Mathias Reumert receiving the P2 award for Roger Reynolds Wind Concertos
Danish Radio has announced the 2024 P2 “De 5 bedste” Prize for their Five Best Albums of the Year, and we are thrilled to share that Ekkozone‘s Roger Reynolds Wind Concertos album with the Esbjerg Ensemble, Jacqueline Leclair, Kerstin Thiele, and Mathias Reumert was selected as one of the winning albums!
Roger Reynolds: Wind Concertos
In their announcement for the prize, the P2 jury announced:
“It is rare to come across an album that contains music from an international living cult composer that is so expertly played by one of Denmark’s regular chamber music ensembles. Roger Reynolds writes unique music with his own identity, and the Esbjerg Ensemble captures it in performances that feel ‘marinated’ in the composer’s style. Incredibly good sound, impressive performances from the ensemble’s own soloists, and an album we have been drawn back to again and again during the judging period.”
Listen to excerpts and an interview with Mathias Reumert on DR P2:
Divine Art Recordings Group continues its growth and breadth of repertoire with the introduction of the Ekkozone label – with the first two releases set for November:
“ARGUMENTA” – works by Philippe Manoury and Maurice Ravel, performed by percussionists Mathias Reumert and Anders Elten
“ORULA” – works for mixed ensemble by Louis Franz Aguirre
Ekkozone was, until recently, the name of the acclaimed contemporary ensemble run by Danish percussionist/conductor Mathias Reumert. Last year, however, the company shifted status. As Mr. Reumert states:
“In late 2022 I came to realize that Ekkozone had transitioned into something more accurately described as a production house / curating agency. Our focus had shifted from playing concerts towards curating and producing. That’s when I decided to turn Ekkozone into a record label. The partnership between Ekkozone Records and Divine Art Recordings Group makes sense from so many angles. Most importantly, perhaps, is a shared sense of responsibility to be ambassadors of musical authenticity”.
The release from Ekkozone Records, “Argumenta”— works by Philippe Manoury and Maurice Ravel, has already received high accolades in magazines such as Klassisk and Fanfare. In his liner notes for the album, Philippe Manoury reflects on his music for percussion and offers insight into his new compositions, ‘Argumenta’ and ‘Suspension-Effondrements’, which are featured here in world premiere recordings. This album is being relaunched with full worldwide CD and digital distribution by Divine Art in November.
November also marks the release of the album “Orula”, a journey into the world of exiled Cuban composer, Louis Franz Aguirre. “This music has the power of an exorcism, brutal and impenetrable”, notes Dr. Iván César Morales Flores in a statement on the upcoming release. “His music is a strange marriage of modernism with the mysteries of the Afro-Cuban Santería religion. Extreme sonorities, irascible micro-tonal melodic designs, frantic sound blocks, complex micro-rhythmic relationships and a wide range of unconventional timbral effects, are some of the components that articulate the exuberant language of Aguirre’s work”. This album prepares the way for the first 2024 Ekkozone release – a programme of Aguirre’s music for Percussion Sextet (Ekkozone 2)
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