Little Imber

Georgian composer, Giya Kancheli's tenth album on ECM New Series offers two recent large-scale choral works with unconventional instrumental forces. These two highly compelling new compositions mirror impressions of both Western and Georgian sacred music without actually alluding to religion itself. Written in 2003 and 2005 respectively, both Little Imber and Amao Omi are melancholic musings about the absurdity of war in conjunction with the power of beauty. Little Imber was commissioned for a festival in the deserted village of Imber - a former Military installation on England's Salisbury Plain and is the first site-specific work in Kancheli's oeuvre, whilst Amao Omi (the title translates as "Senseless war") was commissioned by the Nederlands Kamerkoor - a moving sound tapestry, underpinned by the subtle and supple playing of the Rascher Saxophone Quartet.