Chrysalid Requiem

so glad to have this fabulous recording!!!

A beautiful and innovative composition recorded with an incredibly talented and musical group of performers. It is like no other piece of music I have ever heard before, blending many different musical traditions into one grand work.

"Shaman" is really good.This is a bit further out in musical left field -- still interesting, especially if you want to see how far our Toby Twining can go as a composer with the vocal effects.

Despite the claims made for this music, and the technical quality of the recording, I find it just a bit too uninteresting and unpleasant to listen to. In the same general area of delayed or looping or simply ethereal vocals, I'd prefer works by Gavin Bryars, Pauline Oliveros, Arvo Part, Steve Reich or even David Hykes' Harmonic Choir. I hate paying for and then physically cluttering up my CD rack with things I don't enjoy.

Twining's Chrysalid Requiem is the most magnificent achievement in the history of alternate tunings. The piece is so difficult to sing, both pitchwise and rhythmically, that the singers had to listen to a synthesized version over headphones while performing. Nevertheless, the effect is not at all mechanical, but strange and mysterious, quasi-medieval in its architecture and unearthly in its exotic and layered harmonies. Quite audibly, many of the lines are "whistled" as harmonics over a drone via throat-singing, with astounding virtuosity. As a masterpiece in the advanced language of harmonies and rhythms, it is unlikely to be surpassed in the near future. Five stars seems woefully inadequate.