Following the success of Tansy Davies’ first commercial CD, Troubairitiz, NMC have released a new disc, Spine, devoted to the composer. The nine featured pieces cover 10 years of Davies’ career and encompass a number of genres from solo songs to large ensemble works. The performers include many who already have a strong connection with Davies and her music: BCMG, conductor Christopher Austin, pianist Huw Watkins and percussionist Joby Burgess. The disc has already attracted praise.
Sound samples are available on the NMC website.
PRESS:
‘emotional depth & unrestrained exuberance’
‘There's no mistaking the sensibility at work, nor the inventiveness…’
‘I have listened to it all twice through with mounting pleasure and admiration’
‘It's hard to think of another British composer whose rise through the hierarchy of British music has been so rapid… As this disc shows, her music is at its most compelling when it creates vivid textures, drawing on rock and pop idioms to give it edge and pungency… There's no mistaking the sensibility at work, nor the inventiveness and physicality that are so distinctive.’
The Guardian (Andrew Clements), 23 August 2012
‘A great portrait CD compilation of works from the first decade of our musically wonderful new century, by our great composer (Tansy Davies, b. 1973) who never repeats herself… Tansy Davies draws inspiration from her wide reading, touched on in her own notes which relate the pieces to different cultures and mythologies, rituals, drawing on music history and even trilobites from Paleozoic times (illustrated on the cover !)… the sequence here is so good that I have listened to it all twice through with mounting pleasure and admiration… I am eager to hear Tansy's ever next composition, assured of delight and surprise.’
Musical Pointers (Peter Grahame Woolf), 4 September 2012
‘A diverse collection takes in both solo and ensemble pieces – the former ranging from the laconic Scarlatti inventions of Loopholes and Lynchpins, the Bach-inspired monologue of Loure and the oblique ritual of Dark Ground. The viol consort has amassed a whole new repertoire in recent years but the Dowland deconstruction of make black white is among the most impressive in its radical reimagining of the group’s sound as well as its sense…’
Gramophone Magazine (Richard Whithouse), November 2012
‘Anyone with even a mild interest in contemporary music can’t have failed to encounter the music of Tansy Davies… stylistically speaking, her work is accessible, eschewing both the trappings & the vernacular associated with the avant-garde. Immediacy & clarity seem to be important & significant aspects of her music, qualities that perhaps originate in her prog-rock youth, & which clearly go down well with audiences & ensembles alike… As a whole, the scope of the nine works featured on this disc feels expansive & thoughtful.... Loure is one of the most deeply introspective works I’ve ever heard, yet emotionally is so internalised that we become mere spectators while the soloist wrestles desperately with themself… Iris exemplifies the best of Tansy Davies’ music, held together in an awkward, gritty tension that allows for both emotional depth & unrestrained exuberance.’
5:4 blogspot (Simon Cummings), 5 October 2012