Album Notes

In their debut recording, Verso creates the first ever panflute and guitar CD with completely original repertoire. Within these world premiere recordings, seven composers have charted new pathways for this unique combination. Matthijs Koene and Stefan Gerritsen don’t just represent melody and harmony; they are two virtuosos who bring defining interpretation to the works. The listening experience is diverse: contemporary classical is interwoven throughout with shades of world music, jazz, pop and dance.

Here you have a CD with the most striking works out of more than thirty compositions that have been composed for us up to the year 2006. The quality of the works as well as the importance they have had in the history of our duo, were the criteria for out selection. Apart from this, we limited ourselves to purely acoustic music (another CD will be devoted to works with live electronics).

From the very first pieces by David Helich and Chiel Meijering, up to the most recent works on this CD, for example Ibeyi by Louis Aguire, it is remarkable how different they all are! It makes a strong case, both for the composers and for this new combination of instruments, that so many different musical worlds can be brought to life.

We are glad to be able to redeem the panflute from its commercial little corner of popular sentiment with these3 colourful pieces. Here you can hear that the panflute needs not limit itself to one musical language.

'Lifebirds' and 'White Men Can Jump' were commissioned by the Amsterdams Fonds voor de Kunst