Customer Reviews

Cold Water, Dry Stone: New Music With Traditional Roots

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I feel touched on a deeper level each time I listen to these pieces. Layer upon layer of cascading rhythms, melodic sighs and wails, and highly structured pieces which still manage to sound improvisational and constantly surprise -- these communicate to me even without the deeply metaphorical context Chambers lays behind each piece.
These works evoke the grit, messiness, the physical effort, and the simple beauty of musicians playing their hearts out, and elevates that sound to the highest level of "classical" music.
Evan Chambers is truly a master composer and the ensemble Quorum performs brilliantly and with unparalleled raw virtuosity. "Fire Hose Reel," is an amazing showcase of the fiddle and the piano.
I hope to hear more soon!

This ensemble that calls itself Quorum represents an amazing collection of world class players. Jennifer Goltz has a lovely singing voice, and the work written for her is gentle and poignant. Evan Chambers explores the world of traditional music, in which he was raised, and places it within a blurred realm of concert art music and folk tradition. Clearly music intended to be played by virtuoso concert artists, the music can be listened to on multiple levels and by a widespread audience. The imagery of each work is breathtaking, and Chambers' soundworld is like non I have heard before. The last work Come Down Heavy! is a stunning showpiece and provides a chamber work for alto saxophone, violin and piano that classical music dare not ignore. Buy this disc, you will not regret it!

The 21st century has hope! Evan Chambers takes the last 70 years of aimless wandering experimentation and crafts it into a language worth hearing.. a language that now truly communicates.