The Crossing & Donald Nally – Gavin Bryars: A Native Hill (2021) [FLAC 24bit/96kHz]

Navona Records presents A NATIVE HILL from Philadelphia’s professional chamber choir, The Crossing. This monumental unaccompanied work is the result of a collaboration with composer Gavin Bryars, whose previous work for The Crossing won them their first of two recent Grammy awards. With intimate knowledge of the individual voices and art of each singer, Bryars composed A NATIVE HILL to capitalize on the group’s unique sound, personality, and esprit de corps. A NATIVE HILL is based on American author and environmentalist Wendell Berry’s 1968 essay of the same name, which examines bucolic elements of rural life, suffused with deeper metaphysical and political implications. The new album is full of rich, complex vocal textures, dense chromatic clusters, and moments of profound simplicity, offering an opportunity to reflect on life’s timeless questions.

The style of composer Gavin Bryars turned from minimalist influences (and those of John Cage) early in his career to a broadly accessible although hardly trite tonality later on. This was in part a response to the musicians he worked with: he has composed a number of pieces expressly for specific virtuoso choirs, both in the U.K. and here for The Crossing in the U.S. The collaboration extends to work with individual singers in the choir, which has a distinctly American sound heartily recommended to anyone who has not yet encountered it. Bryars sets texts from an essay by writer Wendell Berry describing aspects of the natural environment that suggest a philosophical idea. He ranges from limpid consonance to dense dissonances, perhaps evoking a journey deeper into a more complex wilderness. There are original touches, including whistling from the choristers. The pairing of Bryars and The Crossing earned a Grammy award for the album The Fifth Century, recorded for ECM; the sound here, from the Navona label, doesn’t quite match what’s heard on that recording, but it’s more than adequate, and the unified material perhaps has a power not encountered on the earlier release. For lovers of a cappella choral singing, this will be a deeply rewarding release.

Tracklist:

1. The Crossing & Donald Nally – A Native Hill: No. 1, The Sense of the Past (06:39)
2. The Crossing & Donald Nally – A Native Hill: No. 2, The Path (04:43)
3. The Crossing & Donald Nally – A Native Hill: No. 3, Sea Level (05:08)
4. Steven Bradshaw, The Crossing & Donald Nally – A Native Hill: No. 4, The Pool (03:18)
5. The Crossing & Donald Nally – A Native Hill: No. 5, The Road (08:14)
6. The Crossing & Donald Nally – A Native Hill: No. 6, The Music of Streams (08:20)
7. The Crossing & Donald Nally – A Native Hill: No. 7, Questions (05:14)
8. The Crossing & Donald Nally – A Native Hill: No. 8, Top Soil (04:27)
9. The Crossing & Donald Nally – A Native Hill: No. 9, The Hill (03:36)
10. The Crossing & Donald Nally – A Native Hill: No. 10, Animals and Birds (04:15)
11. Maren Montalbano-Brehm, The Crossing & Donald Nally – A Native Hill: No. 11, Shadow (05:02)
12. The Crossing & Donald Nally – A Native Hill: No. 12, At Peace (09:35)

Download:

mqs.link_TheCr0ssingD0naldNallyGavinBryarsANativeHill20212496.part1.rar
mqs.link_TheCr0ssingD0naldNallyGavinBryarsANativeHill20212496.part2.rar

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