MusicWeb International One of the most grown-up review sites around 2024
60,000 reviews
... and still writing ...

Search MusicWeb Here Acte Prealable Polish CDs
 

Presto Music CD retailer
 
Founder: Len Mullenger                                    Editor in Chief:John Quinn             


Some items
to consider

new MWI
Current reviews

old MWI
pre-2023 reviews

paid for
advertisements

Acte Prealable Polish recordings

Forgotten Recordings
Forgotten Recordings
All Forgotten Records Reviews

TROUBADISC
Troubadisc Weinberg- TROCD01450

All Troubadisc reviews


FOGHORN Classics

Alexandra-Quartet
Brahms String Quartets

All Foghorn Reviews


All HDTT reviews


Songs to Harp from
the Old and New World


all Nimbus reviews



all tudor reviews


Follow us on Twitter


Editorial Board
MusicWeb International
Founding Editor
   
Rob Barnett
Editor in Chief
John Quinn
Contributing Editor
Ralph Moore
Webmaster
   David Barker
Postmaster
Jonathan Woolf
MusicWeb Founder
   Len Mullenger

REVIEW


Advertising on
Musicweb


Donate and keep us afloat

 

New Releases

Naxos Classical
All Naxos reviews

Chandos recordings
All Chandos reviews

Hyperion recordings
All Hyperion reviews

Foghorn recordings
All Foghorn reviews

Troubadisc recordings
All Troubadisc reviews



all Bridge reviews


all cpo reviews

Divine Art recordings
Click to see New Releases
Get 10% off using code musicweb10
All Divine Art reviews


All Eloquence reviews

Lyrita recordings
All Lyrita Reviews

 

Wyastone New Releases
Obtain 10% discount

Subscribe to our free weekly review listing

 

 

alternatively
CD: MDT AmazonUK AmazonUS
Sound Samples & Downloads

Uniko
Utu [6.58]
Plasma [6.16]
Sarma [5.34]
Kalma [11.01]
Kamala [5.38]
Emo [10.20]
Avara [6.01]
Kronos Quartet, Kimmo Pohjonen (accordion and voice), Samuli Kosminen (string and accordion samples, programming)
rec. 2007, Avatar Studios, NYC
ONDINE ODE 1185-2 [51.49]

Experience Classicsonline

This is the sort of release that would have been ground-breaking several decades ago but now feels slightly uninspired and old-hat. The tracks have all been composed by Kimmo Pohjonen and Samuli Kosminen. The composers join the Kronos Quartet, known for their quirky and boundary-breaking music-making, for the performances, as well as being involved in the “mixing”, along with Valgeir Sigurðsson. 

The disc starts with a wash of electronic sound before the instruments come in with slightly film-like music. Throughout the disc we hear strong influences, at various times, of Spanish, Moorish, Indian and French music; the latter with the use of the accordion. There are upbeat dance-like sections with percussion, hints of flamenco, and undertones of techno and trance. Sometimes - as in Plasma - vocal accompaniment adds to the mixture - Kimmo Pohjonen providing this. At other times we have electronic bleeps or sounds as if of static. The minimalist-style music is, naturally, very repetitive and soon begins to wear - at least on the ears of this listener.
 
Nor did the performances of the Kronos Quartet - for whom I usually have great admiration - impress. There is no change in tone, colour or dynamics, no unity in the performances in terms of vibrato, bow pressure, fingering, and so on. One fears that the artists are simply relying on the electronic manipulation to “finish” the sound, thus resulting in “lazy” playing.
 
A further, major, problem with the disc is that there are no proper notes at all - only an open-up-able photograph of the sea, the names of those involved in the recording / mixing / engineering process, and a long list of thanks. My feeling on this is rather that if you’re not going to provide notes, then the music needs to speak for itself; which it unfortunately absolutely does not do in this case. There are no clues whatsoever as to any rhyme or reason for the music.
 
In summary: there is nothing especially offensive about this disc. The music is perfectly pleasant, but it is not particularly innovative, gripping, inspirational, beautiful or startling.
 
Em Marshall-Luck 


 

 


EXPLORE MUSICWEB INTERNATIONAL

Making a Donation to MusicWeb

Writing CD reviews for MWI

About MWI
Who we are, where we have come from and how we do it.

Site Map

How to find a review

How to find articles on MusicWeb
Listed in date order

Review Indexes
   By Label
      Select a label and all reviews are listed in Catalogue order
   By Masterwork
            Links from composer names (eg Sibelius) are to resource pages with links to the review indexes for the individual works as well as other resources.

Themed Review pages

Jazz reviews

 

Discographies
   Composer
      Composer surveys
   National
      Unique to MusicWeb -
a comprehensive listing of all LP and CD recordings of given works
.
Prepared by Michael Herman

The Collector’s Guide to Gramophone Company Record Labels 1898 - 1925
Howard Friedman

Book Reviews

Complete Books
We have a number of out of print complete books on-line

Interviews
With Composers, Conductors, Singers, Instumentalists and others
Includes those on the Seen and Heard site

Nostalgia

Nostalgia CD reviews

Records Of The Year
Each reviewer is given the opportunity to select the best of the releases

Monthly Best Buys
Recordings of the Month and Bargains of the Month

Comment
Arthur Butterworth Writes

An occasional column

Phil Scowcroft's Garlands
British Light Music articles

Classical blogs
A listing of Classical Music Blogs external to MusicWeb International

Reviewers Logs
What they have been listening to for pleasure

Announcements

 

Community
Bulletin Board

Give your opinions or seek answers

Reviewers
Past and present

Helpers invited!

Resources
How Did I Miss That?

Currently suspended but there are a lot there with sound clips


Composer Resources

British Composers

British Light Music Composers

Other composers

Film Music (Archive)
Film Music on the Web (Closed in December 2006)

Programme Notes
For concert organizers

External sites
British Music Society
The BBC Proms
Orchestra Sites
Recording Companies & Retailers
Online Music
Agents & Marketing
Publishers
Other links
Newsgroups
Web News sites etc

PotPourri
A pot-pourri of articles

MW Listening Room
MW Office

Advice to Windows Vista users  
Questionnaire    
Site History  
What they say about us
What we say about us!
Where to get help on the Internet
CD orders By Special Request
Graphics archive
Currency Converter
Dictionary
Magazines
Newsfeed  
Web Ring
Translation Service

Rules for potential reviewers :-)
Do Not Go Here!
April Fools






Error processing SSI file