The Philosophy of Composition (in memory of Don Maclennan)
the richter scale
Sonata (Hours with the Masters)
A Fractured Landscape (in memoriam Edward Said)
Connectivity
Pentimenti
song without words
Seventh must Fall

Michael Blake is South African composition’s most important link to the American and British experimental traditions of the second half of the twentieth century. It is a connection that derives as much from the composer’s temperament and aesthetic sensibility, as from more conscious decisions relating to the socio-political positioning of composition.

As regards the former, Blake’s affinity with composers like Charles Ives and John Cage precedes his mature engagements with these composers through an embrace of certain qualities of openness relating to musical structure and material that can be heard throughout the works recorded on this CD.

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Recording: 6.–9. Februar 2017, Deutschlandfunk Kammermusiksaal, Köln