Launched in 2007, NEOS is a German label with a focus on compositions from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, many of which are world premiere recordings. In order to achieve a high level of artistic and editorial quality, great value is placed on selecting the performers and collaborating exclusively with renowned ensembles and cultural institutions. NEOS (Greek for "new") is the responsibility of Wulf Weinmann, who was previously the owner and label manager of col legno. Varied in his interests, Weinmann is constantly seeking out discoveries in the wilds of New Music. He considers himself particularly fortunate to have arranged future collaborations with long-standing partners such as the Internationales Musikinstitut Darmstadt (IMD), the Donaueschingen festival of the SWR, musica viva (Bayerischer Rundfunk), and the Salzburg Festival. As a confessed lover of the arts Weinmann places great importance on the technical quality of the recordings and their visual presentation. All of the productions are released in attractive digipacks with extensive textual information. Many releases are Stereo/5.1 multichannel hybrid CD/Super Audio CD formats that can be played on any CD player.
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NEOS 12028CD
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David Philip Hefti composed his second music theater work based on motives by Hans Christian Andersen: The Snow Queen. The plot centers upon the children Gerda and Kay, whose friendship is put to a severe test when Kay falls under the spell of the Snow Queen. Hefti's high-contrast music creates sometimes shimmering cold, sometimes cozy warmth; the icy Snow Queen -- outstandingly cast with Mojca Erdmann -- sounds "clear and transparent like frozen crystals" (Neue Zürcher Zeitung). The musical story for soprano, two speakers (Delia Mayer and Max Simonischek) and orchestra is aimed equally at children, young people and adults. The recording of the world premiere with the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich under the direction of the composer is released on this CD. The 80-page booklet contains the German libretto as well as the English and French translations.
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NEOS 12015CD
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Ernst Helmuth Flammer's oratorio "Der Turmbau zu Babel" (The Tower of Babel) was commissioned for the 25th anniversary of the "Hanover New Music Days" in 1983. The world premiere took place under the direction of Klaus Bernbacher with excellent interpreters such as Catherine Gayer (soprano), Günter Binge (baritone), Theophil Maier (speaker), the Chor des Norddeutschen Rundfunks and the Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie in the broadcasting hall of the NDR Hanover on January 29, 1983. Ernst Helmuth Flammer: "The oratorio is dedicated to all those who were forced to give up their lives in the struggle for freedom, justice and a dignified coexistence; all undaunted who accepted great personal sacrifices in following an unswerving moral path." "Der Turmbau zu Babel" is dedicated to Klaus Bernbacher. For three orchestral groups, three choirs, two solo voices (soprano and baritone), speaker, quadrophonic playback and live electronics, on texts by Friedrich Schiller, Arthur Schopenhauer, Friedrich Nietzsche, Richard Wagner, Niccolò Machiavelli, and Kurt Tucholsky.
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NEOS 12029CD
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The way Jim Franklin combines the traditional Japanese bamboo flute shakuhachi with modern live electronics is unique. In addition to the latest studio technology, synthesizers and various instruments are used, such as the theremin -- one of the oldest electronic instruments of all. The works themselves are semi-composed, structured improvisations: a pre-composed form in which the "signposts" and turning points are clearly defined, but the exact "route" through the piece is created anew with each performance. Despite all the complexity, Franklin recorded them alone, mostly in continuous takes. Songs from the Lake is, as the title suggests, inspired by water. Franklin is fascinated by images in nature where the overall form is more or less static, but the details are constantly changing. The Buddhist view of water as an image of the spirit is also important to him. Jim Franklin first studied composition and musicology in Australia, Germany and Holland. In 1986 he discovered the shakuhachi and learned the instrument from Dr. Riley Lee, Furuya Teruo, and Yokoyama Katsuya. In 1996 he received the title of Shihan (Master) from Yokoyama-sensei. From 2006 to 2009 he was founding chairman of the European Shakuhachi Society. In 2018 he was a main organizer of the World Shakuhachi Festival in London.
