Elision - Chris Dench: ik[s]land(s)

Chris Dench's wide-ranging extra-musical influences - from Angela Carter and Ludwig Wittgenstein to Thomas Dolby - are displayed on this disc of works written for the acclaimed Australian new music ensemble ELISION: the glittering mosaic of driftglass contrasts with funk, a punchy duet for bass clarinet and percussion; while the two most substantial pieces on the disc - the blinding access of the grace of flesh and ik(s)land[s] itself - both set the calligrammatic poetry of berni m janssen.Chris Dench and his compatriots have evidently been enjoying a richly productive relationship, documented here in three pieces � driftglass (1990), ik(s)land(s) (1997-8) and the blinding access of the grace of flesh (2002-3) ... [The last of these] is a wonderful example of Denchian swirl and wildness in an atmosphere of floating.Paul Griffiths...A series of intricate highly complex scores that seemed to be carrying on the tradition that composers such as Ferneyhough had established out of the wreckage of total serialism. The Guardian