Tower And The Garden
Navona, 2021
8/10
Listen to Tower And The Garden
The award winning ensemble The Crossing are aligned with the conductor Donald Nally on this 23rd album, where the vulnerability of our earth, the wonder of nature and the power of the spoken word are all mulled over with much emphasis on singing.
“A Child Said, What Is The Grass?” starts the listen with warm, ethereal choral singing, as many voices emit a sublime and soaring presence in its 15 minutes that takes nods to Walt Whitman amid high harmonies.
“The Tower And The Garden” follows with 4 movements that contain much beauty and grace, where strategic singing and violin, viola and cello blend together with incredible power and innovation. Technology (The Tower) and refuge (The Garden) are explored in the eloquent and stirring climate, which continues the theme of well out thought subject matter.
The final track, “I Enter The Earth”, starts bare and mysterious before building into an ebullient display before retreating back to calm as inspiration from the folklore of Botswana dating back to the ‘70s enters the equation.
An outfit who are firmly planted between choral sounds and new music worlds, Tower And The Garden is yet another artistic, robust and emotive display of The Crossing’s unmistakable execution that has been worthy of two Grammy awards and six nominations, with, most likely, more on the horizon.
Travels well with: Herb Deutsch- Encounters; George Palmer- Breaking The Silence