Violinist Gidon Kremer has taken listeners on many memorable journeys through adventurous musical waters over the years, and the present disc pairs him with harpist Naoko Yoshino in a globe-spanning program that manages both striking diversity and inner coherence. INSOMNIA takes off from its title track, a work written for these performers by Yuji Takahashi, on a circular stream-of-consciousness wander through nocturnal realms, with music embodying repetition and stasis, meditation and memory. The New Age-like concept and cover art, however, accompany a consistently thoughtful program assembled with striking intelligence. The avant-garde aspect of several of the works is somewhat tempered by the beauty of the instrumentation and of these particular performances.Thought-provoking above all are the mutual international influences documented here (from Asia to Europe to Asia to America to...), and the focus on a strain in musical modernism that embraces Satie, Cage, Takemitsu and Pￃﾤrt as well as more unlikely candidates such as Richard Strauss and Jean Franￃﾧaix, whose insouciant duets make for a welcome lively touch in the center of the program. INSOMNIA may lull the listener momentarily, but the rich variety of related sounds certainly will put no-one to sleep.

Violinist Gidon Kremer has taken listeners on many memorable journeys through adventurous musical waters over the years, and the present disc pairs him with harpist Naoko Yoshino in a globe-spanning program that manages both striking diversity and inner coherence. INSOMNIA takes off from its title track, a work written for these performers by Yuji Takahashi, on a circular stream-of-consciousness wander through nocturnal realms, with music embodying repetition and stasis, meditation and memory. The New Age-like concept and cover art, however, accompany a consistently thoughtful program assembled with striking intelligence. The avant-garde aspect of several of the works is somewhat tempered by the beauty of the instrumentation and of these particular performances.
Thought-provoking above all are the mutual international influences documented here (from Asia to Europe to Asia to America to...), and the focus on a strain in musical modernism that embraces Satie, Cage, Takemitsu and Pￃﾤrt as well as more unlikely candidates such as Richard Strauss and Jean Franￃﾧaix, whose insouciant duets make for a welcome lively touch in the center of the program. INSOMNIA may lull the listener momentarily, but the rich variety of related sounds certainly will put no-one to sleep.