Gideon Wolf – Year Zero

Year Zero is Gideon Wolf’s 4th album since 2012. It’s a solo album, in a way, but it could not have come to life without the contributions of a small ensemble of artists that played improvisations or ‘incoherent and strange phrases/notes’ that were later reassembled into the resulting pieces.

Working the other way around – composing pieces from instantaneous improvisations and a collection of short phrases – has given this music a refreshing element of surprise.
And it’s exactly that element that makes this album stand out among many others.

Jeffrey Roden – Threads Of A Prayer, Volume 1

Jeffrey Roden’s contemporary classical music for solo piano and string ensemble leaves enough room for many moments of silence.

In this unhurried meditative focus, the link to the work of Arvo Pärt and possibly Erik Satie, Morton Feldman and, to lesser extent, John Cage is obvious.

It’s Jeffrey Roden’s sole purpose to take the listener to “the other place: a place within oneself where there is a deeper awareness of many things both emotional and spiritual.”