Sentieri Selvaggi
, made up of some of the brightest young Italian musicians to emerge around the turn of the millennium, has devoted itself to a wide range of contemporary music, ranging stylistically from
Glass
to
Stockhausen
. The two eight-minute pieces recorded here are taken from the full-length 1999 album
Musica Coelestis
, which included 12 pieces. The outstanding sound is clean and the instruments are vividly differentiated. The performance of the
is a reminder of the variety of interpretations that can be brought to minimalist repertoire.
and his ensemble perform
Facades
with rhythmic strictness, but with linear expressiveness; in fact, it comes across as one of the composer's more overtly emotional pieces.
performs it with absolute strictness with both rhythmic and dynamic contours. This makes for a square-ish performance, but it works on its own terms. It also tends to be somewhat bass-heavy, which has the advantage of making
' subtle changes in the lower string parts clearly audible.
Bryars
'
Sub Rosa
, for an unusually quirky ensemble of timbrally disparate instruments, is something of a remix for live performers of
Throughout
, a song from
Bill Frisell
's 1984 album,
In Line
.
's recording is superior to
' own murky version largely because of the splendidly clear sound quality that allows the strangeness of the ensemble to be savored and wondered at. It's a short CD, but one that should interest fans of
and
. ~ Stephen Eddins