• Catalog #: RR8061

    Release Date: November 19, 2021

    21st Century
    Chamber
    Cello
    Flute
    Viola

    On ...AND NOTHING REMAINS THE SAME... from Eight Strings & a Whistle and Ravello Records, the flute-viola-cello trio explores the constant cycle of transformation that defines human existence. Since 1998, Eight Strings & a Whistle has earned a reputation for championing Baroque, Classical, and Romantic repertoire while also premiering new works from living composers. ...AND NOTHING REMAINS THE SAME... focuses on the music of contemporary composers, the majority of whom composed their pieces specifically for the Trio. The performances heard on the album offer a rewarding and intimate listening experience, with a deeply evocative sound rife with stark dissonance and rich harmony.

  • Catalog #: RR8062

    Release Date: January 28, 2022

    20th Century
    21st Century
    Chamber
    Solo Instrumental
    Flute
    Piano
    Saxophone

    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.

  • Catalog #: RR8063

    Release Date: March 25, 2022

    21st Century
    Chamber
    Electronic
    Flute
    Saxophone

    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.

  • Catalog #: RR8065

    Release Date: March 11, 2022

    21st Century
    Chamber
    Electronic
    Percussion
    Voice

    Ravello Records and The Sonic Arts Ensemble present LIVE FROM THE MULTIVERSE, an album leveraging the possibilities of online performance and expanding the boundaries of contemporary music. Musicians from three different continents connect through the internet on low latency, high quality audio networks to perform repertoire ranging from composed, notated scores to freely structured pieces born from masterfully executed ensemble improvisation. With the utilization of extended techniques, singing bowls, and imaginative sound design, the ensemble develops and thrives in an enticing and innovative soundscape.

  • Catalog #: RR8066

    Release Date: June 10, 2022

    21st Century
    Avant-Garde
    Electroacoustic

    If glaciers could speak, what would they tell us? On ICEFIELD, veteran composer Matthew Burtner answers that very question with an eclectic series of works that explore the intersection between the environment and controlled sound. Combining specialized field recordings of glaciers and Arctic storms, electroacoustics, and traditional instruments, Burtner creates surreal soundscapes that blur the line between audio and physical experience—from the opera Auksalaq to the audio synthesization of data on Sonification of an Arctic Lagoon, each piece on the album channels the whip-crack chill of the air, the blinding snow, and the awe-inspiring sight of glacial fields breaking apart and bringing sea levels higher and higher.

  • Catalog #: RR8067

    Release Date: April 22, 2022

    21st Century
    Solo Instrumental
    Clarinet

    On INTO THE GREEN, clarinetist Wesley Ferreira takes listeners on an aural journey through a world of musical possibilities where digital and analog become one. Works for solo clarinet place it in the midst of sprawling electronic soundscapes, providing ethereal backdrops for its earthy timbre. With technical flair and blistering speeds, Ferreira perfectly blends the instrument with industrial beats, atmospheric arpeggios, and reverberating effects, creating a seamless juxtaposition of computer-based composition and classical, folk, and world music. In doing so, Ferreira and the composers create a sense of old meeting the new, where the lushness and abundance of nature live in harmony with the exciting possibilities of technology.

  • Catalog #: RR8068

    Release Date: June 10, 2022

    20th Century
    Avant-Garde
    Guitar
    Percussion
    Voice

    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.

  • Catalog #: RR8069

    Release Date: June 24, 2022

    20th Century
    Vocal Music
    Piano
    String Quartet
    Voice

    Composer Mark Edwards Wilson and Ravello Records present TIME VARIATIONS, a stirring journey through the dimensions of musical style. Wilson blends soprano vocals with piano and electroacoustic synthesizers, flute with electronic tape, and experiments with the stylistic boundaries of solo violin and chamber ensembles in works inspired by poetry, Greek mythology, and various musical expressions throughout time. By fusing the idioms of early music with contemporary compositional concepts, Wilson has created a modulating and continuously transforming stylistic synthesis that awaits listeners.

  • Catalog #: RR8070

    Release Date: July 22, 2022

    21st Century
    Avant-Garde
    Clarinet
    Electroacoustic
    Electronic

    Lauded by critics as “interesting and captivating” (Cinemusical), the MIND & MACHINE series from Ravello Records returns in its fourth installment with a fresh roster of today's electro-acoustic composers. From the depths of the sea to the wildlife that populates our atmosphere and the breaths that form within us, a myriad of mystifying soundscapes await discovery. Innovatively-captured sound samples intertwine with contemporary social issues in this album, commenting on climate change, justice and inequality, and more. Our fragility and recovery are revealed in Gasp, human influence on the environment manifests in green line 2065 and Water Birds, and resilient voices respond in the face of oppression in Hanggang sa Takipsilim.

  • Catalog #: RR8071

    Release Date: October 28, 2022

    21st Century
    Chamber
    Cello
    Piano

    TWO WORLDS CALLED HOME is inspired by composer Caleb Vaughn-Jones’s nine-year journey as an American living abroad in South Africa. In 2011, Vaughn-Jones was a gifted cellist from Baltimore who felt a calling toward the unknown. He abandoned the traditional path of an American musician building a career and instead moved to Port Elizabeth, South Africa to teach music. In this album, Vaughn-Jones employs his skill as a cellist to express the joys and sacrifices he encountered on this incredible adventure. Ava’s Lullaby, for example, was written for his daughter when pandemic restrictions kept him from returning to the United States. Lakutshon' ilanga (The Sun Never Sets), on the other hand, is an isiXhosa song written by Mackay Davashe during the Apartheid era that describes the endless search for a lost love. Joined by pianist Hsin-I Huang, Vaughn-Jones invites listeners on an unforgettable journey.

