Bridget Kibbey & Dawn Upshaw – Crossing the Ocean (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 47:22 minutes | 384 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © PentaTone
Harpist Bridget Kibbey makes her Pentatone debut with Crossing the Ocean. Via virtuosic soundscapes to driving grooves, Kibbey takes the concert harp to uncharted territory in precision, sound, and verve, by merging traditional music with the contemporary via six newly-commissioned works she has curated, by an international set of composers: Kati Agócs, Kinan Azmeh, David Bruce, Avner Dorman, Paquito d’Rivera, and DuYun. Solo harp, with special guest Soprano Dawn Upshaw, who makes her Pentatone debut. Kibbey poses “…What is the rock from which you’re cut, and how does it resonate within your current surroundings? Through this question, each composer has opened a world in which I swim, as we dialogue about their origins and effects on their writing today. This process has richly broadened my perspective on the harp and the world, as we synthesize the past with the present. My musical neighbors – composers and performers – continue to bless me in countless ways, by broadening my perspective on the harp and the world. This record is my first ‘love letter’ to these communities and friends.”
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Dawn Upshaw – Caroline Shaw: Narrow Sea (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 28:25 minutes | 517 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Nonesuch
Narrow Sea was written for Sō Percussion, Dawn Upshaw, and Gil Kalish in 2017. The piece combines my previous explorations of folk song with a sonic universe that includes ceramic bowls, humming, a piano played like a dulcimer by five people at once, and flower pots (which are the central focus of Taxidermy – my first piece for So Percussion, written in 2012). Gil Kalish’s piano serves as a grounding force, or a familiar memory, that keeps reappearing amid the different textures introduced by Sō Percussion. And Dawn Upshaw’s voice is a brilliant instrument that brings the words to life with warmth and directness.
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