Today’s track premiere features Rebekah Heller performing Labrys for bassoon and electronics from composer Mario Diaz de Leon’s forthcoming album Cycle and Reveal.
Cycle and Reveal marks the fourth full-length album from Diaz de Leon and celebrates long-term working relationships with groups such as the International Contemporary Ensemble and Talea Ensemble. Performers on the album include Barry Crawford (flute), Marianne Gythfeldt (clarinet), Alex Lipowski (percussion), Mariel Roberts (cello), Claire Chase (flute), Joshua Rubin (clarinet), and Rebekah Heller (bassoon).
Here’s what Diaz de Leon had to say about Labrys:
A labrys is a double headed battle axe, which was widely used in ancient Minoan culture as a symbol of feminine divinity. This piece builds on the legacy of my works for solo performer with electronics, in particular, The Soul Is the Arena, written for Joshua Rubin in 2010, and Luciform, written for Claire Chase in 2011.
Cycle and Reveal is out on Denovali on September 27, 2019, but you can pre-order the album here.
About Mario Diaz de Leon
Mario Diaz de Leon is an NYC based musician whose creative work encompasses modern classical music, experimental electronic music, extreme metal, and improvised music. Working extensively with an inner circle of close collaborators (ICE, Talea, and TAK Ensemble, among others) his classical works have been celebrated over the last decade for their “hallucinatory intensity” (New York Times), “snarling exuberance” (Pitchfork), “helter-skelter, electronically enhanced cadenzas” (New Yorker Magazine), and coupling of “crystalline clarity with the disorienting turbulence of a sonic vortex” (Wire Magazine).
About Rebekah Heller
Praised for her “flair” and “deftly illuminated” performances by The New York Times, bassoonist Rebekah Heller is a uniquely dynamic solo and collaborative artist. Called “an impressive solo bassoonist” by The New Yorker, she is fiercely committed to expanding the modern repertoire for the bassoon. Rebekah studied at the Oberlin Conservatory, the University of Texas at Austin, and was a member the New World Symphony and Chicago Civic Orchestra. She lives in NYC.
