Coming to Métier: Music for Quarter-Tone Accordion

The Métier New-Music label of Divine Art Recordings Group is to issue an album of music for a unique and amazing instrument! Basque accordionist Lore Amenabar Larrañaga has signed to the label for her debut album which will comprise eight works for the Quarter-Tone Accordion. She explains the concept:

“I am engaged in a detailed investigation of a self-designed quarter-tone accordion as well as exploring its technical and sonic boundaries through the commissioning of a new body of collaborative works. These works have been written between 2020 and 2022, during my PhD studies at the Royal Academy of Music.
The design of my instrument allows the production of quarter tones in both the right and left-hand manuals. The range and timbral possibilities of this instrument are expanded through the use of fifteen registers on the right manual and seven on the left manual, resulting in a sounding range of E-2 to B-quarter-sharp-6 in the right hand and E-1 to D-quarter-sharp-6 in the left. From Electra Perivolaris to Christopher Fox, Michael Finnissy to Mioko Yokoyama, this album will accommodate diverse textures, voices, and ideas; all gravitating around the Quarter-Tone Accordion”.

Lore Amenabar Larrañaga completed both her Bachelor’s and Master’s studies at the Sibelius Academy, University of the Arts Helsinki, with Prof Matti Rantanen, Dr Mika Väyrynen and Dr Veli Kujala, having graduated with first-class honours. At present, she is pursuing a PhD at the Royal Academy of Music in London and is generously supported by ‘La Caixa Foundation’. An accomplished performer across styles – from folk music to the classical canon – Lore is especially passionate about artistic collaboration and performing new music. In addition to the premières of the featured works in this album, she has recently given the first performances of ‘She Keeps Walking Over Paper’ by Claudia Molitor (London 2020) and ‘Unbroken’ by Howard Skempton (London 2021), and while studying in Helsinki premièred ‘Finnish Suite’ by Matti Murto (Ikaalinen 2017). Having won the 2018 edition of ‘Juventudes Musicales de España’, she gave a series of nine solo concerts as part of a Spanish tour.

Recording dates: Autumn 2022 – Spring 2023 (London)
Release date: Summer 2023 (exact date to be confirmed)