  • Catalog #: RR8072

    Release Date: September 9, 2022

    21st Century
    Avant-Garde
    Electroacoustic
    Electronic

    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.

  • Catalog #: RR8073

    Release Date: October 14, 2022

    21st Century
    Chamber
    Electroacoustic
    Electronic
    Percussion

    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.

  • Catalog #: RR8074

    Release Date: September 23, 2022

    21st Century
    Solo Instrumental
    Piano

    Wide skies, whistling winds, and a love for the great outdoors take center stage on Karen Sunabacka’s CURLICUE, a collection of eight works for solo piano performed by Darryl Friesen. Each piece tells a story of Sunabacka’s wilderness adventures, from the titular Curlicue’s explorations of the twists, turns, and curls of a river, to Falling in the Water’s conjuration of girls jumping into water and sheets of rain pummeling tents, to Lost’s encapsulation of the fear and dread of losing one’s way. Friesen’s crisp performance brings each piece to life, transporting listeners to the Canadian woodlands and prairies for an adventure all their own.

  • Catalog #: RR8075

    Release Date: September 23, 2022

    21st Century
    Chamber
    Solo Instrumental
    Piano
    Voice

    Composer David Mastikosa’s ESCAPE is the work of an ambitious young composer whose skill belies his age. Born in 1992 in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Mastikosa is currently one of the most active contemporary classical music composers in his home country, and writes music for film and media. ESCAPE features works composed in a variety of styles and arrangements. Poslovice is a chamber piece inspired by old Serbian folk proverbs and suggests a hidden, tongue-in-cheek storyline. Detune was written specifically to encourage younger pianists to explore the vast soundscapes locked within the instrument. Trichord for Viola and Accordion is purposefully sparse; Mastikosa leaves free space for performers to exercise their own creativity. ESCAPE is both an artistic triumph in its own right and an early milestone in Mastikosa’s promising career.

  • Catalog #: RR8076

    Release Date: November 4, 2022

    21st Century
    Chamber
    Solo Instrumental
    Percussion
    Piano

    The piano is the powerhouse of musical instruments: with its vast tonal range and its ability to simultaneously supply chords and melodies, it generally takes the dominating place in virtually any setup. So what happens if you compose and play music for two of these behemoths? Pianists Sang-Hie Lee and Martha Thomas answer this question on their aptly-titled new album GLOBE, TRAVEL, HOMELAND.

  • Catalog #: RR8077

    Release Date: November 4, 2022

    21st Century
    Chamber
    Percussion
    Saxophone

    There are a number of established, conservative duo setups in Western music; but DRAX isn't one of them, and doesn't want to be. The saxophone-percussion duo, consisting of saxophonist Leo Saguiguit and percussionist Megan Arns, may be firmly rooted in contemporary American academia, but their music is one thing first and foremost: positively rebellious.

  • Catalog #: RR8078

    Release Date: November 4, 2022

    21st Century
    Avant-Garde
    Electroacoustic
    Electronic

    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.

  • Catalog #: RR8079

    Release Date: December 2, 2022

    21st Century
    Chamber
    Flute
    Piano

    The outstanding vigor of flutist Sarah Waycott and pianist Yanna Zissiadou is on full display on ANIMO TWO, an arresting album of new music for the ANIMO flute and piano duo. The richness of musical color created here with two solo instruments is a mesmerizing testament to ANIMO's skill both as individual performers as well as their chemistry in dialogue. Zissiadou and Waycott truly have the Midas touch when it comes to commissioning new pieces for their rare setup, yielding an album that meanders between empathetic tenderness and unfettered exuberance. A delight.

  • Catalog #: RR8080

    Release Date: November 11, 2022

    21st Century
    Chamber
    Electronic
    Violin

    Avner Finberg’s album THE FOUR SEASONS OF ISOLATION is a moving meditation on the COVID-19 pandemic and resulting lockdowns. Finding himself separated from his fellow musicians and beloved concert audiences, Finberg took the opportunity to focus on composition and began writing this large-scale work for solo violin and electronics. Freed from the need for an accompanist, he worked in solitude to develop this musical essay reflecting on his year in isolation. The result was a nod to Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons called The Four Seasons of Isolation. Also included on the album is The Raven, which incorporates a dramatic reading of Edgar Allen Poe’s masterpiece accompanied by violin and looper. The music combines electronics and violin to create haunting, ever-expanding chords that illustrate the story.

  • Catalog #: RR8081

    Release Date: December 9, 2022

    21st Century
    Chamber
    Vocal Music
    Piano
    Violin
    Voice

    INTERSECTIONS from the dynamic chamber group Khemia Ensemble invites listeners to meditate on the confluence of beginnings, endings, and the hope and grief that can accompany those events. With intersections of acoustic chamber music, electronics, and multi-genre influences, the album features a stinging commentary on microagressions (Sink’s Bite!), a tumultuous mother/daughter relationship (Freund’s Song of Persephone), a tender lullaby dedicated to his newborn son, rooted in a family ritual of planting a cottonwood tree (Benavides’ Little Cloud), an exploration of memory inspired by Yayoi Kusama’s infinity rooms (Biedenbender’s in a field of stars), and an assertion of identity through Bollywood melodies and American pop sensibilities (Shekhar’s Don’t Beat a Word). By showcasing commissioned music by five living composers, Khemia Ensemble demonstrates their commitment to reflecting broader perspectives in contemporary classical chamber music.