Slovak National Symphony Orchestra - Jackson Greenberg: First Light (2020)

Ravello Records is proud to announce the release of FIRST LIGHT, featuring performances of two innovative works by composer Jackson Greenberg. In FIRST LIGHT, human inspiration and the machine mind come together to produce music of startling richness and beauty.

The album opens with First Light, in which ethereal drones gradually dawn as seconds blur into minutes. Trance-like, this gentle meditation determinedly builds in dynamic intensity throughout the piece. Almost indiscernibly, instrument families join the accumulating harmonic roar like the rays of daybreak cresting over some desolate, faraway planet. The music was composed by feeding short compositions into a computer program that stretched them up to ten times their original length, creating vibrant distortions that stir the soul with their strange humanity. The second track is a musical setting of the Rainer Rilke poem, “The Panther.” Greenberg eschewed the use of a singer for this performance, instead composing music around a decades-old public domain recording of the poem, recited in its original German.

In FIRST LIGHT, Jackson Greenberg constructs a series of musical cages from which the listener—scratching, clawing—yearns to escape. Yet, he also offers the hope of transformative progress and eventual freedom. Those who thrill at the mingling of human creativity with electronic manipulation will recognize and celebrate the powerful beauty of FIRST LIGHT.