Available at:

New Focus Recordings

Terrestre

Claire Chase, flute

Flutist and ICE founder Claire Chase celebrates the release of her second solo album, featuring the world premiere recording of Kaija Saariaho's miniature flute concerto Terrestre alongside classic 20th century works by Pierre Boulez, Elliott Carter, and Franco Donatoni. Also featured is the world premiere recording of Dai Fujikura's haunting bass flute solo, Glacier.

Kaija Saariaho (b. 1952)
1. Terrestre (2003)*
with members of ICE (International Contemporary Ensemble)
Nathan Davis, percussion; Erik Carlson, violin; Nuiko Wadden, harp; Kivie Cahn-Lipman, cello

Franco Donatoni (b. 1927-2000)
2. Fili (1981)
with Jacob Greenberg, piano

Elliott Carter (b. 1908)
3. Esprit Rude/Esprit Doux (1985)
with Joshua Rubin, clarinet

Pierre Boulez (b. 1925)
4. Sonatine (1947)
with Jacob Greenberg, piano

Dai Fujikura (b. 1977)
5. Glacier (2010)*

*world premiere recording

Engineered and edited by Ryan Streber, Oktaven Audio
Produced by Jacob Greenberg
Cover photo by David Michalek

Release July 26, 2011

Available now on Mode Records

Undersong

Jason Eckardt, composer
International Contemporary Ensemble
Steven Schick, conductor

Undersong (2002-08)
International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE)
Steven Schick, conductor

A way [tracing] for cello solo  (6:30)
Fred Sherry, cello

16 for amplified flute and string trio  (12:19)
Claire Chase, flute

Aperture for flute, clarinet, violin, viola, cello, and piano  (17:59)

The Distance (This) for soprano and ten instrumentalists (26:39)
Tony Arnold, soprano

Jason Eckardt is one of the leading American composers of his generation. Undersong is a cycle of works that explores voice of the oppressed in society, constructed around Laura Mullen’s text of the same name. Eckardt says: “The more I thought about the metaphorical implications of the title and its relationship to my music, the richer it became. The shards that comprise much of the music’s surface also came to represent the ‘noise’ that often covers, distorts, or skews a simpler essence that lies below.”

Available Now from Kairos

Sonic Eclipse

Matthias Pintscher, composer and conductor
International Contemporary Ensemble
Marisol Montalvo, soprano

Still only in his thirties, Matthias Pintscher (b. 1971) has been hailed by leading conductors and critics for his fresh compositional voice and dynamic conducting. ICE makes its debut on the Kairos label with the premiere recording of sonic eclipse (2009-2010), featuring ICE soloists Gareth Flowers and David Byrd-Marrow.

Also featured is a twilight’s song (1997) featuring soprano Marisol Montalvo, and she-cholat ahavah ani (shir ha-shirim V) (2008), performed by the SWR Vokalensemble Stuttgart.

Released May 31, 2011
Available now at Nonesuch

Produced by Judith Sherman

Son of Chamber Symphony
Recorded September 14 & 15, 2010, at Sear Sound, New York, NY
Engineered by John Kilgore

Son of Chamber Symphony

John Adams, composer and conductor
International Contemporary Ensemble
St. Lawrence String Quartet

Nonesuch releases John Adams’s Son of Chamber Symphony / String Quartet on May 31, 2011. Son of Chamber Symphony (2007) is performed by the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), led by the composer, and Adams’s String Quartet (2008) is performed by the St. Lawrence String Quartet, the ensemble for which the piece was written. This is the first recording of both works.

“As you might imagine, Son of Chamber Symphony is closely related to Chamber Symphony,” Adams recently explained in an interview for the London Sinfonietta. “The two are very similar in instrumentation: 15 players—a large chamber group, or a very small orchestra—which means everybody gets to be a soloist in one way or another. It gave me an opportunity to do the kind of challenging virtuoso writing that I would never attempt with a large orchestra. The new chamber symphony also has the same buoyant quality [as the original].” The piece was co-commissioned by the San Francisco Ballet for a new work by choreographer Mark Morris, entitled Joyride, which premiered in 2008.

String Quartet is Adams’ second full-sized work for that combination of instruments. His first, 1994’s John’s Book of Alleged Dances (Nonesuch, 1998), is a set of 11 short pieces written for Kronos Quartet. Hearing the St. Lawrence String Quartet perform that work inspired Adams to compose String Quartet for them, which led to its world premiere at The Juilliard School in 2009. Since then, the group has performed the work more than 50 times throughout North America, Europe, and New Zealand, including a critically acclaimed performance at Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall in March 2011. The Philadelphia Inquirer said of one of those concerts, “The piece is a knockout. Thanks to the St. Lawrence telepathic sense of ensemble, so was the performance.”

Released: May 31, 2011

New Focus Recordings

Recorded and mastered by Ryan Streber, at EMPAC (Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center at RPI), Oktaven, and Smith College
Editing and electronic processing by Nathan Davis

The Bright and Hollow Sky

Nathan Davis, composer
International Contemporary Ensemble

This cycle of beautiful new works for solo instruments and small combinations transforms space into an architecture of color, texture, rhythm and breath. Using microphones as microscopes, together with live processing, these works elucidate the characters of instruments and the fragile athleticism of playing them.

Cover light painting portrait by Aurora Crowley, created in a single long exposure.

The Bright and Hollow Sky was commissioned by ICE and underwritten by the American Composers Forum with funds provided by the Jerome Foundation.

The Mechanics of Escapement was commissioned by Concert Artists Guild and funded in part by the Composer Assistance Program of the American Music Center

Like sweet bells jangled was commissioned by the American Music Center New Music for Dance program.

Analog ring modulator built by Joshua Rubin
Clock chime instruments built by John Roche and Nathan Davis

Liner notes by Whit Bernard

Complete credits and more information at www.nathandavis.com/discs.shtml

Available at:

New Focus Recordings

iTunes

also at CD Baby or Amazon

 

allmusic.com: "exquisite precision"
Chicago Reader: Margasak on Abandoned Time

Abandoned Time

International Contemporary Ensemble
Daniel Lippel, guitar

ICE launches its second full-length CD in collaboration with the indie label New Focus Recordings. A no-holds-barred collection of works by Lindberg, Davidovsky, Saariaho, Fujikura, and Du Yun, this exciting new album was programmed, performed, engineered and edited by members of ICE.

Dai Fujikura (b. 1977)
1. Abandoned Time *(2004/06)

Mario Davidovsky (b. 1934)
2. Festino (1994)

Kaija Saariaho (b. 1952)
3. Adjö (1982/85)

Du Yun (b. 1977)
4. Vicissitudes No.1 *(2002)

Magnus Lindberg (b. 1958)
5. Linea d'ombra (1981)

* premiere recording

"fits into my category of required
listening, and is, at this point
a Want List contender"
— William Zagorski, Fanfare Magazine

Complete Crumb Edition Volume 12

The International Contemporary Ensemble
Jamie Van Eyck, mezzo soprano
Jacob Greenberg, piano

BRIDGE 9261

Available from Bridge Records

The latest disc in Bridge's ongoing Crumb series is in many ways one of the most impressive to date.

The young American ensemble “ICE” worked with the composer on the interpretations of these pieces over a number of years, then recorded the performances under the composer's supervision. ICE's recordings present a level of virtuosity and faithfulness to Crumb's scores that reflect the experience of a generation of performers that has grown up playing this music. Some of Crumb's most popular work is included on this disc (Vox Balaenae) as are some of his most infrequently played scores (Dream Sequence and Five Pieces).

With this disc Bridge draws near the completion of Crumb's 'back-catalog' and plans to release the remaining works before the composer's 80th birthday in 2009. George Crumb is still actively creating new works, and two of these will soon be issued as Vol. 13- a two disc set. See more details of Bridge's Grammy-winning Complete Crumb Edition at bridgerecords.com

Music of Arlene Sierra, Vol. 1

Arlene Sierra
International Contemporary Ensemble
Jayce Ogren, conductor

BRIDGE RECORDS 9343

The music of Arlene Sierra (b. 1970) has begun to make waves on both sides of the Atlantic. With recent commissions by the New York Philharmonic, the Royal Opera and the New York City Opera, the British-based young American composer has found devoted advocates among many leading performers of our time. The American Academy of Arts and Letters cited Sierra recently: "Arlene Sierra's music is, by turns, urgent, poetic, evocative, and witty. She has a keen appreciation of instrumental sonorities and the inherent drama of successive musical atmospheres. Intriguing, passionate, mysterious, her recent work, Cicada Shell, confidently announces the arrival of a significant composer." This recording marks the first CD devoted to Sierra's music.

Released May 25, 2010
Available at New Amsterdam Records

Thirteen Near-Death Experiences recorded by Ryan Streber at Mt. Holyoke College, South Hadley, MA; and Oktaven Audio, Yonkers, NY

Someone Will Take Care of Me

Corey Dargel
International Contemporary Ensemble

Corey Dargel’s third album, Someone Will Take Care of Me, is an art-pop double-CD album of unconventional love songs -- love songs about hypochondria and voluntary amputation -- from his two acclaimed music-theater pieces, Thirteen Near-Death Experiences and Removable Parts. Dargel sings with the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), David T. Little on drums, and pianist Kathleen Supové.

Available at:

New Focus Recordings

iTunes

also at CD Baby or Amazon

 

TimeOut Chicago: "Top Ten of 2009"
TimeOut Chicago: Chase for the Cup
WQXR Q2: Claire Chase live at (le) Poisson Rouge

Aliento

Claire Chase, flute

The debut album from ICE's fearless founder & executive director Claire Chase features the world premiere recordings of boundary-pushing new flute works by Jason Eckardt, Edgar Guzmán, Dai Fujikura, Marcelo Toledo, Nathan Davis and Du Yun.

Available at:

Tzadik Records

iTunes

also at Amazon

The New York Times: "hallucinatory intensity"

Enter Houses Of

Mario Diaz de León
International Contemporary Ensemble

ICE performs the debut record from Mario Diaz de León, a talented young composer whose work focuses on acoustic/electronic hybrids that often fuse the two elements into unified meta-instruments. Often structured as walls and gestures of shimmering sound, his work is influenced by contemporary composers Scelsi, Ligeti, Dumitrescu and Radulescu as well as a wide range of electronic music, free improvisation, black/drone/doom metal and American noise bands like Metalux and Sejayno. Hypnotic and ritualistic, the music relates to altered consciousness and the movement between vision states.

Naxos Catalogue No: 8.559322

Order at Amazon

Juilliard Journal review

AllMusic.com review

Huang Ruo, Chamber Concerto Cycle (2000-2002)

International Contemporary Ensemble
Huang Ruo, conductor

Influenced by both the East and the West, Chinese-American composer Huang Ruo strives to create a seamless synthesis and a convincing organic unity, drawing influences from many genres and cultures. His music has been performed by the Philadelphia Orchestra, the ASKO Ensemble, and the Nieuw Ensemble, under conductors James Conlon, Dennis Russell Davies and Wolfgang Sawallisch. In 2003, he was featured on a Composer Portrait concert at Columbia University’s Miller Theatre, where the International Contemporary Ensemble premiered the Chamber Concerto Cycle. The concert was hailed by New York Times critic Allan Kozinn as No. 2 of the Top Ten Classical Moments of 2003.