American Record Guide

It has been only a few months since this marvelous woodwind orchestra was last heard from (March/April 2024: 150). That album took 10 years to move from recording sessions to release. This one has followed a more typical timeline. 5 new works are heard in their first recordings. All tell a story or are about something. My favorite is Turkish-American composer Kamran Ince’s haunting Domes (1993), inspired by the skyline of Rome. Harmonies are doleful, timbres hushed, phrases very brief, chord progressions enigmatic.

—Barry Kilpatrick