Quintets [Single, Dual Disc]

Arlekin Moscow String Quartet | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (April 11, 2008)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Single, Dual Disc
• Label: Mnemonic Records
• ASIN: B0016G192A
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #702,424 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Prelude

2. Incantations

3. La Promenade

4. Distance

5. Il Lago

6. Returning

7. L'Enfant

8. Remember

Editorial Reviews

Review

MIX MAGZINE FEATURED COOL SPINS (May 2008)-By Blair Jackson Quintets is an ambitious and very well-achieved CD of instrumental compositions rooted in classical music, but also containing jazz and pop ideas: There are flowing, lyrical pieces that have the vibe of some of the best early Windham Hill artists (Will Ackerman, Liz Story, Shadowfax), while other moments bring to mind some of my favorite musicians from the first years of ECM records. The title Quintets is slightly misleading, because in each case the pieces feature the (Russian) Arlekin String Quartet, one of four different pianists, and then a soloist of some sort on top of the quintet, sometimes multitracked—these include sax player Branford Marsalis, Oregon’s Paul McCandless on oboe, David Grisman Quintet flautist Matt Eakle, trumpeter George Shaw, and vocalists Sussan Deyhim and Claudia Villela.

The eight compositions on the CD are mostly impressionistic flights that combine some sort of formal structure with room for improvisation from the soloists. Bright melodies and assertive rhythms cross each other in an elegant dance, weaving a rich and colorful sonic tapestry. There is beauty and joy and tenderness in this music, but also uncertainty, reflection and just enough hints of darkness to lend a bit of edge to the proceedings. I like the way “Returning,” for example, moves in one sonorous direction for its first half, and then takes an unusual turn mid-piece. That “song,” featuring the wonderful, layered, Enya-like vocal musings of Claudia Villela, is perhaps my favorite, though I also really like the tonal chiaroscuro and Branford Marsalis’ inventions on “Incantations,” and the always-spirited Paul McCandless on “Distance.” But it’s all good stuff—deeper and more challenging than it might at first appear from its inarguably pretty surface.

(excerpt) --Mix Magazine Cool Spins (May 2008)

Review

It's not often that you hear the likes of Branford Marsalis or Jeff Lorber jamming to the accompaniment of Russian string players in surround sound, no less but composer Paul James de Benedictis's sublime new album, Quintets (Mnemonic, 2008), offers just such a musical fusion.The idea behind Quintets which de Benedictis recorded over a period of ten years using a variety of analog and digital gear was to write chamber-music parts for string quartet and create a looser framework for soloists to interpret and improvise their parts. I chose the musicians first, he says. I started writing parts for each person after I got their yes. --Electronic Musician (September 2008)

See all Editorial Reviews