“There’s no question that either the violinist or the orchestra are completely at home with Julia Perry’s larger style or the notes: this is about as confident and secure a first recording as they come.”
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“The main discovery here is Perry’s Violin Concerto, brilliantly played here by Curtis Stewart. Accompanied by James Blachly’s Experiential Orchestra. Perry’s bright, translucent scoring makes what might seem uncompromising on paper sound enthralling.”
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"Effortlessly converging a removed version of the classical, jazz, dream pop and analogue-sounding electronica, Late Aster, in a live and filmed setting, produce moving music with a spacey, ethereal hazy feel. I love this EP, which bodes well for the duo’s inaugural album, released sometime in 2024."
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Sybarite5’s Collective Wisdom featured as Record of the Week on CBC’s In Concert On Demand
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“Subtle tosses of the voice suggest that even through such emotional turmoil, all might not be lost. Percussive rhythms then slowly build to a frenzy. Even amid the deepest blues, these performances seem to say that there is always a bright side. All one has to do is dance.”
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“Stewart buttons the album with one of his own compositions. We Who Seek is a five-minute ear-tease combining rap and electronics with samples from Perry’s psalm setting.”
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“…American Counterpoints is accordingly bittersweet, celebrating in Perry’s birth-centenary year the prowess of both composers in interweaving quasi-tonal lines and rich textures to create distinctive and highly inventive, abstract modernist music.”
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“Kinds of ~Nois is issued under the quartet's name, but it's as much a Kinds of Kings project and a collaboration that flatters both parties.”
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“On this splendid recording, violinist Curtis Stewart and Experiential Orchestra Music Director James Blachly make compelling cases on behalf of the composers and the enduring value of the work they produced.”
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“It is a fine example of the sober yet seething angularity of its era, leavened with warm strings and hints of Coplandesque expansiveness.”
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“it's a disc of musical discoveries, conveyed in compelling performances and warm, close sound.”
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“~Nois’s rich ensemble tone and dexterous rhythms serve the music quite well. One can readily hear that a lot of preparation was put into Kinds of ~Nois, as the performances are note-perfect and assuredly interpreted.”
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“There aren’t too many albums, however good they might be, that make me stop everything all at once to listen to a second time. This is that album.”
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“American Counterpoints shines a much-deserved light on two important, and thankfully rediscovered, figures in American classical music.”
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“To play Beethoven’s string quartets on saxophones sounds like a gimmick, but the Sinta Quartet approaches its task with seriousness, and the results do not have the negative whiff of ironic novelty.”
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“Re-contextualizing 12th-century texts and melodies into a package of psychedelic synth-pop could seem a bit of a stretch. Alkemie’s latest project somehow makes it seem perfectly natural.”
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“…suggested that beauty of sound – reflecting the world’s physical beauty – can exist within a harsh cultural moment, as expressed in aggressive chords and semiquavers.”
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“Like all Sybarite5 pieces, the more you hear it, the deeper it gets. A richly satisfying album.”
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“Unpredictable. Musically elegant. Soulful. Revelatory. Technically impeccable.”
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“The selections span more than a century, but all are marked by the same spirit of inquisitiveness and discovery that make it impossible to look away – or to leave bored.”
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