Angel Peak CD

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Spontaneous Compositions on Solo Violin

I. Journey (2002) (total: 29:50)
  1. Intro - Lyrical (2:46)
  2. Con Moto (1:05)
  3. Lyrical II (2:28)
  4. Arpeggiato (0:54)
  5. Searching (2:36)
  6. Lyrical III (2:17)
  7. Trill Transition (2:17)
  8. Silver Bow (1:44)
  9. Bridge Overtones (3:38)
  10. Tense (2:25)
  11. Overtone Transition (1:36)
  12. Singing (3:57)
  13. End (0:54)
     
II. Angel Peak (live @ Thursday Night Special, Mills College, Oakland, CA; April 2000)
  1. Angel Peak (5:07)
     
III. Live @ line space line (Salvation Theatre, March 31, 2003) (total: 16:10)
  1. Pickup (2:25)
  2. Departure (4:02)
  3. Slow-moving (4:34)
  4. Faster (3:58)
  5. Return (1:10)
     
IV. Lament (2002)
  1. Lament (11:29)

Total running time: 61:39

Nora Hoffmann "is a melodic and very soulful player with an arsenal of coarse-to-fine bowing techniques that can let her sound like a duo...She has a strong compositional bent and a Gypsylike appeal that go down easy."
Greg Burk, LA WEEKLY
Nora Hoffmann - ANGEL PEAK:  "Spontaneous Compositions on Solo Violin" is how Nora describes her works on this most interesting CD... an apt description; listeners enchanted by the magic of an instrument that (often) allows the listener to "fill in the gaps" will fall in love with Ms. Hoffmann's works immediately. Much less frenetic in style than (perhaps) my friend LaDonna Smith's playing, Nora clearly understands the constructs of the etherspace... & knows that the more the "spirit" is involved in the playing, the more interaction there will be between her playing & the listener's imagination. Her approach to these spontaneous compositions shows skill in both arts... "playing" and "listening". I particularly liked track 9, "Bridge Overtones"... it does require that you be in a listening space where you won't be distracted... because you need to be able to relax enough to visualize the aural images she paints for you... but, I can tell you, it's well worth the extra effort. One suggestion would be to ensure that the track titles get "buried" on the CD next time, using WINAMP, or whatever. That is a minor critique, of course, but it helps, I think. OTOH, I really like the idea that she has put titles for the tracks (on the jacket)... many players just leave them as Track 01, lending no "meaning" to the piece.  This is a CD full of energy, life & soul, & gets a HIGHLY RECOMMENDED from us! Contact at www.norahoffmann.com or via e-mail to dragoncatmusic@gmail.com  Rotcod Zzaj


Adventurous, Passionate, and Unusual Violin Sounds
By Nora Hoffmann, composer

It's my CD, meaning I composed, performed, co-engineered, and produced it. So I thought I'd let you know a little bit about it, to let you know what you're getting into!

It's Spontaneous Compositions. This means it's improvisation inspired by listening and responding to the sonic space in and around my head. That makes it adventurous music, reaching for the edges of the music I've played before, continuously exploring new musical territory and connecting it back to familiar musical experience. You can listen to excerpts above.

You may hear stuff in there where you think "that's not a violin," or "that's two violins," or "that's a human voice." The latter, the human voice, is true in some instances on the CD. Everything else is a violin, and just one of them, at times engaging double stops. When it doesn't sound like a violin, or a voice, then it's because I'm using different parts of the bow and violin body to play with further musical events that can be produced on a string instrument.
The art work was done by my friend Lynda Carre, and the photographs were taken by my friend Miriam Schuenke. I find both outstanding in their artistry, and recommend getting the CD instead of just the MP3 to be able to enjoy the art work on front, back, and inside, as well as be able to read about each piece on the CD.

There is an error on the CD face regarding time; I overlooked, when proof-reading, that the CD face reads that the first piece, Journey, is 9 minutes something long; it's actually 29 minutes something total, when you add up all the subtracks I created for easier accessing of specific parts of the composition.

I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed creating and producing it. Because I like engaging about my work, you can always email me with feedback, questions, comments, at dragoncatmusic (at) gmail.com