Hand Eye, the newest project from multiple Grammy award-winning “super musicians” (Los Angeles Times) Eighth Blackbird, features a musical dream team of performers and composers in an album of great beauty, energy, and immediacy. Eighth Blackbird won Grammy awards for all three of its Cedille recordings released between 2007 and 2013. Its next Cedille album, FILAMENT, was released in September 2015 and won the 2016 GRAMMY for Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance.
Eighth Blackbird joins forces with Sleeping Giant, six young American composers “rapidly gaining notice for their daring innovations, stylistic range and acute attention to instrumental nuance” (WQXR Radio). The result is an album of world-premiere recordings of works written for eighth blackbird and inspired by stunning pieces of contemporary art. In Timo Andres’ Checkered Shade, the aural perspective zooms out as musical fragments coalesce into an expressive chorale. Andrew Norman’s Mine, Mime, Meme places the cellist in a sonic space where the other instrumentalists mimic his playing. Robert Honstein’s three-movement Conduit takes its cue from an interactive digital sculpture pulsing with colors and the world of touch-screen electronic devices. Christopher Cerrone’sSouth Catalina reflects both an audio-responsive interactive light sculpture and the composer’s discomfort with Southern California’s perpetual sunshine. Ted Hearn’s By-By Huey is a soul-infused jam session. Jacob Cooper’s Cast assembles an array of distinctive musical gestures around a vibraphone line.
The sextet features flutist Tim Munro, clarinetist Michael J. Maccaferri, violinist Yvonne Lam, cellist Nicholas Photinos, percussionist Matthew Duvall, and pianist Lisa Kaplan. Hand Eye producer Elaine Martone and engineer Michael Bishop are multiple Grammy winners. Martone was awarded Producer of the Year, Classical in 2006. Audio editor is Cedille’s own Grammy-nominated engineer Bill Maylone.