Midnigth And Dawn: Elementals

Liza Lim’s debut on KAIROS includes her monumental new work Extinction Events and Dawn Chorus, which reflects her ongoing artistic reflection of the connection between humans and nature. “When one walks through country with a custodian of the land, one begins to see that every stone, every plant, every inch of earth is named and contains within it whole histories and liturgies of people and ancestors.” (Lim) Liza Lim (born 30 August 1966) is an Australian composer. Lim writes concert music (chamber and orchestral works) as well as music theatre and has collaborated with artists on a number of installation and video projects. Her work reflects her interests in Asian ritual culture, the aesthetics of Aboriginal art and shows the influence of non-Western music performance practice.

Nonesuch Records releases its second album from Pulitzer Prize–winning composer Caroline Shaw, Narrow Sea, on January 22, 2021. The title piece was written for Sō Percussion, Dawn Upshaw, and Gilbert Kalish in 2017; they perform it on this recording as well. Narrow Sea comprises five parts, each a new setting of a text from The Sacred Harp nineteenth century collection of shape-note hymns. A composition Shaw wrote for Sō Percussion in 2012, Taxidermy, also is on the album.

One of Rabih Abou-Khalil's earlier albums, Between Dusk and Dawn features stellar sidemen such as master percussionist Glen Velez and jazz saxophonist Charlie Mariano. In places it exhibits that ecstatic melding of jazz and Arabic music that was later perfected on Blue Camel. But in other places it gives us long patches of noodling and less-then-engaging playfulness. An example of the former would be the first track, "Dusk." At just over 14 minutes, more than half of this piece is devoted to a shapeless and tiresome prelude for percussion and oud (Arabic lute). An example of the latter is the aptly named "The Thing That Came Out of the Swamp," which features everything but the kitchen sink, including Glen Velez's overtone singing, in a fantasy that sounds like Stravinsky crossed with Steve Reich…

Cave Of Clear Light is a 3CD Anthology that tells the story of the Underground years of the Pye record label and its Progressive imprint Dawn Records. Often unfairly seen as a poor relation to the Progressive and Underground releases by major labels such as Decca, Harvest, Vertigo, Island and United Artists, Pye Records also released many albums and singles by artists who were at the forefront of the Underground rock explosion of the late 1960 s and early 1970 s. Cave Of Clear Light re-appraises the labels output and features tracks by artists such as Donovan, Status Quo, Man, Atomic Rooster and Fruupp, also including many rare tracks by highly collectable artists such as Jonesy, David Mcwilliams, Stray, Paul Brett's Sage, Fire, Titus Groan, Demon Fuzz, Noir, Comus, Gravy Train, Writing On The Wall and many more…