Album Notes

Santa Barbara Independent: “A funny, rich, and meaningful expression of this great American squeezeboxer’s brilliance.”

All-Music Guide: “Another excellent album.”

This Guy Klucevsek recording covers widely varying terrain, from the highly emotional to the bizarrely witty. The CD presents the premiere recording of the profoundly intense Hymn from Pulitzer winner Aaron Jay Kernis. He considers this work, based on his haunting memories of visits to concentration camps, as one of “a series of works which have taken a central position in my oeuvre.”

Other deeply personal works are Somei Satoh’s spiritually reflective Recitative (written after his stepfather’s death) and Jerome Kitzke’s boisterous Breath and Bone (a elegy for a good friend).

Klucevsek’s Burt Bacharach arrangements move from the delightfully ridiculous to the sublimely ethereal in just a few short minutes.

The performer writes that Lars Hollmer’s piece has “one of the most beautiful melodies I have ever heard,” while Klucevsek’s own Three of a Kind offer what Starkland feels are possibly his most austerely gorgeous works yet.

Add in Stephen Montague’s virtuousic work and Lois V Vierk’s energetic piece (also both premiere recordings) and the result is a powerful, highly varied recording.

Starkland’s previous Klucevsek CD (Transylvanian Softwear) won a “Recording of Special Merit” from Stereo Review.