This release is the fourth in the Canadian Composers Series on UK’s Another Timbre label. And the CD comes in the labels house style white gatefold, and this features nicely moody & bleak pictures of snow covered landscapes- these feel most fitting for the often sourly droning, slow, sometimes forlorn, and angular compositions within.

First up we have the releases title track- this is a composition from 2015, and features the Konus Quartet playing two lots of Alto Sax, a soprano & a Baritone Saxophone. The eighteen-minute track is very uncharacteristic of what you’d expect from the sax based composition, as it’s built around a series of slowly blown-out & sustained tones, which have a fairly narrow range.  The tracks structure sort of slowly ebbs, builds & then fades back- with the instruments creating a detailed mesh of often simmering sub-tones.  The whole thing has a very sourly unbalancing, hauntingly wavering, and strangle penetration quality about it. It’s almost as if the tones themselves are steadily burning & branding into one's sonic nerves- leaving both a feeling of sour unease & bleak mystery.

Next, we have 2008’s "Freehand Poitras"- this piece is for cello & violin, and is played by members of the Apartment House collective. The eleven-minute pieces is built around a series of alternating hovers & seared-yet-brooding simmers. There really is a feeling of bleak intensity & malevolency about the track, and once again the composition really seem to sonically brand into you.

Last up we have 2006’s “Reservoir”, and this is the longest track here at 26.38 mark. Once again it’s played by members of the Apartment House Collective- utilizing Violin, Cello, Flutes, Accordions & Percussion. This piece is structured around a mix of sudden-yet- subtle layer active sustains, stand-alone & fade-out instrumental sequences, and silence. As background music, it’s both sourly jarring & unsettling in it unfolds. But as closer more concentrated head-phone listening it becomes both more insidious, somber & unnerving in it’s  build- then- fading detail. At times there are moments of shrilling & threatening beauty, at others drifting sour-ness & angular shimmer. All in all, it’s a very accomplished work, that really deserves closer listening to pick up all the subtle & layered shifts occurring throughout.

In conclusion During A lifetime offers up three effective examples of modern classical composition- that are both bleakly penetrating, angularly captivating, and often starkly haunting.