and airy soundscape reminiscent of the soil taking on a new appearance when blown by the wind.

Strings to the Bone for string orchestra features Fagerlund’s typically intense and virtuosic writing as well as elements of the musical heritage of Ostrobothnia. Finally, the Chamber Symphony came to existence thanks to his collaboration with the Tapiola Sinfonietta and the Ottawa-based National Arts Centre Orchestra, where John Storgårds has been principal guest conductor since 2015. According to the Finnish daily Hufvudstadsbladet, this work shows “a thematically consistent symphonic construction with an authentic symphonic tension integrated into the dramaturgical gesture”.

Discover the bold and innovative chamber music of Danish composer Simon Steen-Andersen (b. 1976) in this retrospective release featuring the Oslo Sinfonietta under the direction of Christian Eggen and Rei Munakata. Spanning 2001-2007, the album presents Praesens, Besides, Amid and Chambered Music - works that redefine musical space, texture, and gesture with striking precision and playful intensity. Through his masterful exploration of instrumental theatre and sonic materiality, we hear Steen-Andersen's distinctive voice take shape.

Niels Rosing-Schow (b. 1954) crafts chamber music of sensual, organic allure, rich with contrast and sonic elegance. This album unveils four works - from the vibrant 'Dance and Signs in the Air' to the soulful 'Respiro ergo sum' - crowned by his exquisite take on Debussy's 'Six epigraphes antiques'. Through kinetic archetypes and seamless musical arcs, Rosing-Schow shapes an immediate, evocative voice, timeless yet fresh, speaking vividly on music's own terms.

This recording is dedicated to two recent concertos by Kalevi Aho, one of Finland's foremost contemporary composers. The author of a body of work as important as it is varied, Aho enjoys collaborating with exceptional soloists, for whom he composes works that highlight their musical qualities, inventiveness and personality. The Concerto for Alto Flute and Strings features an instrument with a soft tone, well suited as a soloist with a small orchestra of strings alone. The work is in six movements played without interruption, and the soloist, Sharon Bezaly, sometimes switches to the bass flute, which brings a mystical feel to the music. The St Michel Strings and their conductor, Erkki Lasonpalo, contribute to the mysterious atmosphere in which lyrical and dramatic episodes abound. The Double Concerto for Viola, Percussion and Orchestra, entitled 'Moonlight Concerto', was composed at the initiative of a Berlin-based musician couple, violist Hiyoli Togawa and percussionist Alexej Gerassimez. Here we are immersed in a Japanese atmosphere that reveals echoes of the 1,000-year-old tradition of ritualistic gagaku music. In this work, the percussionist plays instruments that are not usually heard in orchestral concerts, such as the moon gong, the waterphone, a hang drum and nine Thai gongs. The Lahti Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Anja Bihlmaier, provides the rich orchestral commentary.

This album presents Rune Glerup's (b. 1981) String Quartet No. 2, crafted for and dedicated to Quatuor Diotima, alongside his Clarinet Quintet featuring Jonas Frolund. Glerup's quartet, steeped in Beckettian echoes, captures the absurd beauty of life's endless loops, from park strolls to barroom reveries. The Clarinet Quintet, a labyrinth of musical nods - from Boulez to Brahms - fuses past and present in a tribute to the voices that shaped Glerup's own, creating a sound world both familiar and intriguingly new.

Erik Hojsgaard's (b. 1954) music has always possessed a dreamlike quality, where everything moves in the space between reality and our memory of it. Observers have aptly compared his tonal language to the orchestral artistry of Alban Berg. This album brings together three of Hojsgaard's key chamber works: in 'Essays', he captures the magical atmosphere of Venice, while 'Udstillingsbillede' transforms L.A. Ring's iconic painting into a musical reflection. The album concludes with 'Please accept a Sunset', where fragments of literary worlds intertwine within a soundscape imbued with a dreamlike resonance.

This is already the third recording by a highly unusual ensemble. Perhaps the only ensemble in the world featuring guitar and harp. A truly distinctive sound combination. Both artists are also represented on Musicaphon with solo recordings; Maximilian Mangold now has well over ten. And both have a passion for contemporary music. All the works on this CD were composed specifically for them.

Bára Gísladóttir wrote VÍDDIR to mark the end of her studies at the Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen. The title of the piece translates as ’dimensions’, and from its first sounds of five bass flautists screaming, ‘as strong as possible’, into their instruments, it is clear that VÍDDIR is not a light-hearted leap into a new life. It is a black night of a piece. An abyss, into which Gísladóttir has dived and reached deeply. An unbroken hour in length, it returns again and again to its own dark light.

The new album "Oceanic" by Iveta Apkalna is a collection of two expansive organ works and two orchestral interludes with maritime connotations, showcasing Apkalna's special relationship with the sea as a musician who grew up on the Baltic. The album features Bernd Richard Deutsch's "Okeanos," which Iveta Apkalna describes as the best contemporary organ concerto. It also includes Maurice Ravel's "Une barque sur l'océan," a key work of musical Impressionism, and Jean Sibelius's "The Oceanides," a personal "Rondo of the Waves" along similar lines to Debussy's "La mer."