Originally released in 2006, this reissue assembles the Swiss composer’s first two quartets and other works, where Quatuor Bozzini’s inimitable strings illuminate the timeless vision.

Streichquartett leads with Nadia Francavilla’s and Clemens Markel’s violin’s radiating mystery and hypnotic ideas across the cinematic and occasionally plucked 11 minutes, and (Unbetitelt) VI follows with the rich bowing of the violins alongside Isabelle Bozzini’s well timed cello bouts.

The back half belongs to the 2 segments of Zwei allerletze Sachelchen, where atmospheric is key and dreaminess enters in ways that are cryptic and short lived, while Streichquartett exits with nearly 30 minutes of gentle waves of ambience that make great use of Stephanie Bozzini’s viola.

An often slow moving body of work, the Montréal quartet again impress us with their detail, as seemingly simple moments unfold with beauty, wonder and emotion that truly does justice to Frey’s work.

From Collection QB, Quatuor Bozzini’s in-house label, comes a body of work from their longtime collaborator, the Vancouver based composer Owen Underhill, entitled Songs and Quartets. The recording pairs two separate string quartets, String Quartet No. 2 and String Quartet No. 5 — Land and Water. Sometimes performing pure instrumentals and sometimes supporting vocals performed by countertenor Daniel Cabena, alongside Jeremy Berkman on tenor sacqueboute/trombone and Quatuor Bozzini on violin cello. The lyrics are taken from the poetry of seventeenth century authors Henry Vaughan and Sir Walter Raleigh. On the recording, chamber music strings are fastened to operatic vocals and jazz-inspired soliloquies from Berkman’s trombone. The correspondence between the three elements form stirring arrangements, straddling lyricism and experimentalism. The scores lead the listener along a singular path, driven by Cabena’s vocals with the strings and trombone creating an atmospheric mist circling the vocals on The Retreat and What Is Our Life?. There is an ecclesiastical reverence vibrating through the 4-track series “Northern Line — Angel Station” performed by String Quartet No. 2. The enigmatic musings of the strings wander with a purpose, communicating messages to the listener in a language comprehended by an incorporeal part of its beholder. Underhill gives the tracks a ghostly aura that both mystifies and elevates the audience.