Singing in the Dead of Night
eighth blackbird
[Wolfe] The members of Eighth Blackbird, as everywhere, throw themselves fully into the piece, not just the notes, but the ethos. They seem to understand this newly minted music on a profound...
Singing in the Dead of Night
eighth blackbird
Purchase product
[Wolfe] The members of Eighth Blackbird, as everywhere, throw themselves fully into the piece, not just the notes, but the ethos. They seem to understand this newly minted music on a profound...
About
Groundbreaking new-music sextet Eighth Blackbird, winners of four Grammy Awards for their previous Cedille Records albums, are heard in the world-premiere recording of a collaborative, all-instrumental program of intensely rhythmic works written expressly for the Chicago-based ensemble by the founders of the celebrated Bang on a Can composers collective. Each piece on Singing in the Dead of Night takes its name from Paul McCartney’s lyrics to The Beatles song “Blackbird” — but this music exists in another realm altogether. Pulitzer Prize winner Julia Wolfe’s title track conjures a dark, silent solitude from which creative inspiration emerges. Michael Gordon’s music melds “the nervous brilliance of free jazz and the intransigence of classical modernism" (The New Yorker). In The Light of the Dark, he evokes the wild spontaneity of an uninhibited, late-night jam session. Pulitzer Prize winner David Lang’s three-movement These Broken Wings, a “glamorously beautiful suite” (The Guardian), takes flight via Eighth Blackbird’s boundless stamina and high-voltage virtuosity.
Contents and tracklist
Awards and reviews
Nov/Dec 2020
[Wolfe] The members of Eighth Blackbird, as everywhere, throw themselves fully into the piece, not just the notes, but the ethos. They seem to understand this newly minted music on a profound level. There is a sense of unquenchable curiosity and vivacity from both the composers and performers that pervades this disc.
