Six new concertos for two guitars and strings are featured in this generous Re/String album on Leaf records. CC Duo, formed by Steve Cowan and Adam Cicchillitti, joins forces with Montreal’s Collectif9, one of the finest string orchestras on the contemporary scene. The works were originally premiered in 2022 in Ottawa with the ensemble Thirteen Strings, but will be remembered for posterity in this excellent recording.
We are treated to a variety of visions of musical performance and a variety of languages, each of which offers a very interesting perspective on current composition. The extra-musical sources of inspiration are all at the root of the works here, from a practical guide from 1883 on the art of boiling sugar (The Confectioner’s Handbook) to the music of Vivaldi as inspiration for metal music (To Wake and Find the World Still Burning), to an essay on the fundamental interaction between nature and humanity in the construction of civilisations (Landscape and Memory), the various textural states of clouds and their correlation on guitar playing (Cloud Path) and the thorny nature of microtonality in a floral allegory (Half-Thorn Blooms). The very ‘first half of the 20th century’ tonal modernism of Landscape and Memory by Stephen Goss (the only non-Canadian on the programme, he is British) echoes the neo-Vivaldi-pop-rock-metal-ish rhythms of To Wake and Find the World Still Burning (an exciting proposal by Harry Stafylakis, like a tribute to Yngwie Malmsteen, Ritchie Blackmore, Michael Romeo and Uli Jon Roth). In contrast, The Confectioner’s Handbook (by Kelly-Marie Murphy), with its quivering, boiling liquid, is closely related to Half-Thorn Blooms by Bekah Simms and Cloud Path by Amy Brandon, with its ethereal filaments sometimes crossed by more tempestuous heaps. Here, it’s the micro-details and textures that give the pieces their originality and beauty. Patrick Roux’s Après l’exode (After the Exodus) is in a class of its own, with its noble, almost romantic élans tinged with greyness and melancholy.
Re/String is a delightful album that testifies to the vitality of new Canadian guitar music. Strongly recommended.
The album will be out on March 28 2025
