Since its release in September, the KWS recording From Here On Out has been attracting much positive attention from critics. Called “impressive” by Steve Smith, Music Editor of Time Out New York, the CD presents collaborations of the KWS with Nico Muhly, Richard Reed Parry and Jonny Greenwood.

Paul Wells of Macleans calls the CD “a rebuke to the conservatism of just about every other mainstream Canadian orchestra.” Drawing attention to the fact that two out of three composers featured on the CD are working outside their usual genre, Wells states assuredly that “this is no pops album. It demands, and rewards, open ears and minds.”  The Whole Note describes it as “an intriguing CD of music that you probably won’t hear elsewhere.”

From Here On Out, an offering from New York based composer Nico Muhly, is a set of variations on a bass line, making a simple outline for the structure of the piece. Wish You Were Here pays homage to Canadian composer Colin McPhee, as well as to the great illustrators Carl Barks (Donald Duck) and Hergé (Tintin). Muhly’s music of has been played by such ensembles as the Britten Sinfonia, and the New York Philharmonic. His first opera, Two Boys, was a co-commission by the Metropolitan Opera and the Lincoln Center Theater Opera. He wrote the score for the Academy Award winning film The Reader and often plays keyboards for Bjork.

Richard Reed Parry’s For heart, breath and orchestra is based on using the quiet, varying internal rhythms of the human body – specifically our heartbeats and our breath – and requires that most of the musicians wear stethoscopes so they can listen to their own heartbeats and pick tempos to match. Parry divides his time between his two bands: the Grammy award-winning Arcade Fire and Juno award-winning Bell Orchestre. He has composed music for Kronos Quartet and Ymusic and collaborated with LaLaLa Human Steps.

The ambitious Popcorn Superhet Receiver, composed by Jonny Greenwood, won the BBC Radio 3 Listeners’ Award at the 2006 British Composer Awards, and was also used in his score for the Oscar-winning film There Will Be Blood. Although his is no stranger to classical music, Greenwood is best known as the lead guitarist of the hugely successful rock band, Radiohead.

This is the first time all four pieces have been recorded for commercial release. Parry’s For heart, breath and orchestra was commissioned by the KWS.  From Here On Out was released on Montreal’s Analekta label September 20, 2011.

From Here On Out is available for purchase online at Analekta.com, itunes, and amazon.ca, as well as in stores and at the Conrad Centre for the Performing Arts, home to the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony.

This recording was made possible with support of the Region of Waterloo Arts Fund.