The Absolute Sound: 5 stars for sound and 5 stars for music

This release Yarlung Records hits the trifecta—engaging unfamiliar music, committed performances, and spectacular sound. Clarice Assad is a Brazilian-American composer/pianist, who moves effortlessly between classical, jazz, and popular idioms. She accompanies her own scat singing on two selections (Luminous and Milton Nacimento’s Cravo e Canela) while Constellation for violin and piano features a touchingly songful slow movement. Completely different is the slashing, angular Clash for bandoneón and string quartet. Bryce Dessner’s quasi-minimalistic Circles is scored for the same forces, and Julien Labro, the album’s featured bandoneón virtuoso, contributes Meditation No. 1, an eight-minute reverie for this instrumental grouping as well. Kaija Saariaho’s Nocturne, for solo violin, fits the program’s aura of anxious melancholia. The Takács Quartet is approaching their semicentennial, and although only the cellist remains from the original ensemble, the group’s intensity and technical fluency is intact. Yarlung’s sonics are revelatory. Balances are believable, and although the recorded perspective isn’t immediate, Assad’s first vocal entrance on the Nascimento piece made me jump. I listened to the program as a 24/88 WAV file; a DSD version, CD, and vinyl options are also available. –Andrew Quint