Jason van Eyk
Beverley Johnston. Woman Runs with Wolves. Woman Runs with Wolves, percussionist Beverley Johnston’s fifth solo release on Centrediscs, is undoubtedly her most eclectically programmed to date. Pulling from her sixty-plus commissions of Canadian composers’ work, the selections range across two decades of creation to shape[...] Read more
Centrediscs On the surface, Centrediscs seems like a relatively simple proposition: a specialized recording label that showcases the work of Canada’s most talented composers. This is exactly what the Canadian Music Centre set out to do in 1981, under the initiative of national director John Peter[...] Read more
The Venice Biennale 56th International Festival of Contemporary Music. Using the words “Venice” and “music” together likely brings Vivaldi to mind. Or if one says Venice Biennale, thoughts turn to contemporary art or perhaps film or architecture. Yet the Venice Festival of Contemporary Music just marked its fifty-sixth edition. Why is it[...] Read more
Maki Ishii. Maki Ishii Live. Distinguished composer, conductor, and curator Maki Ishii (1932–2003) created a body of music inspired by his lineage, heritage, and situation. The poetic sense of movement, gesture, and pace that pervades the three percussion concerti on this disc bespeaks the influence of his father[...] Read more
Rachel Kiyo Iwaasa. Cosmophony. The word cosmophony is an amalgam of Greek roots that translate literally as “sound of the universe.” It’s also the rubric under which the outrageously talented Vancouver pianist Rachel Kiyo Iwaasa has united her favourite composers for this adventurous debut album[...] Read more
Flow Festival. Helsinki, Finland. August 13–15, 2010. Since its inception in 2003, Helsinki’s Flow Festival has become a major highlight of the Finnish music calendar. This year’s seventh edition certainly didn’t disappoint. Perfect summer weather, a unique urban site, top-notch programming, and careful execution combined to[...] Read more
Madawaska Quartet. Prefab. This long-awaited CD debut by the Madawaska Quartet reinforces the ensemble’s place as a powerful triple threat in the new music scene. Threat one is the ensemble’s surprising aptitude for developing ear-pleasing new repertoire. The results can be heard here in two world premi[...] Read more
Yannis Kyriakides. ANTICHAMBER. Dutch-Cypriot composer Yannis Kyriakides is better known for his extended multimedia and music-theatre works, but the ten pieces collected on this double-CD demonstrate that writing for smaller ensembles affords him equally fertile ground for creative exploration. The album offers[...] Read more