Duo Aya Debut Album « New Music Buff

I’ve listened to this utterly charming debut album from this flute and marimba duo several times. It is an engaging and charming selection of music by composers all unfamiliar to this listener but all seem to have the gift of substance.

I will not attempt to survey each of these composers’ works or even their biographies except to provide references for listeners who wish to explore these composers more in depth. Many do not (yet?) have web pages. They are:

Ney Rosauro (1952- )

Evan Williams (1988- )

Gareth Farr (1968- )

Paul Millette (1992- )

Makoto Shinohara (1931- )

Miriama Young (1975- )

Fumihiro Ono (1990- )

They all contribute compositions delightfully suited to this combination of instruments. Many were written for this duo.

All the compositions have characteristics ranging from jazz to light classical chamber music. And when I say “light” I simply mean basically friendly works with tonal melodic content but the music here has depth and substance.

Duo Aya consists of Rachel Woolf, flute and Makana Jimbu, marimba.

There is a clear and wonderful synergy of just really good dedicated musicians whose interpretive skills that flatter the composers’ works. Rather than attempt to describe each of the pieces on this album, I am choosing in this brief review to simply report the experience of this reviewer’s multiple listenings.

I have played this through many times, each time in varying contexts, some with no distraction, focused listens, sometimes in the background letting the music draw its gentle spell in the background, and all revealed joyful, seductive musicianship of music with creative substance. I will leave further analysis to those trained far better than me. I’m just a happy listener. As Shakespeare said, “…play on”!