During our COVID19 isolation I’m trying to support emerging artists making music in this very difficult global pandemic. This series ‘Unusual Times’ features some of my own students, but also young musicians whom I have never met in person, but whose music should be heard by you. If you are able, please support them in your own way.
Ink Sticks & Stones, aka Ai Rei Dooh-Tousignant, ‘cold-called’ me with her new composition released on Friday. I listened to it first thing, with my morning coffee, and the music left me refreshed and ready for my day. Since I teach music composition at York, I usually listen critically for form, texture, themes, counterpoint, harmony, text setting, but I found this piece engaged my imagination on a completely different level. Accompanied by a very slow moving video of a forest scene, this music had a more meditative effect. I found myself leaving my professor ears far behind, though I had to label it – ‘a Chaconne for 2021’ . This new suite of pieces features keyboards and an accomplished trio of viola, cello and double bass, narrating the still world of the forest with a sustained, peaceful mood.
Her very new composition Vaste III, the third movement of a larger, 5-movement suite, can be accessed several ways online starting with this public Youtube link. An easy way to help out is to listen, like (thumbs up), and subscribe to her Youtube channel:
Beyond that she can be found on Spotify, Apple Music, and EPK: