The most surprising thing about the debut of VIA Records, the label whose arrival is heralded by the release of Anna Clyne's "The Violin," is that it didn't happen long ago. Paola Prestini, co-founder and head of VisionIntoArt (VIA), has been an impresario under that banner for fifteen years of her composing career, presenting multimedia events that combine new music with poetry, stagecraft and the visual arts. A record label is the logical next step—and, no surprise, VIA is planning a multimedia release for each album, a lovingly designed package combining a CD, a DVD and art poster for each project.
The least surprising thing about VIA Records is the sheer mega-wattage of talent brought on board by an organization whose central premise is interdisciplinary collaboration. Forthcoming issues include Prestini's own opera Oceanic Verses and a co-release (with Innova Records) of the solo debut of Prestini's husband, ex-Kronos Quartet cellist Jeffrey Zeigler, and the team here is every bit as impressive: animator Josh Dorman created the visuals for the present release, and the two performers are violinists Cornelius Dufallo, formerly of the FLUX and ETHEL string quartets, and Amy Kauffman of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra.
British-born, U.S.-based Clyne spins the sound of two violins and discreet electronic accompaniment into a work of ambitious length, the lines of these instruments winding gracefully around each other like a pair of twinned saplings. These in turn branch out into quotations from Bach's first sonata for solo violin, which branch out again into allusions to folk fiddle traditions, and again into a style that is unmistakably Clyne's own.
While composed to support a companion video piece—and this is a cinematically evocative suite—"The Violin" quietly succeeds as a freestanding work, a handsome, witty and above all auspicious album from a label that promises to be an essential new voice in the future of American classical music.
'Anna Clyne - The Violin'
VIA Records | Released September 23, 2014
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