APERIO - MUSIC OF THE AMERICAS

• Thomas Osborne: Like Still Water (excerpt)

“[The Aperio Ensemble] is internationally recognized for featuring emerging artists prominently in their repertoire alongside known masters of New World music. Their virtuosity and keen awareness of the many demands of each piece are skillfully displayed... Throughout, Osbourne skillfully captures and makes unmistakable references to water through his skillful and imaginative use of various techniques.”

Kim McCormick, PanPipes [Autumn 2017]

“[Like Still Water] is an ethereal, expansive musical space with sparse harmonies and sharp orchestration. Things gradually shift between a floating texture and a more active, bouncing one, but always with cool extended chords and a smooth, calm surface... Dreams of Sky and Sea begins in a similar mode, but adds a soprano voice singing tastefully set poems by Kim Sowol... Osborne is able to move easily from the atmospheric to the almost operatic, giving his longer works more contrast and contour... This is a fine collection of recordings that have sparked my interest in more of Osborne’s work.”

Adams, American Record Guide [January/February 2017]

“exquisitely played and sung... the works are united by the alchemical means Osborne brings to combining words, meaning and sounds in short poems and intimate lyrics concerned with matters of the heart...”

Laurence Vittes, Gramophone [February 2017]

“Osborne’s style is one of fairly straightforward modernity... He handles the rhythms of the poetry successfully in an essentially atonal but not strongly dissonant mode... [The performers] approach the material with skill and understanding, and soprano Tracy Satterfield emotes well in the two vocal works.”

Mark J. Estren, InfoDad [December 2016]

From the composer: "For someone who was born in a land-locked region of the country, oceans have played a surprisingly important role in my music. Each of the works on this recording reference the sea in one way or another, and each was composed in close proximity to the ocean as well: I wrote three of these pieces in Los Angeles and the other in my current home of Honolulu. These four works, each in its own way, look out to the watery horizon, some exploring the expanse of water itself and others seeking what lies beyond. Though the music on this CD was composed over a period of eight years, each work shares plenty in common with the others. All four works are united by their connection to poetry: Dreams of Sky and Sea and Songs of a Thousand Autumns are settings of verses from Korea and Japan, respectively, while And the Waves Sing Because They are Moving takes a Western poem as its inspiration; even Like Still Water is titled after some poetic words from a friend. Likewise, each piece shares elements of its color palette with the others – this was done purposefully at times and un- consciously at others – and I see these four works as very much belonging together. For a composer, the most fulfilling collaborations are those involving friends, and it has been my privilege to work with the musicians of Aperio for more than a decade. My collaboration with them began when I was a graduate student in Houston, and has continued on for many years since. In that time, I have crossed oceans to work with Aperio again and again, and I will gladly do so again in the future. Every composer should be so lucky as to work with musicians like these." [Thomas Osborne]

APERIO is an ensemble of internationally recognized musicians dedicated to the performance of music by contemporary composers from the Americas. Aperio’s programming prominently features new works by emerging composers alongside masterpieces of the New World repertoire. Founded in 2006 in Houston, Texas, the ensemble has come to be known for engaging culturally diverse audiences with imaginative and visionary contemporary music.
  THOMAS OSBORNE (b.1978)
LIKE STILL WATER for percussion and piano (2004)

DREAMS OF SKY AND SEA for soprano, percussion and piano (2012)
Texts by Kim Sowol
I. The Sea
II. Sky’s Edge
III. Though the sun is sinking at the mountain’s crest
IV. Red Tide
V. Thought of home

AND THE WAVES SING BECAUSE THEY ARE MOVING for piano (2004)

SONGS OF A THOUSAND AUTUMNS
for soprano, violin, viola, cello and piano (2006)
Texts by Ono no Komachi and Sei Shonagon
I. When my desire grows too fierce
II. On a night such as this
III. Things that gain by being painted
IV. The cicadas sing
V. I know nothing about villages where fisherfolk dwell
VI. Things that lose by being painted
VII. Since my heart placed me on board your drifting ship
VIII.Like a ripple that chases the slightest caress of the breeze
IX. Things that are near though distant
X. It seems a time has arrived
XI. Things that cannot be compared
XII. This body grown fragile
XIII. Things that are distant though near
 



MSR Classics