Various Artists - Zoom In 12: New Art Music From Lithuania [Music Information Centre Lithuania]

Coming in as the 100th release of the Music Information Centre Lithuania-label is "Zoom In 12: New Art Music From Lithuania", the twelfth edition of the imprints "Zoom In"-series which focuses on introducing the countries compository talent to the world, this time bringing on seven live recorded pieces that were played in concert in between 2015 and 2017. Emphasizing on a younger generation of composers all born past 1970 the album opens with Egidija Medeksaite's "Megh Malhar" which comes across as an enchanted crossover of Minimal Music, Contemporary Classical and Ambient whereas Juste Janulyte brings forth calm, beautiful explorations and meditations on and in the instrument mentioned with "Harp Is A Chord" and Marius Baranauskas' "Delta Cephei" is as sci-fi as its title suggests in its minimalist, yet spatial, score'esque and extremely thrilling combination of tam-tam and cello which makes this one our favorite pick on this compilation. Furthermore Julius Aglinskas caters a little hint of heartfelt, string-performed kitsch with his barely titled "...", "Tapisserie" by Justina Repeckaite combines haunting brass and strings with stripped down, sparse, meandering yet seemingly slightly Jazz-infused piano repetitions and "No Sense" by Dominykas Digimas balances its (Neo)Classical feel with brooding tension noir and manages to keep all listeners senses on high alert over the tunes total runtime of nine minutes. Finally Zibuokle Martinaityte presents the compilations final and longest piece with the roughly 18 minutes spanning "Chiaroscura Trilogy" which brings high level drama to the table for an intense closing. Defo another interesting overview of Lithuania's experimental composition scene one should not miss out on.

Album artwork on Instagram!