John Luther Adams (1953-)
Dark Wind (2001)
Marty Walker (1953-)
Interlude 1 & Interlude 2 (1992)
Michael Jon Fink (1954-)
Thread of Summer (1990)
Rick Cox (1952-)
When April May
Jim Fox (1953)
Between the Wheels (1990)

Haunting, quiet, sometimes lyric, sometimes pensive music: John Luther Adams‘s Dark Wind, for bass clarinet, vibraphone, marimba, and piano, joined with music for clarinet/bass clarinet and string quartet by Rick Cox (When April May), Michael Jon Fink (Thread of Summer), and Jim Fox (Between the Wheels). Adams’s Dark Wind is a process-driven piece involving polyrhythms and ever-widening intervals, its rolled percussion and piano parts and quietly expressive clarinet lines lend it the feeling of a freely composed, almost impressionistic work. Fink’s Thread of Summer is a continuous melody filtered through the various timbres of the quintet’s instrumental combinations. Cox’s When April May floats a lyric line over a repeating harmonic structure. Fox’s Between the Wheels is a series of quiet bass clarinet statements, accompanied by violin harmonics, heard against a cycling tapestry of string tremolos. Among the four ensemble pieces, clarinetist Walker has nested two Interludes—very short improvisations. [CD and folder in jewel case]