Arash Yazdani
Propagation of Uncertainty
(Kairos)
★★★★★

THE Tallinn-based Iranian composer Arash Yazdani has been a composer and conductor I have admired for a long time since I first encountered his excellent work with Ensemble for New Music Tallinn while I lived in the Baltic. So, when I heard that he had an album released by Kairos, I knew I had to listen. 

The 10 works featured on the album give a broad demonstration of his talents and imagination as a composer. Due to his intense exploration of microtonality (using intervals smaller than a semitone) the music dances between the deeply uncanny, strangely familiar, and hypnotically beautiful — while also having the strength to hit with a wallop. 

Works like Gaa Geriv, WinterWolf, Instruction Manual of How to Learn Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb in five Minutes, and Nakba really stand out. In short, the album is a great start for 2024.

Bozzini Quartet
Jurg Frey: String Quartet No 4
(Collection QB)
★★★★★

IN 2023, Jurg Frey celebrated his 70th Birthday, and the modestly captivating Swiss composer had numerous celebrations across the globe. This new album released in Winter 2023, is a treasure which demonstrates the power a long-term relationship can have between a composer and an ensemble. 

Frey’s quartet is the third written especially for the Bozzini Quartet over the span of 20 years. In the five movements of the work time feels frozen, to the point that the almost grandiose final movement flies by, despite being three times longer than the preceding movements. 

Frey’s music can be naively described as simplistic as notes hang lost in space and time — but the music it is not “easy music.” The great contradiction in Frey’s work — complex simplicity — is what draws the ear in, and Bozzini’s ability to play this with passion and skill that it feels like they inhale and exhale Frey’s delicate tones.

Luke Bedford
In the Voices of the Living
NMC Recordings
★★★★

THE English composer Luke Bedford, is another individual I have been fascinated by following a fortunate encounter during my young student days in Cardiff. This new album released by NMC showcases four larger-scale works written over a 15-year period. 

Outblaze the Sky is intensely lyrical for a short work, and Instability, the opening track, packs a real punch. But the central pieces of the album are his song cycle In the Voices of the Living and his concerto for saxophone quartet and orchestra. 

In the Voices of the Living is wonderfully brought to life by Mark Padmore’s magical and emotive voice. But it the concerto for saxophone quartet and orchestra which stands out in the album. 

The six short movements have a musical clarity which is really pleasing and a joy to listen to. Personally, it is great to hear more from a composer I’ve admired for a long time.