Before The World Sleeps
Redshift, 2024
8/10
Listen to Before The World Sleeps
The esteemed composer Alfredo Santa Ana is joined by Miranda Wong’s keys for these solo piano pieces that recruit plenty of atypical ideas into the classical vision.
“A Council Of Apparitions” opens the listen with the fluid keys making for graceful and melodic gestures across the 3 movements that can also get haunting and cinematic.
In the middle, “Memory, I often think of you as time ash...” then radiates much warmth, where firm bouts and dreamy ambience is much appreciate, while “Colours” is indeed colorful, as sparse moments and rumbling ebbs showcase much diversity from Wong’s fingers.
The final track, “Little Ice Age”, then unfolds across 6 chapters of grace and beauty, where a heartfelt demeanor is both touching and memorable.
A complex body of work that has a global appeal, Wong’s performance is attentive and enlightening, where she illuminates Santa Ana’s vision with much detail towards timbre and harmonics.
Travels well with: Emilie Cecilia Leble- Landscapes Of Memory; Tim Brady- Imagine Many Guitars