Song Offerings Riot Ensemble

• Samantha Fernando (b. 1984): How Many Moments Must:
• 1 How Many Moments Must 01:10
• Aaron Holloway-Nahum (b. 1983): Plane Sailing:
• 2 Plane Sailing 10:35
• Samantha Fernando: Utterance:
• 3 Utterance 02:46
• Laurence Osborn (b. 1989): Micrographia:
• 4 Micrographia: I. First Figure - Needle 02:47
• 5 Micrographia: II. Second Figure - Salt 01:06
• 6 Micrographia: III. Third Figure - Urine 01:35
• 7 Micrographia: IV. Fourth Figure - Blue Mould 04:21
• 8 Micrographia: V. Fifth Figure - Wings of Flies 03:52
• 9 Micrographia: VI. Sixth Figure - Of Multitudes of Small Stars 07:19
• Samantha Fernando: The Half Moon:
• 10 The Half Moon 04:11
• Jonathan Harvey (1939 - 2012): Song Offerings:
• 11 Song Offerings: I. 03:30
• 12 Song Offerings: II. 02:32
• 13 Song Offerings: III. 04:48
• 14 Song Offerings: IV. 07:37
• Total Runtime 58:09

Info for Song Offerings

Song Offerings is Riot Ensemble’s fourth studio album, and a co-production between Coviello Contemporary and Deutschlandfunk. Riot’s previous album, Speak Be Silent, was internationally acclaimed, and named one of 2019’s best recordings by Alex Ross in the New Yorker.

These works are brought to life spectacularly by the Riot Ensemble. Its performances are uniformly excellent, combining precision and warmth, understanding and assurance. The recording is incredible – close, clean and big, uncluttered with no hint of brittleness in the upper registers – allowing the manifold sonic nuances to breathe. A most impressive release. – Lisa Mackinney, Limelight, July 2019

The present CD was recorded at Deutschlandfunk Cologne, and presents four ‘song cycles’ from British composers. The title track is Jonathan Harvey’s masterwork Song Offerings. This piece formed the centre of Riot Ensemble’s first professional performance in 2012, and is presented here with a sister piece composed by Riot’s artistic director and conductor Aaron Holloway-Nahum. Plane Sailing has the exact same instrumentation as Harvey’s work, and is dedicated to him. Alongside these two works is Laurence Osborn’s Micrographia (with text by Joseph Minden, commissioned by Riot Ensemble in 2017), and intersperced throughout the CD is Samantha Fernando’s song cycle for Soprano and Cello (How Many Moments Must, Utterance, and The Half Moon).

Riot Ensemble

Riot
The long-lived New York-based heavy metal band Riot was formed in 1976 by guitarist/songwriter Mark Reale, who in time recruited vocalist Guy Speranza, guitarist L.A. Kouvaris, bassist Jimmy Iommi and drummer Peter Bitelli. After debuting in 1977 with Rock City, Kouvaris was replaced by guitarist Rick Ventura, and the group returned in 1979 with Narita; Iommi and Bitelli were the next to exit, and with the recruitment of bassist Kip Leming and drummer Sandy Slavin the classic Riot line-up was in place. Tours in support of AC/DC and Molly Hatchet followed before the release of 1981's Fire Down Under, considered by fans the band's creative peak; with the departure of frontman Speranza, however, Riot suffered a major blow from which they never fully recovered. New vocalist Rhett Forrester made his debut on 1982's Restless Breed, but after issuing Made in America a year later. Reale announced the band's dissolution; after forming a new group, the Mark Reale Project, he reformed Riot in late 1986 with vocalist Tony Moore, bassist Don VanStavern and drummer Bobby Jarzombek. The new line-up's comeback effort, Thundersteel, appeared in 1988, followed two years later by The Privilege of Power; after adding second guitarist Mike Flyntz and replacing VanStavern with bassist Pete Perez, the group toured the Far East, yielding the LP Riot in Japan Live !!! in 1992. After 1994's Nightbreaker, Jarzombek quit Riot, and was replaced by drummer John Macaluso for 1996's The Brethren of the Long House; Jarzombek returned to the fold to release Inishmore two years later, with Sons of Society following in 1999. (Jason Ankeny, All Music Guide)

Booklet for Song Offerings