Concorde Navona Records NV 5835 ***

This new CD will help keep the name of Concorde alive at home and abroad – the group was defunded by the Arts Council earlier this year. Mexican composer Alejandro Castaños's sometimes playful, sometimes dark, Ángulossounds at times like a cross between Harry Partch and Gerald Barry. Korean composer Si-Hyun Yi's The Magic Fiddle in the Desert(inspired by the film The Story of the Weeping Camel) has a narrative quality that's filmic, dreamy, sometimes almost cartoonish in colouring. Stephen Gardner's duo Klezmeriapresents catch- me-if-you-can games between violin and clarinet, and also offers touches of the flavour the title suggests. Judith Ring's . . . within an egg of space. . . for ensemble and tape inhabits a crepuscular world that elides distinctions between instruments and electronics. Jane O'Leary's Reflections IIis angularly impressionistic. See url.ie/8h4q