James Wood Cloud-Polyphonies Tongues of Fire MDR Leipzig Radio Choir • Ear Massage Percussion Quartet James Wood conductor Yale Percussion Group • Robert Van Sice director NMC D223 James Wood is known for his wide-ranging activities as composer, conductor,and formerly as viruoso percussionist, and for a close association with an exceptionally broad spectrum of music from the middle ages to the present day.   In 1981 he founded the highly acclaimed New London Chamber Choir, of which he was principal conductor for over 25 years until his move to Germany in April 2007.   During the last 10 years he has worked regularly with the Netherlands Radio Choir, RundfunkChor Berlin, RIAS Kammerchor, SWR Vokalensemble, Champ d'Action and musikFabrik, and is also in demand as guest conductor from many international ensembles, choirs and orchestras throughout Europe. James Wood has enjoyed close working relationships with many distinguished composers such as Iannis Xenakis, Mauricio Kagel, Kaija Saariaho, Gyorgy Kurtag, Alejandro Viñ, Steve Reich, Jonathan Harvey and Karlheinz Stockhausen.   As a composer his interests have led to a wide range of works for almost every conceivable genre.   He has realised commissions from such diverse sources as the Arditti Quartet, IRCAM, the ARD, Percussions de Strasbourg and the BBC Proms Tongues of Fire (2001) is a work for symphonic chorus and percussion quartet, written for the 140th Anniversary of the Yale Glee Club.   Conscious of the enormous tradition of American university Glee Clubs, and the part that gospel and spiritual music has played in it, Wood emphasizes America's rich cultural diversity using the story of the Pentecost.   The central text from The Acts of the Apostles is set in various languages, starting in Latin-American Spanish and splintering off into Hebrew, Maori, Jamaican English, Latin, Hungarian, Russian, German and French.   A quartet of oil drums, plus cowbells, gongs, guiros and metal rods provide percussive timbral richness and power.   These combine with a variety of vocal styles, including chanting, singing, hissing and whistling, to give the work a tribal feel. Percussion sextet Cloud-Polyphonies explores the movements of large formations of organisms – whether animals, insects, birds, fish, water, steam or crowds of human beings.   The first movement 'Starlings', is written for six marimbas and woodblocks, the second, 'Clouds', for metal instruments and prepared piano, and the third,'Buffalo', for drums, simantras and bullroarers. MDR Leipzig Radio Choir Soloists: Felix Plock bass Kerstin Klein Koyuncu soprano Jae-Hyong Kim speaker Ear Massage Percussion Quartet Diego Espinosa Cruz Gonzalez Wim Vos Lester Rodriguez Gomez Enric Monfort Barbera Yale Percussion Group Directed by Robert Van Sice Victor Caccese • Garrett Arney Jonathan Allen • Mari Yoshinaga Doug Perry • Cnstobal Gajardo 1. Tongues of Fire       24 30      MDR Leipzig Radio Choir      Ear Massage Percussion Quartet      James Wood conductor      Cloud-Polyphonies 2. Starlings       7'27 3. Clouds       15'53 4. Buffalo       13'13      Yale Percussion Group      Robert Van Sice direcfor      Total timing       61'05 NMC Recordings are distributed in Australia by Rockian Trading, P.O.Box 44, Briar Hill, Vic, 3088, Australia Telephone (03) 9432 4149 ~ Facsimile (03) 9444 6879