The music presented here features works by some of the UK’s and Ireland’s most original and challenging composers: Michael Finnissy, Mike Searby, Stephen Goss, Gerald Barry, and Tim Ewers, combined with eclectic soundscapes from the quartet. http://uneasydreams.com/index.htm The Composers Stephen Goss (b.1964) Reader in Composition at the University of Surrey, he writes communicative and accessible music that draws freely on a number of styles and genres. These eclectic influences result in the unexpected juxtapositions that characterise much of his work. His music has been recorded on over 40 CDs by more than a dozen record labels including EMI, Decca and Telarc. Recent commissions have come from: Grammy winner David Russell, Natalie Klein, William Bennett, The Choir of St Paul's Cathedral, The Yehudi Menuhin School and the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra. His piece The Garden of Cosmic Speculation for violin, 'cello, bass clarinet and piano (2005) was profiled on The South Bank Show on ITV1. Xuefei Yang's recording of Goss's The Chinese Garden for guitar (2008) was nominated as Editor's Choice in Gramophone Magazine and won Best Instrumental CD in the Canton Radio Classical CD awards in China. In October 2009, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra gave the first performance of Stephen's Albeniz Concerto (2009); this piece was released by EMI Classics in 2010. 2011 has seen a release on the FMR label of the CD Northern Lights (Susie Hodder-Williams/Chris Caldwell/Graham Roberts) which is also available from CD-Baby. Gerald Barry (b.1952) was born in Clarecastle, County Clare, Ireland and studied music at University College, Dublin. He subsequently studied composition with Stockhausen, Kagel, Schat and Cerha. In 1982 he was appointed as a lecturer in music at University College, Cork but since 1986 (after his election to the Aosdana - the state sponsored academy of creative artists) he has been a full-time composer. From the late 1980's onwards his music has been recognised internationally with commissions from the BBC Proms (Chevaux-de-frise for orchestra in 1988) and in 1995 his second opera The Triumph of Beauty and Deceit was broadcast by Channel 4. He has written several other opera's, The Intelligence Park, The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant and La Plus Forte (The Stronger). The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant was staged at English National Opera and at the Basle Opera. The Interlligence Park is recorded on the NMC label and The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant on the RTE label. A CD of his chamber music is also recorded on NMC. The Triumph of Beauty and Deceit and La Plus Forte recently received their American premieres with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the New World Symphony Orchestra. In 2010 there will be four performances of La Plus Forte with the Toronto and London Symphony Orchestras and the Netherlands Philharmonic. Barry's music shows the infuenceof Kagel through his use of quotation and his interest in opera and music theatre. He also uses chance-like processes to generate the pitches in his works and his structure often start mid-process and end abruptly. Essentially he is avoiding cliche and traditional approaches in his compositional techniques. His music is uncompromising and iconoclastic and clearly modernist in its expression and concerns, but still allows a wealth of illusion. Tim Ewers (b.1958) is a Senior Lecturer in Music at Kingston University. He has a distinguished record in composition and has worked, amongst others, with Gemini, The Wallace Collection, Quorum, The Fibonacci Sequence, Jane Manning and Jane's Minstrels. His latest piece The Blackbird Sings was commissioned by Al Farabi Concerto for the Liverpool 10/10 Ensemble and was given its premier in March 2010 in the Wigmore Hall. www.tim-ewers.co.uk Mike Searby (b.1960) studied composition at Manchester University with Geoffrey Poole and at York University with Richard Orton. He completed his PhD at Goldsmiths College on the later music of Gyorgy Ligeti in 2006. He has lectured in music at Salford University and is presently Principal Lecturer at Kingston University overseeing the teaching of composition at undergraduate and postgraduate levels. He has composed for a wide range of ensembles including Marabou for Soprano and Piano written for Jane Manning. Two images for four Chinese instruments (recorded on Hugo CD's: ML-C5007), Lament and Dance for solo trumpet written for Paul Archibald (published by Brass Wind Publications) and several works for various chamber ensembles. The style of his music is quite eclectic - composers that influence his work include Birtwhistle, Reich, Zenakis and Ligeti. He has also piblished extensively on the music of Ligeti including his book Ligeti's Stylistic Crisis: Transformation in his Musical Style 1974 - 1985 publishes by Scarecrow Press in 2010. Michael Finnissy (b.1946) showed an early interest in music, both composing and playing the piano. He was awarded a scholarship to study composition at the Royal College of Music with Bernard Stephens and Humphrey Searle and following this continued his studies in Italy with Roman Vlad. Finnissy's early works were well received and he soon established a reputation in both this country and Europe as a composer of challenging and exciting music and as a formidable performer of his own piano music. He has been associated with the ensembles Ixion and Suoraan and has also worked extensively with dance companies and has a long association with the London School of Contemporary Dance where he established a music department in the 1970's. He has taught at the Dartongton Summer School, the Royal Academy of Music, Winchester College, the Katholieke Universiteit of Leuven (Belgium) and at the University of Sussex. He is currently Professor of Composition at Southampton University.