Brutal New Music Reviews

   Asuka Kakitani & Mark Urness - The Garden The Garden  is fun to experience once as a listener, maybe twice if you have a fondness for the double bass. Composed by Asuka Kakitani , the album is a singular, multi-movement work performed by Mark Urness. While listed as an album for unaccompanied double bass, several of the tracks involve Urness overdubbing himself. Surprisingly, for being inspired by the lives of plants, Kakitani's music is driving throughout a majority of the album, demanding an intense sense of rhythmic integrity from Urness. Each of Kakitani's composed tracks begins by the composer, her daughter, and Urness speaking the title. Very quickly this turns from cute to hokey. Opening with "Seeds," a resonant pizzicato introduction, the album then goes on to hit all of the prominent stereotypes associated with the bass as a solo instrument: melodies using only open strings and harmonics - "Germination," snap pizzicati and low grooving bassli...

  Elise Noyes and Gina Hyunmin Lee - Clairières; but a moment A wonderful listen for any lovers of late-Romantic art song, Clairi ères; but a moment brings a delightfully new sense of clarity to Lili Boulanger's vocal music. Presented here by Elise Noyes, soprano and Gina Hyunmin Lee , piano, the album pairs Boulanger's 1914 thirteen-song cycle  Clairières dans le ciel (Clearings in the Sky)  with a newly commissioned companion cycle, If all this is but a moment... , by Monica Pearce . Boulanger's music, this cycle in particular, has seen more traction in the last few years. It is apparent that Noyes and Lee have spent a lot of time with Boulanger's music, resulting in such a meticulous recording. Especially of note is Lee's expressive and balanced playing, which brings attention to Boulanger's engaging harmonic shifts and colors throughout the cycle. If all this is but a moment...  is a real gem to have added to this album. Pearce has created an almost biograph...