Beginnings

Description

Celebrated new-music ensemble eighth blackbird performs a provocative pairing of works evoking the origins of the universe on beginnings, its new CD for Cedille Records (Cedille Records CDR 90000 076). The pioneering sextet offers the world-premiere recording of Daniel Kellogg's Divinum Mysterium, a new work inspired by a medieval Latin chant, and George Crumb's venerable Vox Balaenae (Voice of the Whale), inspired by sounds of the humpback whale. Producer-engineer is Grammy Award-winner Judith Sherman. "Both pieces celebrate the fact that we live, that the universe does exist," the ensemble writes in the CD booklet. Both move from the violence of creation "to joyful celebration and tender contemplation."