Onyx Brass - The Sun Is Free To Flow With The Sea (CD)

Release Date: 07/07/23

The sun is free to flow with the sea, perfectly epitomises Onyx and their values, as a compendium of new music.

Onyx Brass, described by BBC Music Magazine as 'the classiest brass ensemble in Britain', celebrate their 30th anniversary in 2023 with their second release on NMC. Since its establishment the group have been pioneers in advocating the brass quintet as a medium for excellent new chamber music, and have commissioned over 200 new works. This new album, The sun is free to flow with the sea, perfectly epitomises Onyx and their values, as a compendium of new music written specially for the quintet by some of the most renowned composers working today.

Some works on the album have roots in conversations that took place more than a decade ago, such as Mark-Anthony Turnage's groovy but majestic ONYX30, and Errollyn Wallen's jaunty ONYX. Other works owe their inception to much more recent events, like Roxanna Panufnik's early lockdown project, Fanfare for Broadway Tower, commissioned by Onyx trumpeter Alan Thomas who asked composers to write music inspired by a location that he could easily run or cycle to with his trumpet.

Charlotte Harding takes inspiration from architecture for her angular Rhombus, while Emily Hall found her stimuli in poems by Arthur Rimbaud. Other composers were inspired by much more personal happenings, such as Yshani Perinpanayagam whose emotive Music for My Stolen Breath is built from transcriptions she made of her breathing rhythms whilst experiencing trauma in response to a racist attack in her place of work. She describes the piece as having a 'climactic catharsis dissolving into a tiny green shoot of hope'. Zoe Martlew's mischeivious Kiss, Kiss has the players doing just that as they play with assorted percussive and vocal effects, such as blowing kisses, down their instruments.