Label: Cold Blue

老舗のコンテンポラリー系レーベルModeやNew World Recordsにもソロ音源を残し、主に自身出身のアラスカをテーマとした楽曲を数多く出版してきた80年代前半より活動を続けるベテランコンポーザーJohn Luther Adams。氏が2007~2023年に掛けて書いた、コントラバスの為の名曲にて編成した[Darkness and Scattered Light]を入荷。John Cage、Christian Wolff、Giacinto Scelsi、Philip Glassら重鎮勢の演奏を行なっていた故ベーシストRobert Blackが全曲を担当、ヘビーで美しい余韻が続く荘厳な演奏集。





"Darkness and Scattered Light" is an album of composer John Luther Adams’s darkly beautiful, mesmerizing, virtuosic music for double bass (two solos and a bass quintet), performed by the late bassist extraordinaire Robert Black (1956–2023).

“This is one of the most beautiful albums I have heard in years. And so emotional. It seems strange that an album about the vastness of nature should be so human, and so emotionally resonant. As the music goes deeper into exploring the stark, mysterious slowness of the natural world it becomes clear just how little this world cares about what we think about it. Nature doesn’t need us – the majesty of this music reflects our smallness back to us. It is a humbling, devastating kind of beauty.

“It would be hard to imagine a better match of composer and performer than John Luther Adams and Robert Black. Collaborators for decades, they have both dedicated their professional lives to pushing their fields forward, at the highest possible levels. Robert Black is, himself, a national monument, and his playing here is rich and pure and plainspoken. He presents the music to us, unornamented and honest, and painfully direct. And therein lies its beauty, and its power.” (David Lang)

“Spectacular bassist Robert Black pairs up with John Luther Adams, one of the most important composers of our time. Black’s visionary commissioning and his realization of and advocacy for the music of our time is unmatched.” (Julia Wolfe)

“No one on the planet can make the double bass sing, dance, sound like a drum, spin like a top, like Robert Black. Robert has single-handedly reinvented the technique and repertoire of the Double Bass, bringing it bursting into the 21st century.” (Michael Gordon)