BMOP/sound Presents LOU HARRISON: LA KORO SUTRO and SCOTT WHEELER: CRAZY WEATHER

Known as the nation's foremost label launched by an orchestra and devoted exclusively to new music, BMOP/sound today announced the August 12th release of two new albums: Lou Harrison: La Koro Sutro, featuring Andrew Clark's hundred-voice Providence Singers and violinist Gabriela Diaz; and Scott Wheeler: Crazy Weather, showcasing the orchestral works of New England-based composer Scott Wheeler. Conductor Gil Rose leads the Boston Modern Orchestra Project (BMOP) with sparkling clarity and panache.

Lou Harrison was an American original. Proud of his outsider status during the mid 20th century, Harrison's far-reaching influences included early music, alternate tuning systems, Buddhism, non-Western harmony, percussion, and world music spanning the Pacific Rim. The two pieces on the album Lou Harrison: La Koro Sutro offer a generous glimpse of Harrison's musical world as well as his long-term love affair with instrument building. Both Suite for Violin with American Gamelan and La Koro Sutro were written for what Harrison called an "American gamelan," a percussion ensemble of his own invention composed of keyed metallophones, knobbed gongs, pipes, drums, tuned metal bars, enormous bells made from sawed-off compressed air tanks, steel washtubs, and more. Since Harrison's original American gamelan is too fragile to travel, BMOP commissioned one of the original makers to build another copy of it. "We are the proud owners of one of only four gamelan sets in the world," says Rose. "And the 1,800 pounds and cases that go with it."

BMOP/sound is delighted to feature a longtime collaborator, composer Scott Wheeler, on its latest release Scott Wheeler: Crazy Weather. In three orchestral works of striking originality, Wheeler incorporates influences from operatic drama to poetry to geography. Wheeler, who teaches at Emerson College and directs the new music group Dinosaur Annex, is known for his understated yet highly expressive voice. Described by the New York Times as "tonally grounded, [with] polychordal harmonies and elements of modified serialism," Wheeler's compositions are constantly shifting prisms of sound and texture.

About BMOP/sound

BMOP/sound, the Grammy-nominated signature record label of the acclaimed Boston Modern Orchestra Project (BMOP), boasts an eclectic catalog of both rediscovered classics of the 20th century and the music of today's most influential and innovative composers. Since its launch in 2008, BMOP/sound recordings have received numerous accolades including appearances on "Best of" lists for its five inaugural releases in the New York Times, Boston Globe, National Public Radio, Time Out New York, American Record Guide, and Downbeat Magazine, among others; and Grammy nominations in 2009 for Charles Fussell: Wilde, in 2010 for Derek Bermel: Voices and in 2011 for Steven Mackey: Dream House. The New York Times proclaimed, "BMOP/sound is an example of everything done right." For more information, visit bmopsound.org.

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