CD ECM Records Ketil Bjornstad, David Darling: Epigraphs

2000

Ketil Bjornstad - pian
David Darling - violoncel

Bjørnstad/Darling's first duet album 'The River' was one of the runaway successes of our 1997 programme, described by the Sydney Morning Herald as 'An unforgettable listening experience.' On 'Epigraphs', the frame of reference for the Norwegian pianist and the American cellist is the music of the Renaissance.

Darling and Bjørnstad play arrangements of pieces by William Byrd, Orlando Gibbons, Guillaume Dufay, and Gregor Aichinger as well as compositions of their own, inspired by these old masters. The result is an extremely attractive, gentle, often slowly-moving music of great clarity.


Mike Bradley, The Times :
"What a record it is! Epigraphs combines the delicately weighted, mathematically perfect, lingering notes from Bjørnstad's piano with the growling, soaring singing of Darling's cello. Like their earlier collaboration The River, the pieces here owe much to 16th/17th century composers William Byrd and Orlando Gibbons. The pair share a mutual instinct for improvisation which has resulted in one of the most exquisite albums of slow, raw music to emerge in recent years."