RELEASES OCTOBER 16, 2023
“… a haunting and subtly powerful performance …”
“… profoundly expressive …”
– interlude
“… basking in the wave-like resonances …”
– textura
“… beautifully lyrical…”
– Harmonious World
“stillness and movement, simplicity and complexity, light and darkness”
– No Dead Guys
“… La musique miroite, danse dans une joie extatique, frémissante au bord du silence …” (“… The music shimmers, dances in ecstatic joy, quivering on the edge of silence …”) – Inactuelles, musiques singulières
“… textually shimmering and harmonically ravishing …”
– Gramophone
“… a powerful emotional experience…”
– New Music Buff
“… haunting settings mesmerize…”
– textura
“… crystalline music …”
– Fanfare
“… hypnotic …”
– Spellbinding Music
Collection 1001 Notes presents Quiet Rhythms Book I, a new album that brings together American composer William Susman and French pianist Nicolas Horvath.
Susman writes, “In the late hours of the night, I composed Quiet Rhythms touching on a reservoir of moods and ideas. I wrote Book I of this four book piano series in 2010. The music was intended for me to perform in public and I gave several performances over the next few years while continuing to compose three more books.”
Quiet Rhythms Book I includes 11 solo pieces for piano. Each piece has two sections: a prologue followed an action. The actions, which were composed first, are lively syncopated pieces. The prologues, offer a preview, a kind of “smoothed-out” version of the action.
Nicolas Horvath’s recording presents the entirety of Book I, collected here for the first time in a single album. Many of the tracks are premiere recordings.
Nicolas Horvath has become noted for organizing concerts of unusual length, sometimes lasting over twelve hours, such as the performance of the complete piano music of Erik Satie at the Paris Philharmonie Boulez Hall before a cumulative audience of 14,000 people, and the complete piano music of Philip Glass. In October 2015, he gave the closing day concert in the Estonia Gallery at the Expo World Exhibition in Milan with a program of music by Jaan Rääts. In 2019, he was selected by Philip Glass himself to perform during the composer’s Philip Glass & Friends concert at the Paris Philharmonie.
Quiet Rhythms Book I was recorded in the France at La Fabrique des Rêves, June 8 – 14, 2020, Misy-sur-Yonne.
RELEASES JANUARY 20, 2021
A Quiet Madness has been described as "hypnotic, playful, and even at moments celestial," (textura) "healing balm for the anxious soul," (EarRelevant) "...grace and tranquility...," (Sharps and Flatirons), "...joyously lyrical..." (New Music Buff) and, "…mesmerising…an astute and contemporary sonic expression of the 'quiet madness' playing out on 24-hour news TV channels or as an infinite scroll on our smartphone screens." (Spellbinding Music)
Belarca Records presents A Quiet Madness, a new album by American composer William Susman, with violinist Karen Bentley Pollick, pianist Francesco Di Fiore, flutist Patricia Zuber and Bayan accordionist Stas Venglevski.
A Quiet Madness immerses the listener in a peculiarly specific and undeniably beautiful sound world that is both absorbing and thought-provoking.
The album brings together premiere recordings of recent solo and duo pieces composed from 2006 to 2013, including Aria for violin and piano, Quiet Rhythms nos. 1, 5 and 7 for piano, Seven Scenes for Four Flutes, and Zydeco Madness for Bayan accordion.
AllMusic calls William Susman an exemplar of “the next developments in the sphere . . . [of] minimalism,” and textura describes him as “not averse to letting his affection for Afro-Cuban, jazz, and other forms seep into his creative output.” His music has earned praise from The New York Times for being “vivid, turbulent, and rich-textured,” from Gramophone as “texturally shimmering and harmonically ravishing,” and from Fanfare for being “crystalline . . . and gloriously lyrical.”
Soloists include Karen Bentley Pollick one of America’s foremost contemporary violinists, award-winning Sicilian pianist/composer Francesco Di Fiore, leading New York City-based flutist Patricia Zuber, and two-time first prize winner of the Bayan Competition in the Republic of Moldova, Stas Venglevski.
A Quiet Madness was recorded in the US on both coasts and in the Midwest, as well as Sicily including Belmont, California, New York City, Milwaukee, Wisconsin and, Catania, Italy.
