Michael Byron’s “Halcyon Days” is unique percussion (marimbas, xylophones, vibraphones, glockenspiels, tubular bells, maracas) and keyboard music that’s both wild and pensive, played by an all-star group of new-music performers that includes William Winant, the William Winant Percussion Group (Winant, Tony Gennaro, Michael Jones, and Scott Siler), Lisa Moore, Vicki Ray, and Aron Kallay. Except for the final track (a piano solo written in 2016), these pieces are from a previously under-documented period of Byron’s work—the mid-’70s, when he composed unique and remarkable minimalist-styled music. This album treats us to clangorous clouds of polyrhythms and simple, direct, quiet works, both of which explore rich harmonies and bespeak a sense of transcendent motionlessness. Byron comments about the album, “Poet Anne Tardos wrote that ‘Time doesn’t pass. We pass.’ Most of the pieces on this CD were composed in the 1970s. It seemed like everything was beginning then. Lifelong friends were made, and improbable ideas were shared; composing neither began nor ended. This CD features virtuoso percussionist, and my oldest friend, Bill Winant. Over the last 50 years he has performed and premiered every percussion piece that I’ve ever composed.”. Michael Byron’s music tends to be harmonically rich, rhythmically detailed, and virtuosic. It’s often praised for its ability to create dense constructions out of relatively limited materials. His works have been performed and recorded by such new-music champions as Sarah Cahill, Joseph Kubera, William Winant, FLUX Quartet, Kathleen Supové, and Thomas Buckner. The Wire’s Julian Cowley has written that Byron is “one of those contemporary composers who can justifiably be classed as crucial. . . . Byron’s music dances with tremulous iridescence.” (Byron’s music has appeared on seven previous Cold Blue Music albums.) William Winant, tubular bells, maracas, marimba, xylophone, glockenspiel, and vibraphone William Winant Percussion Group (Winant, Tony Gennaro, Michael Jones, and Scott Siler), marimbas, xylophones, glockenspiels, and vibraphones Ray-Kallay Duo (Vicki Ray and Aron Kallay), piano four-hands Lisa Moore, piano Produced by Jim Fox, William Winant, and Scott Fraser

03.09.23 Michael Byron's new work In One Second There Will Be A Thousand Plateaus Perhaps for two pianos and small orchestra featuring pianists Joseph Kubera and Steve Beck with Petr Kotik conducting members of the S.E.M. Ensemble. At Roulette Intermedium.

Happy birthday Michael Byron

06.13.18  James Ilgenfritz has a residency at The Stone and he presented a jam packed night, including the world premiere of recent Ilgenfritz compositions Apophenia III "The Index" (for piano, violin, and guitar with talkbox) and “How To Talk To Your Children About Not Looking At The Eclipse” for solo flute, plus “Bracket The Referent” (for the ten piece Anagram Ensemble) and the first performance in 40 years of Michael Byron’s “Dragon Rite” (for four contrabasses)

Michael Byron, from “Monotypes.”