New Releases: Contemporary Music (September 2018)

Dublin Guitar Quartet

New Releases: Contemporary Music (September 2018)

A round-up of new contemporary music releases

Featured below: Cassandra Miller, Dublin Guitar Quartet, Ólafur Arnalds and Yarn/Wire.

Listen to the Journal of Music Contemporary Releases playlist on Spotify: http://ow.ly/P4UK30jzkC7.

Each week The Journal of Music will be compiling news on new and recent releases in contemporary, classical, jazz, indie, traditional music and more. Please send details of all releases to newreleases [at] journalofmusic.com.

Cassandra Miller: Canadian Composer Series #2
Another Timbre
August 2018

British contemporary music label Another Timbre has released the second batch of a total of 10 albums in their Canadian Composer Series particularly focussing on Cassandra Miller. The collection of albums includes music by Alex Jang, Lance Austin Olsen and Linda Catlin Smith as well as two by Cassandra Miller. Miller’s remarkable O Zomer! features two solo and two ensemble works, with performances from Apartment House, philip Thomas, Mira Benjamin and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra 

Visit http://www.anothertimbre.com.

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Dublin Guitar Quartet: Contemporary Irish
Independent
15 August 2018

Dublin Guitar Quartet is known for its performances of contemporary music, in particular Philip Glass, though this is their first album dedicated to the work of Irish composers. The album showcases a variety of approaches, from the electric guitar pulsing of Donnacha Dennehy’s Tilt to the jagged chords of Amanda Feery’s Boiling Point

Visit www.dublinguitarquartet.com.

Ólafur Arnalds: re:member
Mercury KX
24 August 2018

Icelandic composer Arnalds’ fourth album was created using his generative ‘self-playing’ piano system. The system, Stratus, uses a central piano to generate randomised sequences and harmonies, opening up new compositional avenue on the fly while maintaining his signature ambient sound. re:member is also accompanied by an artwork generator, which uses your Spotify listening history to generate a unique album cover for each user. 

Visit www.olafurarnalds.com.

Yarn/Wire: Images of Duration
Independent
24 August 2018

This album by American ensemble Yarn/Wire (read our review of their Dublin performance in April) consists of a single work by composer Alex Mincek titled Images of Duration (in homage to Ellsworth Kelly). As the title would suggest, this is a durational process piece, written for pianos tuned 1/4-tone apart and an array of percussion instruments. Inspired by the works of painter Ellsworth Kelly, individual movements are focussed on colours (such as ‘Vermillion Becomes Cobalt’) and shapes (‘Points on a Spiral’) which manifest themselves musically. 

Visit www.yarnwire.bandcamp.com.

Please send details of all new releases to newreleases [at] journalofmusic.com.

Published on 10 September 2018

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