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NEOS 12017CD
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Why should one still compose a piano concerto in 2020? Hasn't this leading genre of absolute music exhausted itself for decades? Gunnar Geisse's Piano Concerto, which is premiered on the present CD, definitely adds a new facet to the genre, not certain whether it continues or breaks the genre. Although the piano can be heard as a solo instrument, accompanied by a variety of orchestral instruments, only one instrument was actually played on this recording, which in turn is not a piano but an electric guitar. Geisse developed the "laptop guitar", an extension of his main instrument (the electric guitar) to include the computer, which enables him to continue playing analogue on a digital level. He uses the software-supported real-time conversion of audio to MIDI data to control virtual instruments and samplers. Geisse titled this album Triptych. The last "panel" in this triptych, rhythm changes, follows the two movements of the piano concerto. The work does not focus on a soloist-orchestral arrangement but on the laptop guitar itself. Instead of an imaginary orchestra, Geisse uses a series of sampled materials. Allusions to romanticism are replaced by insights into Charlie Parker's "Anthropology".
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NEOS 12013CD
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The Donaueschinger Musiktage have been regularly documented by NEOS for many years. The 2019 edition begins with Mark Andre's sensitively heard sound spaces in "rwḥ 1 for ensemble and electronics". The Ensemble intercontemporain is represented with Johannes Boris Borowski's "Allein". A notable event at the Donaueschinger Musiktage 2019 was Eva Reiter's "Wächter" for double bass flutes and tube orchestra, played by the SWR Symphonieorchester without any classical musical instruments. From the full-length cycle "Poética del espacio" by Alberto Posadas, the final part Ojo del diablo made it into the selection, interpreted in an outstanding way by the Klangforum Wien.
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NEOS 22002CD
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Debussy's "Trois Nocturnes", Wagner's "Tristan Prelude" and Brahms' "Piano Quintet", remixed and in a new guise. This is the metamorphosis of three instrumental masterpieces for the 176 keys of two concert grand pianos; a transformed aural perspective, which brings out compositional structures all the more clearly. In two-piano versions, these pieces are effectively reworked. With Brahms' "Sonata Op. 34b", this was undertaken in 1864 by the composer himself, adapting a string quintet he then withdrew, reinventing it as a piano quintet a year later. With Wagner and Debussy, it was Max Reger and Maurice Ravel who took on the task, surely in part as a mark of their esteem for these works and their authors. Cleverly devised programs are the trademark which distinguishes Andreas Grau and Götz Schumacher as one of the most internationally renowned piano duos. No other duo runs the gamut from Bach to music of the present day with such aplomb. Their profound and intimate ensemble playing manifests two musical kindred spirits, unleashing a broad spectrum of expressive potential which perfects the art of piano four hands.
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NEOS 12022CD
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With "Sangue Inverso - Inverso Sangue", the Portuguese composer Jaime Reis has created his own little cosmos: two times seven movements that can be performed separately, one after the other or at the same time. Despite very different tempos, moments of synchronization and coordination arise. The main idea behind this structure is the relationship between the individual and the collective, more precisely: the role of the individual regardless of his integration into the collective. The Ensemble Fractales presents nine different variations of the Sangue cycle -- both as individually as well as simultaneously played movements. Jaime Reis has dealt intensively with scientific topics. This is how the piano work "Lysozyme Synthesis" (Ana Telles, piano) became inspired by the process of protein synthesis, "Fluxus, Vortex - Schubkraft" (here in the acoustic version with the Aleph Gitarrenquartett) from the physical phenomenon of fluid mechanics.
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NEOS 12026CD
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When the composer Younghi Pagh-Paan came to Germany in the mid-1970s, she was at first deeply insecure about the gaping contradictions between Western culture and her Korean homeland. She drew a special creative force from it -- influences from both worlds are combined in her music to this day. The works that the Ensemble KNM Berlin and the soprano Angela Postweiler recorded here were created between 1977 and 2020 and thus offer a comprehensive view of Pagh-Paan's work. Among them, the three first recordings deserve special attention: ma-am (Mein Herz) for female solo and Mein Herz I for soprano and viola, as well as the string quartet Horizont auf hoher See. The production was created as part of the award of the Berlin Art Prize 2020 by the Akademie der Künste Berlin. Younghi Pagh-Paan was born in 1945 in Cheongju, in what is now South Korea. She came to Germany on a DAAD scholarship in 1974 to continue her studies with Klaus Huber at the Freiburg University of Music. With her orchestral piece Sori she attracted wide public attention at the Donaueschingen Festival 1980. After visiting professorships at the music universities in Graz and Karlsruhe, she was appointed professor of composition at the Bremen University of the Arts in 1994 -- the first woman in Germany. She received numerous international prices and resides und in Bremen and Panicale (Italy).
