ON COLD MOUNTAIN

Songs on Poems of Gary Snyder

1. • Cold Mountain Songs by Roy Whelden
   

2. • For Nothing by Fred Frith
   

3. • This Bubble of a Heart by Robert Morris
   

4. • For All by W.A. Mathieu
   

"This fascinating and new release, a collaboration between contralto Karen Clark and the early music ensemble Galax Quartet, boasts an endless dialog between tradition and innovation, past and present. It's mesmerizing.  ...The texts have an unplaceable timelessness about them. Matching that quality is the sound of the Galax Quartet...and Clark’s majestic, throaty singing."

—Joshua Kosman, San Francisco Chronicle

"The musical styles can range from faux Baroque to post-Minimalism, but they all properly and provocatively capture the luminosity of Snyder’s language, his sense of nature connected to the moment, his evocation of the spiritual essence of the West."

—Mark Swed, L.A. Times 

"The meld between poet, composers and performers is as close to ideal as you are going to find today. I'd say it's a masterpiece..."

— Classical-Modern Music Review

“With this album, Gary Snyder has joined the ranks of poets whose works have been put to music, such as Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson and the German Romantics, although for the most part here it is Snyder's unique translation and paraphrasing of ancient Chinese poet Han Shan. These modern works are performed by vocalist Karen Clark and the Galax Quartet, ...artists who usually favor early and Baroque music. Together, they produce a sound of great sensitivity and nuance.”

—Amazon.com customer (5 star review)