Alex Eddington — A Present from a Small Distant World
(out February 19th, 2021 on Redshift Records — CD/DL)

Genre(s): Modern Composition, Electroacoustic, Art Song, Chamber Music
RIYL: Laurie Anderson, Meredith Monk, Luciano Berio, John Adams.

Press Release
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Program Notes

Alex Eddington: Official Site
Redshift: Bandcamp | Official Site

About: Toronto composer Alex Eddington’s unorthodox debut A Present from a Small Distant World is many different things all at once. Sometimes dark, sometimes downright silly, certain moments resemble traditional art song, whereas others unfurl strange synthetic textures. Traversing — and often revisiting — music from the past 18 years, it serves as a portrait of his close collaborative relationship with soprano Kristin Mueller-Heaslip, who plays a number of different protagonists throughout the album. While this timespan accounts for some of the album’s gleeful heterogeneity, that trait can also be attributed to its underlying inspiration, the so-called Golden Record, the phonographic “earth’s greatest hits” disc that was hurled into space in 1977 by the Voyager spacecraft.

Eddington’s restless creativity has led him into collaborations with some of Canada’s most renowned ensembles including Continuum, Quatuor Bozzini, the Toronto Consort, the Talisker Players, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Ensemble Mujirushi, and junctQín as well as performances across the globe. Winner of a 2004 SOCAN Award Eddington’s eclectic and often playful oeuvre embraces everything from choral music to electroacoustics, from period instruments to steel pan ensemble.

PRESS:
Review — Vanessa Ague, Musicworks
Review — Tom Haugen, Take Effect Reviews
Review — Andrew Timar, The WholeNote
Review — Dan Barbiero, Avant Music News
Review — Ben Taffijn, Nieuwenoten (in Dutch)
News — Burl Veneer
Radio — The Sound Projector (Resonance FM)
Radio — Noise, CJSW (spotlight on Riparian Media new releases)
Radio — That’s Classical?, CJSW (Sept. 19th, 2021)
Radio — Noise, CJSW (May 27th, 2021)