August 30, 2011

Beautiful Mechanical

yMusic is a group of young performers who are actively engaged and equally comfortable in the overlapping classical and pop music worlds.

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1) Beautiful Mechanical (Son Lux)
2) Proven Badlands (Annie Clark)
3) A Whistle, A Tune, A Macaroon (Shara Worden)
4) Daughter of the Waves (Sarah Kirkland Snider)
5) A Paper, A Pen, A Note To A Friend (Shara Worden)
6) Clearing, Dawn, Dance (Greenstein)
7) Song (Gabriel Kahane)

yMusic is a group of young performers who are actively engaged and equally comfortable in the overlapping classical and pop music worlds. Not only do its members regularly play with classical institutions like the New York Philharmonic and the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, but they are active recitalists, arrangers, and commissioners, and have served key roles in touring and fulfilling indie rock visions from Sufjan Stevens to Bon Iver to The National. The group’s unique instrumentation includes a traditional string trio as well as the distinctive combination of flute, clarinet and trumpet. This exciting composite of sounds has sparked a burgeoning repertoire of commissions from some of today’s most important artists.

Beautiful Mechanical, the group’s focused and stunning debut album, features compositions by indie- classical all-stars Annie Clark (St. Vincent) – a piece commissioned by the MusicNOW Festival, Shara Worden (My Brightest Diamond), Ryan Lott (Son Lux), Gabriel Kahane, and New Amsterdam Records co-founders Sarah Kirkland Snider and Judd Greenstein. The compositions are assured and fervent yet tender and humane, the performances delicate yet fiercely virtuosic, making for a cohesive album that stands as a manifesto of what music-making in the 21st century can – and should – be.

October 7, 2015

San Diego Story

"[Daughter of the Waves] is a bold octet for strings and winds…gentle surging motifs alluded to the lapping of waves on the shore…joyous, muscular…Snider’s use of the electric guitar and allusions to the easy, repetitive cadences of pop music added even more variety to her fresh, eclectic idiom.”

Ken Herman
August 1, 2014

The Seattle Times

"[Sarah Kirkland Snider's 'Daughter of Waves' is] stunning."

Tom Keogh
May 23, 2013

Avant Music News

“The ensemble absolutely crests on “Daughter of the Waves”...a gentle sightseeing tour that even the locals can enjoy. “

Stephen Fruitman
December 2, 2012

The Washington Post

“[yMusic] represented a step up in the quality of both performance and music. I particularly liked Sarah Kirkland Snider’s substantial 'Daughter of the Waves.'”

Anne Midgette
December 2, 2011

Pitchfork

"Daughter of the Waves" [is] a nine-minute swirl of muted anxiety...

Jayson Greene
November 16, 2011

The Classical Review

“'Daughter of the Waves' proves to be a compelling exercise in dark liquescence, its initial surface calm disrupted and disturbed by dream-like interjections that border on the hallucinogenic and nightmarish in places...wistful and restless, an imaginative and rewarding new work for classical chamber ensemble.”

Aaron Keebaugh
November 15, 2011

Glide Magazine

“['Daughter of the Waves' is] point-perfect…thoughtful and compelling.”

Peter Zimmerman
November 1, 2011

textura

“yMusic’s rich timbral colour comes especially to the fore during Sarah Kirkland Snider’s evocative “Daughter of the Waves”...Filled with contrasts of mood, Snider’s standout piece exudes a dream-like flow as it moves through its myriad passages, with a late ruminative episode especially powerful.”

October 18, 2011

Sequenza 21

"Snider’s “Daughter of the Waves” likewise takes a delicate, almost Impressionist approach, with ebullient cascades of sound along the way."

Christian B. Carey
October 11, 2011

Fool in the Forest

"The composer has said that this piece was influenced by its being composed during her pregnancy and that the title references both her daughter's name (Dylan, Welsh, 'child of the waves') and the turbulent emotional states of pregnancy. It is open to many interpretations, and could as easily be heard as a [small-i] impressionist seascape/shorescape, Debussy's La Mer or Britten's Sea Interludes retooled for small ensemble, although it is not particularly imitative of either. It is superior mood music for those with ever-changing moods."

George Wallace
September 8, 2011

Lucid Culture

"[Daughter of the Waves] is simultaneously anthemic and hypnotic, and also ebbs and goes out gracefully, almost like a ghost."