WINDSYNC opened the Matinee Musicale Cincinnati 2021-2022 series with a compelling recital that got a tremendously positive reaction from the audience. I loved their work then and love their work now as I sit listening to their new album for BRIGHT SHINY THINGS. The ensemble members are young and hip, and their music reflects those qualities along with elegant musicality, flawless technique, and imaginative programming.

In ALL WORLDS, ALL TIMES they play three new works – all tonal, all melodic, all eminently accessible, anchored as they are on music that is anything but “highbrow”.

Apollo by Marc Mellits was inspired by the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing. Its fifteen miniatures range from the meditatively tranquil to the jittery and restless. Deceivingly simple, Mellits’ composition is a tricky tour de force that calls for the members of Windsync to bring their best game to the playing of this fun but complex composition.

Ivan Trevino’s Songbook, vol. 3 is a charming homage to four alternative music icons: David Byrne, Thom Yorke, Annie Clark, and Jonsi Birgisson. Each section is written in the style of the subject of each movement.

Miguel del Aguila’s Wind Quintet No. 2 is a four-part work that gives preference to the lower register instruments of the quintet in four movements: Back in Time, in Heaven, Under the Earth, and Far Away. The imaginative, genre-bending, inventive music of the Uruguayan-American composer ranges from the moody to the raucous.

As usual, the production and engineering of the album is yet another example of the high standards of BRIGHT SHINY THINGS.

Rafael de Acha