Gorton / Kanga / Redgate / Heyde / Mermikides - Orfordness [CD]

David Gorton, Head of Research Studies at the Royal Academy of Music, is a composer unafraid to use 'straight' instrumentation, electronics and also collage techniques to express himself. This means that a program of only four works, all quite extended, is full of variation; from the Sonata for CEllo with electronics, deep in the contemporary mainstream, to the eerie depiction of Orfordness in England, nature reserve and former secret weapons establishment; solo piano coupled with tapes from the USAF recording an UFO encounter in the vicinity. Gortn's music may be modern but it is never abstract, always communicating about people and places.