Credits:

Katharine Dain

Description:

[A song cycle featuring a soprano and string quartet, enhanced with traditional instruments, that gives voice to women who have long been silenced]A song cycle focusing on women who have been silenced throughout history and in storytelling. It was created by the Dutch Lagazze Quartet and soprano Catherine Dane in collaboration with five female composers. The album portrays five women: Circe, Medea, and Penelope from Greek mythology; Cassia, a 9th-century Byzantine poet; and Maria, a 16th-century midwife from the Basque region. Moving away from fixed interpretations, it reimagines their struggles and agency through their own words and perspectives. Built around a soprano and string quartet, the album incorporates a diverse array of traditional instrumentssuch as the duduk, kanun, and kemenchealong with percussion and tape recordings, creating an exquisitely intricate and varied soundscape. In