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Artist: ZOFO
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ZOFO:

Plays Terry Riley

ZOFO is at it again, this time with an all Terry Riley album, which includes original compositions, arrangements and a special commission by the duet. It is quite evident in this music that the composer and the performers were personally engaged in the making of this electrifying project. From the very beginning, Terry Riley worked in collaboration with ZOFO in the making of this album. Mr. Riley himself said: "There is nothing quite like hearing the full 8 octaves of a piano sounding in all its orchestral richness." He certainly makes full use of the sounds of the piano in the pieces originally written for piano-four-hands, from The Heaven Ladder, Book 5, which include the varying "Cinco de Mayo," "Jaztine," "Waltz for Charismas," "Tango Doble Ladiado," and "Etude From the Old Country." Keisuke arranged "G Song" and "Half-Wolf Dances Mad in Moonlight," which were originally composed for the Kronos Quartet, and Eva arranged "Simone's Lullaby," originally for solo piano. The arrangements were both challenging and fun to create, but ZOFO managed to keep the transparency and flavor of Riley's originals while exemplifying the unique potential for four-hand piano. The "Praying Mantis Rag" was composed especially for ZOFO, and actively illustrates their vibrant character as a duet.

ZOFO:

Zoforbit

ZOFORBIT, the third album from dynamic Steinway Artist Ensemble ZOFO, follows Grammy nominees Eva-Maria Zimmermann and Keisuke Nakagoshi as they embark on a musical voyage through the galaxy, with mesmerizing, outer space themed piano duet works by four noted composers of the 20th and 21st centuries – Gustav Holst, George Crumb, David Lang and Urmas Sisask. Estonian composer Urmas Sisask sets the mood with the other-worldly sounds of his composition The Milky Way, featuring aurally stunning inside and outside the piano techniques that evoke a sense of the cosmos. The journey continues with original piano-four-hands arrangements of Gustav Holst's The Planets, and visits to the stars Alpha Centauri and Beta Cygni as musically envisioned by George Crumb in his duet masterpiece Celestial Mechanics(Makrokosmos IV). The space exploration concludes with David Lang's gravity, which metaphorically coaxes the listener back to earth in slow-moving patterns of descending notes. 

ZOFO:

Mosh Pit

"...vibrant, beautifully blended playing" - "..brilliant sound and a suave deployment of four hands at one piano"
San Francisco Chronicle 

"...the performances have a very attractive looseness that persists through all the technical fireworks. A most enjoyable piano four-hands release." - AllMusic

Sono Luminus is excited to release this second album from the dynamic duet ZOFO: Mosh Pit, where Eva-Maria Zimmermann and Keisuke Nakagoshi put their considerable keyboard skills to the test in an exciting, in-depth  exploration of dance-inspired duet compositions by six distinctly American voices of the twentieth century – George Gershwin, Conlon Nancarrow, Allen Shawn, Samuel Barber, John Corigliano and Paul Schoenfield. With pieces ranging from waltz to tango to boogie and beyond, ZOFO's high energy interpretations beg the question: Shall we dance?

ZOFO:

Mind Meld

Sono Luminus releases the ZOFO duet - MIND MELD thier first CD that features stunning one-piano-four-hands works by Leonard Bernstein (Candide Overture), Harold Shapero (Sonata for Piano Four Hands), Claude Debussy (Six Epigraphes Antiques) and Igor Stravinsky (The Rite of Spring). Recording took place in August 2011 at the state-of-the-art Skywalker Sound Studios in Marin County California. ZOFO will record their second CD with Sono Luminus MOSH PIT: American Dances for 20 Fingers in September, 2012 with release scheduled for spring of 2013. MOSH PIT includes works by George Gershwin, John Corigliano, Allen Shawn, Samuel Barber, Conlon Nancarrow, Terry Riley and Paul Schoenfield.