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NEOS 12104CD
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The program on this CD focuses on two essential aspects of Pierre Boulez's oeuvre: his love of theater and his consistent search for ways of spatializing sounds through electronics. In "Dialogue de l'ombre double" from 1985 it is still a pre-produced tape -- recorded by the interpreter himself -- which, together with the live sounds, symbolizes the clarinetist's "double shadow". In "Anthèmes 2", written around ten years later, the acoustic labyrinth in which the soloist finds herself is generated entirely by means of live electronics. The basic idea for this was already laid out in "Anthèmes 1" for solo violin, created in 1991 as a mandatory work for the Yehudi Menuhin competition. Pierre Boulez has worked with the SWR Experimental Studio since it was founded in the early 1970s. In this recording the instrumental parts were excellently cast with Carolin and Jörg Widmann.
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NEOS 12006CD
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Georg Friedrich Haas is regarded as today's foremost proponent of microtonal composition. But it is precisely these three works -- Ein Schattenspiel, the String Quartets Nos. 4 and 7 -- that show that Haas is actually less immersed in his musical material. Instead, he concentrates on the communicative aspects of music and composition, so as to greatly unsettle and even shock the listener's perception. Of course, microtonality and composition that makes use of the overtone series and overtone chords presents a challenge to the listener accustomed to a more conventional, traditional harmony. But Haas's composition focusses more on the physical experience of this kind of music. It would not be completely inaccurate to speak of a musical aesthetic that seeks to bombard the senses into submission, where the pulsing beats inherent in the overtones and microtonality amalgamate to a roar and thunder roll of noise. The connection between the three works on this CD is the use of live electronics. It creates something like an "acoustic shadow", in which the music is played again with a time delay -- accelerated slightly in Ein Schattenspiel and thus a quarter tone higher than the original that was just heard. Together with the SWR Experimentalstudio, Sophie-Mayuko Vetter (piano), and the Arditti Quartet pre-sent exemplary world premiere recordings.
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NEOS 12027CD
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With the complete recording of the accordion works by Magnus Lindberg, Janne Valkeajoki presents an extraordinary debut album. The young Finnish accordionist has won several international competitions and has made guest appearances at numerous festivals. On this CD, solo and chamber music works can be found; while "Jeux d'anches" (for accordion solo) and the duo "Metal Work" for accordion and percussion are original works, Valkeajoki made versions of "Dos Coyotes" (with cello) and the piano work "Jubilees" especially for his instrument. He worked closely with Lindberg, who emphasizes that the accordion versions are not just arrangements, but stand-alone works. Magnus Lindberg has a special relationship with the accordion: as a child he took his first musical steps with it. Today he is one of the most played composers internationally.
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NEOS 12021CD
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In a powerful surge in creativity, Paul Hindemith wrote three piano sonatas in succession in 1936 -- the year that was to end with a complete ban on performance by the Nazi regime. The premieres of the sonatas were canceled, but Hindemith nevertheless wrote music history with them. The sonatas differ as far as possible in terms of complexity and technical challenges, so the extremely demanding first is followed by a short, light-footed second one. Overall, they paint a differentiated picture of the composer, which Andreas Skouras ingeniously completes by starting with the "Suite for Piano from 1922". The Greek-German pianist and harpsichordist Andreas Skouras, born in 1972 in Thessaloniki (Greece), studied piano with Prof. Franz Massinger and harpsichord with Prof. Lars Ulrik Mortensen and Prof. Ketil Haugsand at the University of Music and Theater in Munich. He was u. a. awarded the City of Munich Music Scholarship and the Bavarian Art Award.
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NEOS 12008CD
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Tobias Eduard Schick is a young musician with an enormous aesthetic spectrum. This can be seen in his biography: studying composition with such diverse personalities as Mark Andre, Ernst Helmuth Flammer, and Manos Tsangaris was followed by training in electronic music. This portrait CD deals with his chamber music oeuvre from duo to ensemble -- and a solo work, "Klangzeichnung" for double bass, in which the composer himself appears as an interpreter. Performers: Tobias Eduard Schick (double bass), Diego Ramos (violin), Olivia Steimel (accordion), Michiko Saiki (piano), trio sostenuto, Duo Steimel-Mücksch, El Perro Andaluz with Lennart Dohms (conductor).
