Mangetsu
New Focus, 2021
8/10
The duo of Susan Botti and Airi Yoshioka, as Duo della Luna the pair match Botti’s sublime vocals with Yoshioka’s spellbinding violin acrobatics across a multi-lingual and intricately textured climate that spans powerful and rich to bare and intimate.
Botti’s “Mangetsu” opens the listen with emotive and soaring wordless vocals surrounding Yoshioka’s precisely manipulated strings that are bowed and plucked to emit the most amount of atmosphere, and Béla Bartók’s “44 Duos For 2 Violins” follows with a louder, firm presence of operatic singing alongside emotive and playful violin.
The back half of the listen doesn’t disappoint either, and includes the cautious and warm “Wayfaring Stranger”, where Botti’s arrangement puts much emphasis on mood, while Linda Dusman’s “Triptych Of Gossips” recruits screeching strings and bouts of ominous, even scary, moments amid the exploration.
“Two Italian Folk Songs” exits the listen, and presents much beauty as the delicate and robust singing aligns with the meticulous violin in the Northern Italy songs that retain much melody.
An absorbing listen in the area of contemporary classical sounds, Botti and Yoshioka bring a wealth of talent and experience to a project that’s as creative as it is timeless.
Travels well with: Aaron Jay Myers- Clever Machines; Peter Gilbert- Burned Into The Orange