Orchestre De Chambre Nouvelle-Aquitaine - Messiaen: Des canyons aux etoiles - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

In 1998 leading contemporary British composer Christopher Fox began work on a new commission, a piece that was to be 'evening-long, and not a concert'. The result was the quasi-dramatic 'installation piece' Everything You Need to Know - a body of musical material which can be deployed in many different ways. Fox realized that the work needed a guide - a parallel version of the same ideas in a different form, rather like the 'catalogue raison+-' at an art exhibition. Thus was born a series of pieces for solo voice, as recorded here for the first time under the supervision of the composer and with his appearance as narrator. The sections are based on a series of multilingual texts from various sources including Virgil, Dante, tourist guides and essays. The 'catalogue' is about ideas, remembrance and the possibility of improbable connections. In itself as a sound work it is absolutely and positively unique.

Oliver Messiaen - Chamber Music [COMPACT DISCS] date 10/01/1995

Matana Roberts is one of the most acclaimed, socio-politically conscious and aesthetically intrepid avant-jazz practitioners of the 21st century. The critical accolades for her multi-chapter Coin Coin work place her at the vanguard of stylistic innovation and radicalization, while confirming the deep substance and soul that guides her compositional agenda. Roberts has long employed the phrase Inchpanoramic sound quiltingInch to describe Coin Coin, and with this third chapter in the series she implements this metaphor most overtly.