Prism Quartet

Prism Quartet – Uri Cane: The Book of Days (2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/88,2 kHz | Time – 31:55 minutes | 529 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © XAS Records

“Although I have played with and composed for saxophonists for years, The Book of Days is my first work for saxophone quartet. I jumped at the chance to collaborate with the flexible virtuosos of the PRISM Quartet. The Book of Days consists of seven movements, one for each day of the week. Each movement has its own musical character. Some of the music is loud and dissonant; some is quiet and still. Some movements are jazzy and frantic; others are more contemplative. There is a continuous dialogue between the piano, which is partly composed and partly improvised, and the saxophone quartet.” —Uri Caine, pianist and composer of The Book of Days.
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Prism Quartet – Animal, Vegetable, Mineral (2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 01:04:22 minutes | 647 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © XAS Records

The PRISM Quartet’s ambitious program of commissioning and championing new works for saxophone has produced some wonderful, unexpected connections between pieces and composers. The opening work on this album, Emma O’Halloran’s “Night Music,” and the closing piece, “Cha” by Julia Wolfe, come from composers of different generations and different countries. But both, in their own ways, were inspired by the rhythms of Latin music. O’Halloran’s piece and Kristin Kuster’s “Red Pine” are both examples of tone painting; Wolfe’s “Cha” and Anna Weesner’s “Vamp” both have family stories behind them. And Steven Mackey’s piece, which gives this collection its title, connects the entire project with music that, in the composer’s words, are “about the sound of ‘stuff’ – flesh, wood and metal, Animal, Vegetable, Mineral.”
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PRISM Quartet – Surfaces and Essences (2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 44:59 minutes | 797 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © XAS Records

In its first 35 years on the scene, the PRISM Quartet has proven that the saxophone quartet is one of the most versatile chamber music ensembles, capable of expressing music created in an extraordinary range of styles—from works that exploit a level of homogenous blending perhaps only otherwise attainable by a string quartet to wild, raucous scores involving improvisation and myriad extended techniques. PRISM has now served as a muse for generations of composers, so it is perhaps fitting that, for this latest addition to their extensive discography, the group features a set of new works written for them by five younger composers, only one of whom was born before PRISM came into existence. Surfaces and Essences features a remarkable collection of works by rising stars Christopher Biggs, Victoria Cheah, Viet Cuong, Emily Koh, and Joseph Sowa.
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