Album Notes

Stereo Review:
"Four works... by one of the best and most original of post-minimalist composers."

Wired:
"Paul Dresher is perhaps the best of the postminimalist composers who learned at the altar of Reich, Riley, and Glass... A gorgeous gem."


Paul Dresher's music compellingly draws from a broad spectrum of sources, including contemporary classical music, rock, minimalism, and his years of study of the classical musics of India, Africa, and Indonesia.

This CD presents the first recording of one of Dresher's strongest and most engaging works. Commissioned and premiered by the Kronos Quartet, Casa Vecchia (performed here by Vienna's Ensemble 9) offers a striking, convincing blend of the best elements of minimalism within an evolving, cohesive structure. The transcendental flow – building to a euphoric climax – of Casa Vecchia "recalls the contemplative paths of Górecki and Pärt" (John Diliberto).

The CD opens with the hypnotic Underground, which originally appeared on Starkland's compilation CD, From A to Z. "Atmospheric and otherworldly" (CMJ), it is perhaps Dresher's most ambient work.

The infectious Mirrors, performed by Bang on a Can's Robert Black, deftly generates, weaves, and layers electronically processed materials within a virtuosic, real-time performance. Other Fire, drawing on location recordings Dresher made in Southeast Asia, skillfully processes and combines the environmental sounds into an evocative soundscape.

Classical Pulse! concludes that this is "some of the most hypnotic music to come from his generation of renegade composers...4 STARS"