It's not easy in this eclectic age to juxtapose musical items that have never been in proximity before, but Canada's Gryphon Trio and soprano Patricia O'Callaghan manage to do so on this recording, which proclaims itself unlike any previous chamber music album. Even better than that, it's pretty much unlike any previous crossover album, although it has ancestors in the world of classical cabaret music where O'Callaghan has spent some of her time. The novel factor here is the presence of pieces from the nocturnal sides of ...
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It's not easy in this eclectic age to juxtapose musical items that have never been in proximity before, but Canada's Gryphon Trio and soprano Patricia O'Callaghan manage to do so on this recording, which proclaims itself unlike any previous chamber music album. Even better than that, it's pretty much unlike any previous crossover album, although it has ancestors in the world of classical cabaret music where O'Callaghan has spent some of her time. The novel factor here is the presence of pieces from the nocturnal sides of the repertoires of modern rock composers Nick Drake, Laurie Anderson, Los Lobos, and Elvis Costello, along with Gypsy's Wife by the ubiquitous Leonard Cohen. Most of the rest (there are a couple of French-language songs) consists of Latin American songs, with Astor Piazzolla represented by a piece from the opera María de Buenos Aires. The songs in both languages range from simple traditional material to highly literary conceptions but are linked by the themes indicated by the album's...
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