Kronung (Coronation)

Our focus with the CD "Coronation" is not on blue blood or kingly power. In processes that are positively vegetal, the music on this CD sends up it's shoots and produces blossoms like crowns. "(co)ro (na)", by Vykintas Baltakas, springs from a cascade of motivic branchings, it's roots in a cycle of works named after the alchemical Ouroboros, a snake that swallows it's own tail. It's "dragon's blood," so the legends say, is cinnabar red - like the hue that shines in "cinnabar" by Rebecca Saunders. Magnus Lindberg's "Joy" expresses itself through it's profligacy with spectral harmonies and the resonant snapping of the strings of a demolished piano. Iannis Xenakis creates sieves that proliferate until they transform into archaic dances, refulgent with the brass tones characteristic of so many musical moments: This is the sound that crowns the affair.