Utmost Utterance of the Time: A Tribute to Contemporary Choral Music

A groundbreaking contemporary avant-garde masterpiece ✕ “Invisible Incantation” (無形咒), sixteen-part a cappella voices imitating electronic music

Pushing the limits of dynamic range ✕ “Endless Rain” (無止盡的雨), “The Man-Eating Ogress” (食人女妖), and other contemporary vocal classics!

“Utmost Utterance of the Time,” Taipei Chamber Singers’ first album of contemporary avant-garde choral works, brings together the most striking avant-garde sounds of East and West. It features “Invisible Incantation,” a transcendent sixteen-part a cappella masterpiece in which Swedish maverick composer Jesper Nordin has voices imitate electronic music; “Endless Rain” by Venezuelan composer Alberto Grau, which challenges vocal dynamics and projects the fiery Latin soul; “Hope” (希望) by New Zealand woman composer Clare Maclean, which uses minimalist techniques to address the loss of Indigenous culture; and “The Man-Eating Ogress” by Australian choral master Stephen Leek, built entirely on onomatopoeic effects, among other contemporary vocal classics. It is a weighty contemporary music album rarely found in Taiwan.

Taipei Chamber Singers is one of Taiwan’s top choirs, with more prizes from European international choral competitions than any other choir in Taiwan. In recent years, under conductor Yun-Hung Chen, its work in contemporary music has been remarkable: in 2007 it became the first Taiwanese choir invited to sing at the ISCM-ACL World Music Days, and in 2008 it performed contemporary choral music from around the world at the IFCM World Symposium on Choral Music, premiering commissioned works for the festival. This first contemporary album from one of Asia’s top vocal ensembles gives voice to sounds that belong to our time alone.

Collaborators

Conductor / Yun-Hung Chen

Piano / Nai-Chia Wang

Performers / Taipei Chamber Singers