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More missives from the avant-garde …

Can’t deep link it from here, but the new release page of Nonesuch Records lists Jan. 11 as a release date for the next album by Kronos Quartet, titled Mugam Sayagi: The Music of Franghiz Ali-Zade. Kronos originally recorded the title track of this upcoming album for its 1994 album, Night Prayers. It’s hands-down the most thrilling piece on the album, which says a lot since the album is packed with a lot of incredible works. (Night Prayers by Giya Kancheli is the very definition of “intense”.)

On a recent visit to Wayne Horvitz’s official site, I discovered news of the release of Solos, an album of piano works with his wife Robin Holcomb. “With” is a sketchy term, because each plays their own work solo. The pair originally recorded each other’s pieces, but when putting together the album, they felt performances of their own works flowed better. (An e-mail interview with the pair says as much.) Solos is available from the Songlines label.