Cassandra Miller: Traveller Song/Thanksong (Black Truffle)

Following some amazing releases on Another Timbre & with Apartment House, this is the London-based Canadian composer’s vinyl debut.

Cassandra Miller’s “_Traveller Song/Thanksong_ presents a pair of compositions for voice and ensemble that exemplify Miller's gently absurd, strikingly beautiful, and utterly unique work.

Like many of Miller's compositions, these pieces originate in existing music. ‘Traveller Song’ (2016/2018) begins from a 1950s song of an anonymous Sicilian cart driver recorded by Alan Lomax and Diego Carpitella, which Miller recorded herself singing along to, going on to then record herself singing to her own layered voices. Heard sometimes alone, sometimes layered, her pre-recorded voice is accompanied by a chamber sextet drawn from London's Plus-Minus Ensemble.

‘Thanksong’ begins from recordings of Miller singing along to the third movement of Beethoven's late quartet in A minor (Op. 132), the ‘holy song of thanks’ the composer wrote to express his gratitude for (temporarily) recovering from illness. Recording herself singing along repeatedly to each of the individual parts of the quartet, Miller created an aural score where each member of the string quartet listens to their own part on headphones, playing by ear. Performed on this recording by Montreal's Quatuor Bozzini, with whom Miller has a decades-long relationship, they are joined by the British soprano Juliet Fraser, who sings material from the Beethoven quartet "as slowly and quietly as possible."

An exceptionally delicate and beautiful record, folks.

Team 2023 and highly recommended!!