Terpsichore's Box Of Dreams

Previous instalments in this long-running survey of Augusta Read Thomas's oeuvre have ranged far and wide within a catalogue that spans some 30 years to date. In contrast, we here explore a variety of works of more immediately recent vintage (the earliest work here dates from 2018), and between them fill out a vividly coloured snapshot of Thomas' irrepressible compositional persona as it stands at present. Many of her long-standing preoccupations are to be found in this collection: the love of dance which propels the music into a tirelessly evolving voyage in both rhythmic and narrative terms, the iridescent, bell-saturated sonic environment that fills her musical landscapes with light and clarity, the sense of jazz auras acting as guiding spirits propelling the music on it's course with it's restless, hocketing rhythms and penetrating harmonic flavours, a celebration and understanding of instrumental virtuosity, the overall sense of her music engaged in a deep-seated interaction between the present and the past. © Paul Pellay