Fitkin

Originally from Manchester, the Apollo Saxophone Quartet is a classic ensemble with a solid sound and fabulous technology. They play a wide repertoire of music from major contemporary composers to cross-overs to jazz and far beyond. In addition to composers such as Richard Rodney Bennett, Michael Nyman, Graham Fitkin & Michael Torke, they have also collaborated with Django Bates, Kenny Wheeler, Chick Corea, Iain Ballamy & Julian Arguelles. On their latest CD "Perspectives," they recorded music with, among others, jazz legend Bob Mintzer. In their 30-year history, the quartet has won many prizes such as the Erasmus Concours (NL), Tokyo International Chamber Music Competition, Royal OverSeas League and Tunnell Trust. The group tours around the world and met the Dutch jazz saxophone quartet Artvark in South Africa.

Born in 1953, Yoshihiro Kanno studied at the Tokyo University of Fine Arts and Music and is currently a professor at Waseda University's Department of Intermedia Arts and Science. In his compositions he bases himself on three idioms: Western instrumental music, Japanese traditional instruments, and computer music. Combining these various elements freely, he creates scores for Japanese instruments and computer as well as for Western and Japanese instruments, such as the recent work Himiko – Memories of the Sun Goddess which fuses Western classical music and Japanese traditional music with Kabuki and Japanese classical dance. The pianist Noriko Ogawa, acclaimed for a wide-ranging discography comprising music by composers from Mozart and Debussy to Takemitsu and Graham Fitkin, is a champion of Kanno's music and has commissioned three of the works on the present disc, the so-called 'Particle of Piano' series. In each work, the pianist is required also to create sounds on a Japanese instrument, respectively a small iron wind chime, a pair of metal chopsticks made of the same steel as the fabled samurai swords, and a set of metal bells used in Kabuki performances. All three of these possess particular acoustical traits which affect how their sounds interact with that of the piano.

Will Gregory Moog Ensemble announce their debut album, Heat Ray, an album inspired by the work of Archimedes, the Greek mathematician who lived and worked in the third century BC. The album - recorded by the ensemble on analogue synthesizer, alongside the BBC National Orchestra of Wales.