Album Notes

Meridian's 8th album for Channel Classics features incredible music by David Sanford, Nick Didkovsky and Elliott Sharp. This CD is packed with the things that Meridian does best: complicated, virtuosic, high-energy, bizarre versions of music that is more informed by the vernacular than the conservatory.

"On this disc, we present three commissioned pieces, each of which we hope will become a major contribution to the literature. For a long time, we have wanted to design concert programs with just a few large scale works, each of which developed its ideas fully. Now the repertoire is growing, and we are on the brink of something new. All three of these pieces draw on various styles of music available to today's listener, from free improvisation in a densely notated art-rock setting to evocations of African vocal polyphony, from oblique references to 1970's television themes to the rhythms and intonations of a sermonizing preacher. Yet each piece creates its own unique style and language. We recorded this CD in the Doopsgezinde Kerk in the town square of Deventer, Holland, in a large pedestrian plaza referred to locally as Brink."