Blue Veil

Drury: pno/Takagi: pno/Deal:
John Luther Adams: Red Arc/Blue Veil
Genre: Classical

Track Listings (4) - Disc #1
1. Dark Waves, for 2 pianos & electronics
2. Among Red Mountains, for piano
3. Qilyuan, for 4 bass drums (or bass drum with digital delay)
4. Red Arc/Blue Veil, for piano, mallet percussion & processed sounds

CD Details

All Artists: Drury: pno/Takagi: pno/Deal:
Title: John Luther Adams: Red Arc/Blue Veil
Members Wishing: 6
Total Copies: 0
Label: Cold Blue Label
Original Release Date: 1/1/2007
Re-Release Date: 11/13/2007
Genre: Classical
Styles: Chamber Music, Historical Periods, Classical (c.1770-1830)
Number of Discs: 1
SwapaCD Credits: 1
UPC: 800413002628

Synopsis

Album Description

"Amazingly beautiful, peaceful, and reflective - shimmering like the unusual landscape in which this composer resides." - Chamber Music Magazine"A distinctive creative voice....a body of work that bespeaks vast space, purity, and abstraction of experience, rigorous process, and an unobtrusive mysticism." - Robert Carl - FanfareThis CD contains four of Adams's beautifully shimmering, textually rich compositions for various combinations of one or two pianos and various percussion instruments. Red Arc/Blue Veil features performances by noted pianist/conductor, new music champion Stephen Drury, who is on the faculty of the New England Conservatory and has recorded for Tzadik, New Albion, Mode and more.

CD Reviews

Some of the most beautiful and sublime sounds imaginable

Aquarius Records | San Francisco | 03/11/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"We've always loved the blissful and beautiful work of John Luther Adams, one of the great American modern composers. His album In White Silence is a bonafide all time AQ favorite but truth is, Adams has plenty of other records that are equally worthy of our attention. Red Arc / Blue Veil blew us away the first time we heard it as it shows a much more intense side to the Alaskan composer then we were accustomed to. Yes, it's still stunningly crisp and beautiful, but there is a velocity and urgency to this work that struck us immediately. In some ways this is the darkest recording we've heard from Adams, yet within this music, there is still a shining mystical light beaming so brightly. Whether it's the dueling pianos in "Dark Waves" or the monumental bass drums pounding to the heavens in "Qilyuan" or the majestic vibes and keys that close out the record on the title track "Red Arc/Blue Veil", Adams has created a piece of music that demonstrates again that as a supposedly "academic" or "modern classical" composer, he's capable of creating some of the most beautiful and sublime sounds imaginable, regardless of genre."