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NEOS 12018-19CD
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Christian Ofenbauer's composition Zerstörung des Zimmers/der Zeit (Destruction of the Room/of Time) was created in 1999 as a sound installation for the Schauspielhaus Graz (6 scores: string quartet, zither, contra guitar, 2 violins, piano and amplifier system). The string quartet and especially the piano part have found their way into the concert hall. Taking up essential elements of his own compositions and placing them in a new context is one of the peculiarities of the Austrian composer. This is how the concert version for string quartet and piano was finally created in 2000, in which the original idea of the sound installation was taken up in a completely new way: the string quartet and piano form two temporal levels, metrically independent of each other, but together they are set to a duration of exactly 48 minutes. Both versions of composition Zerstörung des Zimmers/der Zeit, the piano quintet and the piano version from the installation, now appear in direct juxtaposition on this double-CD, recorded ingeniously by Quatuor Diotima and Johannes Marian.
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NEOS 12011CD
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The flute has a special place in Claus-Steffen Mahnkopf's oeuvre. What attracts him is its particular virtuosity, agility and ease in crossing large sonic spaces. He was still a student when he composed the alto flute solo "coincidentia oppositorum" (1986) and the flute solo "succolarity" (1989). From the "Angelus Novus" cycle, "La terreur d'ange nouveau" (1997-99) turned out to be a significant, substantial flute work. Then Shanna Pranaitis began performing Mahnkopf's flute music. This led to a cooperation that spawned the three most recent pieces: the solo for piccolo "Kurtág-Cantus II" (2013), the duo "Finite Jest" (2014) with the soprano Frauke Aulbert, and the solo for bass flute "atsiminimas" (2016). Together, these six pieces cover the entire flute family.
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NEOS 12012CD
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The electro-acoustic works by Erhard Grosskopf offer a grand insight into the pioneering days of the large electronics studios. Grosskopf was able to experiment with state-of-the-art analog technology at the Instituut voor Sonologie at the Rijksuniversiteit Utrecht; this is how "Dialectics" was created amongst others for the EXPO'70 in Osaka. In addition to the purely electronic version as it was heard in the German pavilion at the time, a performance with three live instrumentalists and tape is documented here: Eberhard Blum (flute); Hans Deinzer (clarinet); Vinko Globokar (trombone); Erhard Grosskopf (sound control). "Prozess der Veränderung" (Process of Change) and "Night Tracks" also originated in Utrecht in the early 1970s, where Grosskopf was a research assistant for a few months in order to be able to realize the compositions. The analog tapes were digitized for this publication by the Institute of Sonology, which is now based in The Hague. Performers: Eberhard Blum (flute); Hans Deinzer (clarinet); Vinko Globokar (trombone); Claude Lelong (viola); Erhard Grosskopf (sound control).
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NEOS 11823CD
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Nicolaus A. Huber speaks of a "luxurious world of percussion", given the variety of instruments and their technical capabilities. Instead of drawing on these resources lavishly, he makes a sparing selection for each piece, which in turn has important consequences for the work's sound, character, morphology, and form. With a reduced instrumentation, Huber aims for maximum differentiation of sounds, rhythms, and performance techniques. This CD contains world premiere recordings of his younger percussion works, written between 2007 and 2012. Johannes Fischer is celebrated as a "magician among percussionists" by the press and touches the audience with his effortless, sensitive and energetic music making. In addition to a solo performance career, Fischer is an active composer, improviser, teacher and conductor. In 2009 he was appointed Professor at the Lübeck University of Music. Performers: Domenico Melchiorre (percussion), Johannes Fischer (percussion), Dirk Rothbrust (percussion), eardrum percussion duo (Johannes Fischer and Domenico Melchiorre), Andreas Mildner (harp).
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NEOS 12023CD
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Clemens von Reusner finds the sound material for his electroacoustic works in unusual places. For "rückbau" (2011) he uses recordings of the demolition of a sugar factory. In "de monstris epistola" (2012) he refers to a work by the poet Jean Paul and uses sounds that were recorded at the places of Jean Paul's early childhood and youth in Upper Franconia. And "draught" (1999), 30 years after the Berlin Wall opened, is based on a variety of over- and underwater sounds on both sides of the Elbe. The origin of a sound, both physically and geographically, plays a central role for Clemens von Reusner when he dissects it electronically, as it were, and then creates "soundscapes" from the result.
