The album is inspired by Iceland and the cultural legacy of its music, featuring works by several prominent Icelandic composers, including María Huld Markan Sigfúsdóttir, Anna Thorvaldsdottir, Daníel Bjarnason, and Páll Ragnar Pálsson.
Aequora is the first recording Mina Gajić & Zachary Carrettin’s duo will release under the name Mystery Sonata, embracing the inherent mystery in presenting contemporary music and new arrangements for the first time.
Gajić writes, “Music from Iceland seems to offer an alternate reality, a sound space that is distinct in each work and with each composer, and yet shared, almost as a collective consciousness, or at least a community with similar ideals expressed in music. Zachary and I traveled to Iceland to experience the landscapes and to meet with several composers, exploring their work and observing where the connections between their interests and ours as a duo seemed congruous. María had been wanting to rework her Aequora, adding a violin to the piano and electronics, and Páll had been imagining adapting the harp part for piano in his work Notre Dame. Both turned out to be remarkably successful, and rewarding to study and perform. In exploring works to program alongside these, Anna’s Reminiscence and Daníel’s First Escape worked beautifully – solos complementing the other works while providing refreshing contrast to the duo works. We asked María to create an entirely new work for us with the goal of providing a contemplative environment for the audience, as a shared meditation, a community-building ritual. She composed an utterly gorgeous work, Re/fractions, casting light on what is possible when the intention is, as she so eloquently stated when we first met, ‘to refrain from adding noise to an already noisy world.’”
Bach Uncaged is a groundbreaking album by electro-acoustic violinist Zachary Carrettin and pianist Mina Gajić, blending J.S. Bach's music on electric violin with John Cage's prepared piano compositions. The album chronicles diverse performances across various acoustic settings, including collaborations with contemporary and aerial/vertical dance.
Carrettin employs an electric violin tuned low with a baroque bow, occasionally using a delay pedal to highlight Bach's manuscript intricacies, emphasizing harmonic stasis and artistic script. The pairing of prepared piano with the "baroque" electric violin creates a shared sonic space, enabling improvised phrasing sensitive to dancers and environment.
While Bach's compositions are known for their dance connections, Cage's works on this record exude a uniquely dance-like quality, characterized by simplicity, playfulness, and rhythmic vitality, contrasting Bach's complex harmonic developments in solo violin sonatas. Both composers led spiritually rich lives, influenced by texts and artistry, with Cage integrating visual arts and Zen philosophy into his compositions, exemplified in the evocative "Sonatas and Interludes."
This album celebrates their innovative approaches to music, resonating with unexpected, spontaneous moments in performance.
Sonic Alchemy features solo, duo, and trio works by W.A. Mozart, Arvo Pärt and Pēteris Vasks, performed by violinist Yueun Kim, pianist Mina Gajic, and cellist Coleman Itzkoff.
The album weaves together music spanning several centuries – from 1782 to 2013 – connected by a common quality of creating ephemeral moments that seem removed from time, encouraging deep, meditative listening.
Inspired by the transformation and fluidity of life, represented by the seasons in nature, and in humankind in the way people connect through religion and spirituality. In that way we can look towards Mozart–Adagio and see how it ‘converts’ to a trio while remaining true to itself at the same time.
Pärt’s Spiegel im Spiegel is as mirrored reflections in water, movement and stillness appearing simultaneously. Vasks’ Castillo Interior echoes the same thoughts but this time they seem to refer to something internal, very personal. In this respect I was glad to collaborate with colleagues who – like myself – walk the line between historical and modern instruments, crossing into practices and repertoires of the 21st century.
