Catalog

Steven Kemper makes his debut on Ravello Records with his electroacoustic album MYTHICAL SPACES. Kemper combines acoustic instruments and electronics to create meditative compositions that explore the connections between real and imaginary worlds. Kemper writes that “myths represent traces of our collective imagination, and similarities between myths from different cultures point to a shared human experience.”

NO SUGGESTION OF SILENCE was originally released in 2001 and was lauded as "truly refreshing " (21st Century Music) and "sophisticated" (New Music Connoisseur). Featuring performances by pianist John Root, flutist Hugh Williams, The Next Stage Speaking Chorus, The Barbad Chamber Orchestra with violinist Sebu Sirinian and conductor Ramin Heydarbeygi, The Choir of the Church of St. Mary the Virgin, and the Goliard Chorale with the P.S. 122 Children's Chorale, clarinetist Thomas Piercy, cellist Jane Lawson, and pianist Judith Olson.

NOWS from David Rosenboom and Sarah Belle Reid is a captivating expression of the radical challenges brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. The music examines the notion of “co-presence,” or togetherness, when experienced in isolation. This seemingly self-contradictory concept became an everyday occurrence as in-person gatherings became video conferences. Performer-composers Reid and Rosenboom spent this time passing fragmented musical ideas back and forth. In this organic way, a collection of “sound correspondences” accumulated between the two artists, made with instruments ranging from strings and horns to modular synthesizers, analog signal processors, urban and desert soundscapes, and much more. The resulting album, NOWS, is a post-genre masterpiece that speaks to our unique moment in history.

THE MCLEAN MIX: RAINFOREST IMAGES was originally released in 1993 was lauded as "awesome" (ClassicalNet) and "one of the more convincing Fast-West syntheses since Philip Glass's music for Kundun" (Twentieth Century Music).

Violinist Mikylah Myers and flutist Francesca Arnone perform diverse electroacoustic pieces on their first collaborative album REACT, released on Ravello Records. The works on this album demonstrate well the potential range of electroacoustic music in facilitating both experimental and traditional compositional ideas. The featured composers explore new ways of creating and organizing sound, and as performed with either computer or other interactive electronics, the violin and flute help construct unique sonic landscapes.

REFLECTED LIGHT was originally released in 1995 and features stunning performances by pianists Jerome Reed, Jeananne Albee, and Sibylle Dotzauer; cellist Mary Lou Rylands; harpsichordist Ursula Trede-Boettcher; clarinetist Markus Lucke; The Constitution Brass; and the Chamber Choir of the Staatliche Jochschule fur Musik.

Ravello Records is proud to present RIPPLING, a new album by composer Robert Morris. Morris recorded the album live at a “Summer at Eastman Concert” in Hatch Recital Hall, in Rochester, NY. Consisting of only two tracks, “Mountain Streams” and “Mysterious Landscape,” these dramatic compositions turn ordinary sounds of nature in extraordinary pursuits of sonic ambience. Like a drop in a pond, both tracks start small and simple only to evolve into an all-encompassing, full sound that excites curiosity while evoking relaxation.

SHADOWS OF ANCIENT DREAMS was originally released in 1997, and features clarinetist F. Gerard Errante performing the works of Charles Bestor, Robert Scott Thompson, Todd Winkler, Douglas Quin, and Michael Lowenstern.

SIDEWALK MUSIC was originally released in 2002 and represents the composer’s quest “to write electronically-made music that communicates any number of different ideas or emotions.” The music on this release is an enticing exploration into the endless possibilities of expression through the manipulation of pre-recorded and electronic sounds.

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.

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.

SYNCHRONIES, James Dashow's second double album on Ravello Records, offers a selection of the composer's work for traditional instruments with and without electronic sounds. His approach to these two musical resources combines the intimacy and flexibility of beautifully designed chamber music with full scale sonorous constructions: some achieved by finely textured orchestrations of the classical instrumental ensemble, others by the symphonic use of rich electronic timbres that are characteristic of the composer's music. Dashow's unique sound is immediately recognizable, enhanced by his ground-breaking ideas on the spatialization of sound, where the location and movement of musical events in space are now fundamental elements of his compositional practice. The performers in these pieces are true virtuosi of contemporary art music; their artistry and subtle understanding of these works yield deeply expressive interpretations that resonate with both listeners and performers alike.

Deeply immersive electronic soundscapes and haunting harmonies stir the senses in THE BLEAK NIGHT from composer David Peoples. Featuring percussion, synthesizer, electronics, and electrophonic orchestra with narration and the manipulation thereof, Peoples captivates the ear and mind with suspenseful ostinatos that melt into entrancing waves of sound. A soothing beginning dissolves into hair raising junctures in Rock Me to Sleep, subtle grooves emerge amidst an ethereal atmosphere in Shinytastic, and tensions build to a boiling point before gently floating back down in The Bleak Night.

THE ELECTRIC PERFORMER was originally released in 1997 was lauded as "awesome" "at times Cageian and Crumbian" (ClassicalNet).

Cultural pessimists might argue that we've never lived in an age as isolated and atomized as this one, and a certain recent pandemic certainly didn't help. Cultural optimists on the other hand might quote German poet Hölderlin: "But where the danger is, also grows the saving power." Whatever the truth may be, the collective minds behind THE QUARANTINE AT THE CORE OF OUR HEARTS elegantly disregarded rumination, and instead chose to act.

WAKING THE SPARROW, the premiere recording on PARMA RECORDINGS from classical and baroque guitarist Robert Nathanson and soprano Nancy King, performing as Duo Sureño, is the result of a twenty-year long journey exploring the grandeur of the human voice blended with the vibrancy of the guitar. Interpreting the work of five notable modern composers who were, in turn, inspired by the words of poets throughout the ages, Nathanson and King deliver a stunning performance that is rich in its variety and impressive in scope.

Celestial Images From The New General Catalog Christopher J. Keyes composer

Jeff Morris's second album, WITH STRINGS, explores the possibilities of 21st-century counterpoint. He builds up rich musical textures by sampling violin and cello live and folding them back into the mix, influencing the performers in turn.