In her recent work, Davies has found an accommodation between the worlds of the avant-garde and experimental rock, between – in the words of one critic – Xenakis and Prince. Filled with sounds of cracking, slapping, whipping and scraping, it is music that is utterly contemporary, inhabiting the same urban landscape as industrial techno and electronica.

The works on this new recording include make black white, a reconstruction of Dowland’s Flow, My Tears performed by viol consort Concordia; the ritualistic Dark Ground for percussion (Joby Burgess); Loopholes and Lynchpins, a reworking – or unravelling even – of Scarlatti's keyboard sonata (Huw Watkins) and the title work, spine, performed by Azalea and inspired by the composer's interest in trilobites.

 

Birmingham Contemporary Music Group

Azalea

Christopher Austin, conductor

Concordia

Samuel Boden, tenor

Joby Burgess, percussion

Simon Haram, saxophone

Darragh Morgan, violin

Huw Watkins, piano

‘An absorbing if disc… those who already have the earlier Davies disc should acquire forthwith’ Gramophone

'It's hard to think of another British composer whose rise through the hierarc
hy of British music has been so rapid, fuelled by high-profile commissions. 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'  Guardian

‘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’ Musical Pointers

'Tansy Davies’ music, held together in an awkward, gritty tension that allows for both emotional depth & unrestrained exuberance.' 5:4

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