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NEOS 12016CD
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For this CD, now the seventh release at NEOS, René Wohlhauser has put together a fine selection of chamber works. The vocal works contained therein reveal a great deal about the personality of the Swiss composer, especially about his very own way of dealing with language: here -- as in the title composition ReBruAla -- he consistently set his own poems to music. The main work in the program is The Great Vocal Trilogy "Three Songs", a cycle of three songs with different instrumentation, which are less connected in terms of content than by a concentrated aesthetic, each playing with a creative thought. Performers: Ensemble Polysono; René Wohlhauser (bariton, clavier); Elia Seiffert (violine); art ensemble berlin; Duo Simolka-Wohlhauser.
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NEOS 22001CD
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Hans Maier builds bridges from the 17th century to the present. He plays music by Girolamo Frescobaldi, Johann Jakob Froberger, and Domenico Zipoli on the accordion, a still young instrument; he uses a historical tuning system, the meantone tuning. This not only lets the music of the early Baroque shine in its own colors: the composer Nikolaus Brass was also inspired by the juxtaposition of perfectly pure and very tense harmonies. He dealt extensively with the meantone tempered accordion and has written several works for the instrument played by Hans Maier. Two of them -- "Harmonies" and "Figuren der Sehnsucht" -- are part of the program of this CD, which shows Hans Maier as a stylistically versatile and adaptable interpreter. All compositions by: Girolamo Frescobaldi, Nikolaus Brass, Johann Jakob Froberger, and Domenico Zipoli.
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NEOS 12005CD
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Werner Heider has left his mark on cultural life in Franconia for decades: as a composer, pianist, conductor and long-time director of the ars nova ensemble nürnberg. In January 2020, he celebrated his 90th birthday. Reason enough for a portrait of a special kind: In constant crescendo, this CD ranges from solo piano (Heider himself as the interpreter of his music) to chamber works and his large orchestral work Architektur, played by the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Peter Eötvös.
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NEOS 11909CD
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This CD with orchestral works by Ernst Helmuth Flammer is the fifth edition with works by the composer at NEOS. The compositions presented here date from 1983-1999. They all deal with the phenomenon of time in different ways; whereby Flammer is concerned with the architectural/energetic organization of time within a composition, as well as the musical-historical point in time of their creation and thus a temporal classification in an aesthetic sense -- namely an "aesthetically rigorous approach" (Flammer). The piano concerto "Zeitzeichen - Zeitmaße" was recorded with Ortwin Stürmer and the BBC Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Lothar Zagrosek. Also features: Radio-Sinfonieorchester Basel - Ulrich Backofen, conductor; Philharmonisches Orchester Freiburg - Hannu Koivula, conductor - Ortwin Stürmer, piano; BBC Symphony Orchestra - Lothar Zagrosek, conductor.
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NEOS 12001CD
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Victor Ibarra's music, by producing cuts, cracks, outbreaks, and eruptions, erodes the conditions of common listening. It is characterized by sudden changes and contrasts, but is held together by a strong energy. Víctor Ibarra is professor of composition at the University of Guanajuato in his native country Mexico. His career has taken him to numerous European centers for New Music, where he has received several awards. With this recording of the Ensemble Vertixe Sonora under Nacho de Paz there is now a monographic CD of the remarkable Mexican composer.
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NEOS 12002CD
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Cello and percussion -- "my favorite instruments!" -- is how almost all composers respond, when UmeDuo from Sweden asks them to write for them. Since the duo has been founded in 2008, numerous compositions where created for the two sisters. Seven of them found their way on this CD. Seven personalities -- seven musical languages, from spiritual meditations to icy harmonies, from rough scrapes to delicate soundscapes. A view on UmeDuo's journey so far: musically, geographically, and aesthetically. UmeDuo is Karolina Öhman (cello) and Erika Öhman (percussion). Compositions by: André Chini, Jenny Hettne, Ricardo Eizirik, Esaias Järnegard, Leilei Tian, Ivo Nilsson, and Farangis Nurulla-Khoja.
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NEOS 11919-20CD
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Dániel Péter Biró's Mishpatim (Laws) is a concert-length work in six parts, scored for voice, chamber ensemble, percussion, and electronics, including computer-activated, acoustic "ghost-instruments" that appear to play themselves. Many of Biró's haunting works are based on texts from the Hebrew Bible. Mishpatim derives its title from Chapters 21-24 of the book of Exodus, in which Moses relays God's laws to the Israelites. Dániel Péter Biró was born in 1969. He studied in the U.S., Hungary, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, and Israel. Today he is Associate Professor at the Grieg Academy, University of Bergen in Norway. He was awarded many times. His compositions are performed around the world.
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