more from
Ablaze Records
We’ve updated our Terms of Use to reflect our new entity name and address. You can review the changes here.
We’ve updated our Terms of Use. You can review the changes here.

Douglas Knehans​—​Cloud Ossuary

by Wallinger; Weusten; Brno Philharmonic Orchestra; Toms

/
1.
2.
3.
4.
I tend to the land grief It started as barren and broken waste, So I watered it. The water and salt of tears only grew grass, wild and unruly, not quite living. On the precipice of this waste were trees; tall, dark and looming. They sent you. You were a sparrow, fragile and small You came wrapped in barbed wire and grime cloaked in scent of ruin. I untethered you, stitched up your wounds with blood soaked fingers, and fattened you up then returned you to the wood. The world had not been kind to you, I thought this would be enough. The grass sprouted flowers, blooming with vengeance, and in them found another. The rotting carcass, burnt and branded by the world, its flesh, ripped from its bones held together by mere strings of muscle. I imagine you alive, sturdy, clever and striped. Wearing your bandit mask properly—not skewed as it is now—playing a violin. I reconstruct you, slowly, heart first, on woven blankets from grass. I cover your torn body with flowers. I tuck your legs, hiding your shattered feet, hiding your ripped neck, laying your head down. You look almost asleep but I know this is never enough. I have buried so many in this wasteland; Each one stays frozen in place, exactly where I left them. Later they come for me, gathered in the rainforest of my mind we sit together eating tropical fruits, shrouded by sunlight, a greenish-golden glow bouncing off my skin and refracting off their exposed bones. They cannot be touched here, things are clean, soft. We are loved by the sun, bones and all. Katarina Knehans—10/3/2017

about

Pairing two new works for orchestra with soloist is Knehans’ newest disc Cloud Ossuary.

Recorded with tremendous fidelity and color the disc includes Knehans’ Mist Waves for solo violin and strings performed in this recording by the brilliant Czech violinist Pavel Wallinger. Wallinger’s keening lines sit wonderfully against the withheld backdrop of the Brno Philharmonic strings.

The second wok on the disc, Knehans’ Cloud Ossuary is set in three related movements in a fast-slow-slow arrangement. These culminate in an extended setting for soprano and orchestra—utilizing only English horn, trumpet, two percussionists, harp and strings—of Knehans’ daughter’s poem Bones and All. Katarina Knehans, a professional writer, has already collaborated with a number of other composers and her linguistic sensitivity to vocal setting is very clear here. Her words give intensity, image, substance and philosophical depth to the work.

The performances by the orchestra, conductor Mikel Toms and most importantly the fine soloists on this disc make it a significant and emotional statement by Knehans and his collaborators.

Highly recommended. 

credits

released January 7, 2022

Pavel Wallinger, violin solo
Judith Weusten, soprano
Brno Philharmonic Orchestra
Mikel Toms, conductor
Jaroslav Zouhar, recording engineer
Silas Brown, mixing and mastering engineer
Douglas Knehans, producer
Josephine McLachlan, design
Katarina Knehans, text

license

all rights reserved

tags

about

Douglas Knehans Cincinnati, Ohio

Knehans has received awards from the American Music Center, the NEA, Opera Australia, The Cannes Film Festival, Carnegie Hall, The Kennedy Center, The National Symphony Orchestra, and many others. His music has been praised by The Washington Post as “beautiful” and that “tells an exciting story;” and by The Miami Herald as “wildly inventive;" by Fanfare Magazine as "...hauntingly beautiful..." ... more

contact / help

Contact Douglas Knehans

Streaming and
Download help

Redeem code

Report this album or account

If you like Douglas Knehans—Cloud Ossuary, you may also like: