Counting
New Focus, 2026
9/10
The Los Angeles composer Noah Meites enlists some excellent ensembles for these chamber pieces that highlight his vivid artistic voice and unwavering role in the music community.
The title track opens with a large cast making for a rich and dynamic setting, where Jan Berry Baker’s lively saxophones and Allen Fogles well timed horn adds much to the 18+ minutes of chamber ideas, and “Cadere” follows with Brightwork New Music emitting a calming presence that builds into tense bouts of cinematic nods.
“Fracture Mechanics” resides in the middle and enlists the New Thread Quartet, whose textured saxophones are quite mesmerizing, while “To Whom Shall I Tell My Grief” pairs Linnea Powell’s viola with Richi Valitutto piano for 2 segments that balance intimacy with playfulness.
“Voyager Golden Record” exits, and it allows for Meites' own ensemble, LA Signal Lab, to mesh jazz and classical ideas with much intrigue via the electronics.
An accomplished body of work that’s sometimes dramatic, other times rhythmic and entirely complex, this is modern chamber music at its finest.
Travels well with: Eric Chasalow- …arching, reaching, breathless; Lei Liang- Six Seasons: Instrumentation Lab