The Nashville-based Cristina Spinei (born in Connecticut in 1984) writes music which throbs with the rhythmic energy of the American minimalist tradition – ‘pulling a lot out of only a little material’, as one reviewer put it. Her involvement with new-music technology has blurred the boundaries between electronic and instrumental performance, between music and software. Her music uses melodic and rhythmic loops to create a strong sense of pulse, which combines with her own background in dance. As a result, she is much in demand with choreographers, and this album presents music written for dance: four string quartets, a duo for cello and percussion and a piece for strings. All of these works are gently mesmeric, like some kind of unhurried ritual.

Upon graduating from Juilliard, Cristina Spinei co-founded Blind Ear, a collective of composers and musicians which presents technology-driven concerts, and she has since worked with a number of choreographers in New York and elsewhere. Here her music is performed by a number of progressive young musicians working in NYC and Nashville. The Voxare String Quartet (founded in 2008), which has a reputation for adventurous programming, as well as by a quartet of NYC freelance musicians, the violinists Pala Garcia and Joan Plana and New Zealand-born sisters Amanda Verner, viola, and Aleisha Verner, cello.