Heaven To Earth Border House
Navona, 2021
9/10
Listen to Heaven To Earth Border House
The Australian composer Bruce Crossman brings east and west together on this highly modern effort, where a poetic and worldly delivery brings in some unique instruments that illuminate his innovative vision.
The Shy Like Blushing Flowers portion of the album starts with a low rumbling as Michael Kieran Harvey’s well timed keys and Timothy Phillips’ unpredictable percussion flows amid the mysterious text from Tang Xianzu, and after the brief "Interlude 1”, with Anna Fraser’s strong mezzo-soprano, “Garden Of Fire” continues the avant-garde climate. Fraser’s soaring pipes are stunning here, as Linda Yim’s piano acrobatics and Claire Edwardes’ playful percussion make this the album highlight.
The back half of the listen offers the indeed unusual “Strange Invincible Perfume”, where Chiu Tan Ching manipulates a guzheng to elicit the most amount of charm out of the strings, as Edwardes’ strategic percussion illuminates the atypical climate.
The title track exits the affair, and brings Hyelim Kim on taegúm (a bamboo flute) and Yi Ji- Young handling gayageum (plucked zither with 12 strings) amid Kate Fagan’s soft text, as the wind and strings are used flawlessly.
The traditional Korean and Chinese instruments pair well with the Western percussion and chilling soprano here, and it makes for an extremely atypical and exciting listen.
Travels well with: Nicki Roman- Unquiet Waters; Gregory W. Brown- Fall And Decline