All the works on this disc, according to the composer Justin Connolly, are explorations of images of darkness. They include ’Nocturnal’ a set of sea-pictures, and ’Scardanelli Dreams’, which "charts the motion of a great spirit, not dimmed, but which illuminates the darkness in which it finds itself."
“…haunted, strange, strangely beautiful music. Nicolas Hodges, the pianist throughout this disc, masters every nuance the musical landscape requires. He can mention as well as mutter, demonstrate as well as remonstrate, but his formidable technique dissolves difficulty and urges on us the attention this music deserves.”
Peter Dale
“The performers, a corpus of seasoned new-music specialists, respond with dedication to a composer whose thoughts flow from a source where the intensity of art mingles with the mysterious passage of life. The Second Sonata for piano, and bass-clarinet study Domination of Black, offer additional proof of the composer in fine form in the seventh decade” ****
Nicholas Williams
“Connolly’s manner is vividly gestural, beautifully coloured, and compellingly fluid.”
Stephen Pettitt