Collision Point has been described as “crystalline, quick-witted music guided as much by emotional change as rhythmic and harmonic modulations...” (Fanfare Magazine), "entrancing . . . harmonious and vibrant" (textura) and, "whirling and hipnotic...a versatile instrumentation allows for an infinite range of colours, dynamics and textures, the entire William Susman canon is ultimately rhythmic, down to a mathematical precision." (Spellbinding Music)
Collision Point features music inspired by love, loss, redemption, and the writings of Allen Ginsberg, Colum McCann and Francis Bacon.
The album brings together four premiere recordings including two pieces for the full ensemble: Camille (2010), which was written for the ensemble, and The Starry Dynamo (1994), as well as a piano trio, Clouds and Flames (2010) and a duo, Motions of Return (1996) for flute and piano.
Susman’s music is described by AllMusic as "the next developments in the sphere (of) minimalism,” and has earned praise from The New York Times for being “vivid, turbulent, and rich-textured,” from Gramophone as “texturally shimmering and harmonically ravishing,” and from textura as “distinctly American."
Founded in 2000, Piccola Accademia degli Specchi (Little Academy of Mirrors) is a Rome-based ensemble that specializes in the performance of contemporary classical music. They are ensemble-in-residence at Conservatorio di Musica Santa Cecilia in Rome and perform throughout Europe.
Piccola Accademia degli Specchi’s unique instrumentation of flute, saxophone, violin, cello, and piano four-hands is at once similar to and different from the common Pierrot ensemble, providing a singular sound and groove. American Record Guide has called Piccola Accademia degli Specchi “a hip little secret."
Collision Point was recorded in Rome, Italy by engineer Enrico Furzi and mixed in New York City by Grammy award-winning engineer John Kilgore.
Renown French pianist Vanessa Wagner (Victoire de la Musique) releases a mesmerizing album of solo piano pieces called INLAND on the acclaimed label Inifné.
Quiet Rhythms No. 9 in addition to music by Moondog, Emilie Levienaise-Farrouch, Bryce Dessner, Philip Glass, William Susman, Meredith Monk, Michael Nyman, Hans Otte, Nico Muhly, Gavin Bryars, Wim Mertens, Pēteris Vasks.
Belarca Records presents Blackbird Redux, a new duo album by New York-based artists Patricia Zuber, flute and Greg Zuber, marimba. Blackbird Redux is a program of 20th and 21st century music from New Zealand, France, the US, and Brazil.
Music on the album is composed by Gareth Farr, Olivier Messiaen, William Susman and Heitor Villa-Lobos with arrangements of the Messiaen and Villa-Lobos by Greg Zuber.
Zefir Records presents Pianosequenza, a new solo album by pianist and composer Francesco Di Fiore. The album includes piano music from the films The Truman Show (P. Glass), The Hours (P. Glass), Amélie (Y. Tiersen), The Piano (M. Nyman), At Precisely Six O'Clock (F. Di Fiore), When Medicine Got It Wrong (W. Susman).
"A flawless gem... Superlative film scores of rare beauty and consummate aesthetic discretion." -Folk & Acoustic Music Exchange
Grammy-nominated cellist Joan Jeanrenaud performs on these film scores seen on PBS, at over 25 film festivals world-wide, museums in New York, San Francisco, The National Gallery of Art, and WINNER of the Tribeca Film Festival.
• When Medicine Got it Wrong (2009)
• Balancing Acts: A Jewish Theater in the Soviet Union (2008)
• Native New Yorker (2006)
“...supernatural…sumptuous...trance-inducing…” -Stage and Cinema
“…an atmosphere that amplifies the wonder, beauty and melancholy of the film's story and imagery. .. richly varied in orchestration and mood” - All Music Guide
The score features performances by Grammy-nominated cellist Joan Jeanrenaud and Tibetan Vocalist Tsering Wangmo. Haunting and lyrical sounds of Asian and Western Music merge to set the tone for a spiritual and mystical journey about an ancient healing tradition in danger of extinction.
"William Susman's Marimba Montuño creates a brightly colored mosaic with unpredictably juxtaposed snippets of minimalist-sounding patterns." - All Music Guide
Multi-percussionist Joseph Gramley (Silk Road Project) performs world-inspired works by: Philip Glass (premiere recording), William Susman (premiere recording), Charles Griffin (premiere recording), Kakraba Lobi, Keiko Abe and Fernando Sor.
" ...the score reveals considerable sophistication in its composition. ...the sound quality is immaculate -- full and vivid." - All Music Guide
Award-winning contemporary classical film score, featuring Grammy-nominated cellist Joan Jeanrenaud. Evokes a powerful, haunting and vivid sound scape of life and conflict in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
