Mari’s 飯島真理

BIS present a disc of works by the Japanese composer Mari Takano, composed between 2003 and 2009. The four duos and trios that share the title LigAlien are all results of the idea of what would it be like to implant ‘alien’ music into one of Ligeti’s works. Interspersing the four 'LigAliens' are two solo pieces, Jungibility for piano and Full Moon for violin and electronics, which also embrace a wealth of ideas both musical and otherwise from Duke Ellington, Omar Sosa and Stockhausen (Jungibility) and Björk, Pina Bausch and Miles Davis (Full Moon).

The music on this disc combines the violin with signal processing, interactive computer, pre-recorded sound, and aGuitarBot- a robotic guitar simulator. Charles Amirkhanian writes that "Kimura's virtuosity is channeled in the service of extending the long and honored tradition of solo violin music. Kimura leaves no doubt: The force is with her."

Margaret Brouwer’s music has for decades been admired for “inhabiting its own peculiarly bewitching harmonic world”(The New York Times). These recently composed pieces reflect her musical representations of particular events: Rhapsodic Sonata charts an internal journey of love, whereas Declaration is a set of songs that addresses ideas of violence and war. Composed at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, I Cry – Summer 2020outlines a process of isolation and restriction. All Lines are Still Busy is a satirical monologue that should intrigue anyone who has been placed “on hold “during a telephone call.

In the early part of his musical career, before he became one of the most revered conductors of his time, Bruno Walter saw himself as a conductor-composer much like his friend and rôle model, Gustav Mahler. His large-scale Piano Quintet, couched in the late-Romantic idiom, is a powerful expression of Walter’s consummate compositional skill. The Violin Sonata in A major, Walter’s last chamber work, offers a study in expressive contrasts, its unsettled moods reflective of the time in which it was written.

The ancient shamanistic musical traditions of the Sami of northern Scandinavia are given a modern twist by vocalist and drummer Mari Boine (Persen). Although her highly rhythmic songs are rooted in the wordless, yodeling-like vocal style of yoik (or joik), Boine's arrangements incorporate influences of jazz, rock, and other ethnic elements.