Various - Hard Metal Cantus - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Navona Records presents European/American composer Svjetlana Bukvich's latest masterpiece EXTENSION, a multifaceted collection of pieces that use technology, music, and the motions of dance to both deconstruct and reimagine ideas of genre and cultural division. In EXTENSION, listeners traverse ten innovative pieces that are both deeply personal and universal. Bukvich describes herself as aiming for a Inchno-genre-borderless-flowInch with her music and, on a larger scale, in the structures of human society. Indeed, she captures that spirit immensely hybridizing musical languages from American minimalism, art and progressive rock, and German classicism, to Italian polyphony, Russian romanticism, jazz, and ethnic idioms, she creates a cinematic, 'fictocritical' sound that is entirely unique but at once familiar. From the opening whispers of the electric violin in The Beginning to the evocative title track Extension which mingles both voice and synth, the album is a sweeping conversation between the natural and technological, the language of sound and the language of numbers. The piece Once You Are Not a Stranger appears in three iterations instrumentally, vocally, and as an orchestral reprise. The meditative return of the piece emphasizes the expression of it's title - in the acceptance of profound loss and the redemptive possibilities that extend out of it, there is no division, and no one is a stranger. The composer herself knows the world's need for connection all too well - her past includes an escape from her home in Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina in the midst of the Civil War before finding her way to America where she continued her pursuits in media arts. In her youth Bukvich has lived in Ethiopia and Scotland, experiences which also influenced her sonic ideas. EXTENSION offers an opportunity for reconnection through dismantling, rebuilding, and exploring concept

Characterized by orchestral flavors and electronic infusions, SYNCHRONIES by composer James Dashow blends contrasting musical conventions to be symbiotic an approach indicative of Dashow's ideologies of outward facing themes contributing to a singular purpose. Enjoy the precision and unique timbre proposed by electronic elements juxtaposed with classical instrumentation that challenges performers and delights listeners. James Dashow has had commissions, awards and grants from the Bourges International Festival of Experimental Music, the Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, Linz Ars Electronica Festival, the Fromm Foundation, the Biennale di Venezia, the USA National Endowment for the Arts, RAI (Italian National Radio), the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, the Rockefeller Foundation, Il Cantiere Internazionale d'Arte (Montepulciano, Italy), the Koussevitzky Foundation, Prague Musica Nova, and the Harvard Musical Association of Boston. In 2000, he was awarded the prestigious Prix Magistere at the 30th Festival International de Musique et d'Art Sonore Electroacoustiques in Bourges.

PARMA is proud to present THROUGH TIME AND PLACE, an ambitious cross-section of James Lentini's extensive catalog. The award-winning guitarist and composer impresses with massive tonal landscapes which can be considered exemplary in contemporary American serious music. THROUGH TIME AND PLACE's title is aptly chosen the album contains a collection of previously unreleased recordings made over the course of Lentini's long career. Almost all of them are commissioned works or competition winners, which is obvious at first listen. They are united by the same level of craftsmanship and recurring qualities for instance, there is a deceptive calm to Lentini's pieces - characteristic, one might even say. Expectations of tonality and form are often confirmed, only to be shattered in the very next measure. Then, of course, one finds the inevitable contrast of mood and expression energetic phrases juxtaposed with serene lyricism, sadness mixed with humor, the sacred next to the secular. The only exception to this rule may well be Three Sacred Meditations, which powerfully remains committed to simplicity and unity. Thanks to this, in combination with the gigantic orchestral and choir setup, these works may well be the hidden gem of the album. But it's not all ethereally objective. In fact, there are plenty of personal notes on THROUGH TIME AND PLACE, such as the intimate The Angel's Journey. Lentini wrote the piece in memory of his grandparents, utilizing the letters of their names to create the main motifs. With this level of creativity on display, it is easy to see why James Lentini is such a popular choice, not only for festivals and competition committees. After all, his compositions perfectly embody the spirit of which all American contemporary music is capable. There is the fittingly vast grandeur, a sheer endlessness of sound, a tremendous spaciousness and almost otherwo