Catalog

Ravello Records is proud to release SIX ECOACOUSTIC QUINTETS / AVIAN TELEMETRY, the newest album from Matthew Burtner. In collaboration with Omar Carmenates, the Furman Percussion Ensemble, and the Shi Center for Sustainability, Burtner’s compositions incorporate avian biology, soundscape ecology, romantic-period British poetry, ecoacoustic music, and avant-garde percussion performance. And if you find all that surprising, you’re not familiar with the work of these two innovative groups.

The McCormick Percussion Group returns to Ravello Records for their sixth release, SOLI FOR SOPRANO WITH PERCUSSION ORCHESTRA. In the vein of their past work, this album showcases the collaboration of solo soprano, featuring critically acclaimed soprano Jamie Jordan and percussion orchestra. Lyrically, the pieces are influenced by the modernist texts of poet Wallace Stevens, the holy influence of the Bible, and the concept of opposites. This unique combination of voice and percussion explores traditional human values, freedom as a necessity of expression, and the sensuality of sound and imagery.

SOLI FOR TUBA, ZHENG, HORN WITH PERCUSSION is percussionist Robert McCormick’s tenth album with PARMA Recordings. On their latest album, the McCormick Percussion Group performs five compositions from four distinct composers, each of whom contributes striking works that range from personal to global inspiration.

SOLO NON SOLO, the debut Ravello Records release of the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma's bass clarinetist Sauro Berti, presents contemporary works for solo bass clarinet as well as for traditional and unusual duos, including those with percussion, saxophone, narration, and electronics.

Clarinetist Andrea Cheeseman infuses every note of her performances with a sense of passion and purpose. It is with this intentionality that she approaches Ravello Records’ SOMEWHERE, an album of electroacoustic works that expand the clarinet repertoire to new heights while also showcasing Cheeseman in the genre where she feels most at home.

On his debut release on Ravello Records, SONG OF THE CENTRAL TREE, enigmatic Australian composer Ron Nagorcka presents an eclectic collection of his chamber and electroacoustic works that highlight his affinity and aptitude for creating complex and asymmetrical rhythmic patterns, utilizing just intonation, and, in a number of works, reflecting the Australian landscape. Nagorcka’s intricate cross-rhythms, use of the didjeridu and microtonal melodies reflect the influence of Australian indigenous culture, while the theory behind the rich contrapuntal and harmonic textures he achieves using microtones has roots in ancient Greece and Asia as well as medieval and renaissance Europe.

James Dashow’s double album SONGS FROM A SPIRAL TREE—new from Ravello Records—collects many of Dashow’s vocal works into an abundant two-disk set. The album presents his compositions for voice, with instruments and electronic sounds, setting poems by Theodore Roethke, John Ashbery, John Berryman and Gian Giacomo Menon.

Phillip Schroeder's SONGS OF MY AFFINITIES was originally released in 2003, and was lauded as "gems of the American repertoire" (New Music Connoisseur) and "striking and beautiful" (Sequenza21).

Ravello Records presents SOPRANO SUMMIT from revered saxophonist Paul Cohen. Alongside his work as a performer, Cohen is known for his passionate scholarship, rediscovering long-forgotten saxophone works as well as arranging related music for the instrument. In this, his latest contribution, Cohen presents an album of music for the soprano saxophone in chamber and solo settings.

SOUND PORTRAITS was originally released in 2003 and was lauded as “miraculous” and “performed with much skill and devotion” (Fanfare). Featuring adept performances by clarinetist Anne Thurmond, pianist Paul Thurmond, and soprano Linda Ferreira, SOUND PORTRAITS is another highlight in Vollinger’s catalog of work that unites speech and melody into one.

James Dashow's SOUNDINGS IN PURE DURATION VOL 2 offers listeners a unique audiophile experience. The album of Dashow’s music for electronic sounds and instrumental soloists includes the last four works in the Soundings in Pure Duration series as well as the re-release of his Bourges Magisterium prizewinning work ...at other times, the distances. The album is available on DVD, giving listeners access to surround-sound (5.0) mixdowns of the pieces as well as composer-prepared stereo mixdowns that have been spatially enhanced to approximate a wider audio field. According to Dashow, this presentation of his octophonic and quadraphonic electronic music is second only to a live concert performance in terms of realizing his artistic vision for the music.

