Fueting / Dresden - Distant Song [CD]

Composer Reiko Futing's music engages with temporality and memory on a multi-dimensional level. By using musical quotation and balancing current instrumental techniques with early music stylistic traits, Futing invites the listener to reflect on a musical tradition through a contemporary prism. Through his innovative approach to structure, internal repetition, and additive motivic content, Futing shapes the listener's perception of musical time. He writes in the liner notes that, "The quotations are treated to processes of assimilation, integration, disintegration, and segregation while moving freely between clear borders and gradual transitions. Among my interests in this structural approach was to construct a musical forum to reflect upon contemporary artistic, cultural, social, and political phenomena." "Distang Song," Futing's second release on New Focus, features works for voices and instruments performed by excellent established young ensembles in both the United States and Europe. The compositions included are emblematic of Futing's deeply humanistic approach to creative activity and a sensitivity to contemporary political issues.