Eden Lonsdale — Drawnings
Drawings is a two-CD release bringing together five pieces from up-and-coming Berlin-based modern classical composer, whose work bridges the gap between atmospheric simmering and hauntingly harmonic.
This double CD set appears on Another Timbre. It’s presented in the label's sparse house style mini gatefold, which features several murky pictures/artworks of off-line blocks of lines.
I first became aware of Mr Lonsdale's work with the release of his 2023 debut album Clear And Hazy Moons- also on Another Timbre. The five-piece album perfectly managed to sit between uneasy & harmony, and disquiet & lushness, and I’m happy to report this new collection of work sits once again wonderfully on this sonic intersection.
The pieces here date from between 2022 and 2023, with runtimes between twelve and forty-two minutes, taking in works for solo cello, clarinet and piano, four violins, ensemble, and seven violins. The first disc pieces are played by members of the highly respected modern ensemble Apartment House. And the second by New York-based Ensemble
On the first disc, we move from the title track, and its steadily ebbing structure of clarinet and piano, which hovers between warningly sad melody, and gentle fraught simmer. Onto the “Cloud Symmetries” which is built around four violins, and is a thirty-four-minute journey into thickly woven string work, which slowly shifts between the woozy, lightly harmonic, and seared.
The second CD takes in two pieces- first up, we the just over forty-two minutes of “Constellations”- this is for a full ensemble, and it has this warbling and wavering quality, like music turned into either heat haze or a slowly drifting mist. As the tone of the track shifts from pressingly droning, shimmeringly weaving, or lushly layered to pitch-driftingly sour. And finally, we have the twenty-six minutes of “Shedding”- which is for seven violas. Here we shift from grand and lightly harmonic edged simmering, through to lightly whistling and wavering, onto the hazily harmonic.
As a release, Drawings finds Mr Lonsdale perfecting & cementing his blend of sweet and sour. If you enjoy modern classical music that is both emotionally touching and expertly seared, then this two-disc set is a must.