Composer and guitarist André M. Santos showcases his chamber works on his debut Ravello Records release SOUNDS OF A DIFFERENT UNIVERSE. Santos wrote each of the pieces featured on the album for fellow musicians and friends, resulting in a kaleidoscope of diverse personalities and styles. To this end, the sounds in his pieces indeed inhabit a different universe—his colorful chamber works bring together unexpected and intriguing combinations of instruments and timbres.

On the coasts of the Atlantic, sparrows whistle atop the trees, Eastern winds whisper through spartina grasses, and fiddler crabs skitter within their sandy burrows — a great symphony of shorelines soon to be left incomplete. As rising sea levels continue to threaten coastal reefs, shores, and the hundreds of lifeforms inhabiting them, the Coastal Conservatory urges us to consider our efforts of restoration and offers us an avenue for restoring coastal futures, a meditation on the music of the most integral barriers to the ever-pressing Atlantic. SOUNDSCAPES OF RESTORATION is both an exploration and a reflection, a listening experience that leaves one changed with the desire to make change further. It is a journey that cannot, and should not, be forgotten.

Born in Finland, educated internationally, and now living in Norway, Rebecka Sofia Ahvenniemi knows a thing or two about blending eclectic ideas. On her new Ravello Records release SOUNDTRACK OF AN IMAGINARY OPERA, she toys with established perceptions of music and philosophy, reconciling artificial language and acoustic explorations with deconstructionist ideas.

Lifelong guitarist Alex Lubet has created a unique niche, combining his instrumental experience with his traditional studies of composition. On SPECTRAL BLUES, a full album of his works for steel-string acoustic guitar, Lubet combines the characteristics of blues and Eastern styles with classical methods of composition to create remarkably unique pieces that push the boundaries of the instrument. Combining natural harmonies with single-string multiphonics and dyads, Doppler bends, and more, Lubet presents multi-layered guitar music with an edge.

Violist Shelly Tramposh has led an extensive career as chamber musician, orchestral player, and teacher, and her varied experiences allow her to play her instrument with an effortless grace that can only be described as having SPREZZATURA. Tramposh, accompanied by Cullan Bryant—one of the most active collaborative pianists in New York—performs works by Paul Chihara, Paul Siskind, Benjamin Britten and Paul Hindemith with the emotion and intensity of each piece’s inspiration, whether it be the doldrums of illness and celebration of health in Chihara’s Sonata for Viola and Piano or Hindemith’s tumultuous sonata, written after being blacklisted by the Nazi party in Germany. Tramposh and Bryant form a masterful duo, and are able to capture the tone of each piece with virtuosic flourish and clarity.

From the opening notes to the last few seconds of the album, the fullness of the experience in SPRING SHADOWS is impossible to deny. Like emerging from the dark, the way the album hits the listener feels fresh and rejuvenating.

Our human history, our search for something greater than ourselves, and our discoveries in the process are reflected in the tales we tell. As with words, music can express our stories, and composers David Liptak and Ricardo Zohn-Muldoon present several sonic narratives, referencing authors, poets, astronomers, folk musicians, and more on their debut Ravello Records release, STARS STORIES SONG.

The trailblazing duo of Kimberly Patterson and Patrick Sutton are champions of the budding cello & guitar genre of chamber music. The Patterson/Sutton Duo and composer Stephen Goss have worked together over many years and this album represents the fruits of their musical collaboration. This collection of Goss’s complete works for cello and guitar is a kaleidoscopic journey through the evocative sound world of this instrumental pairing. It represents a substantial contribution to the standard cello and guitar repertoire by one of the guitar world’s most sought after composers.

Joyous and energetic, sad and lyrical, images of light and cascading colors-these varied striking moods can all be used to describe composer Kirk O'Riordan's six chamber works on his premiere Ravello Records release, STRANGE FLOWERS. The six pieces on the album tell a story together, captivating the audience with its accessible but nuanced sound.