Wednesday, March 14, 2012

"Target" Nominated for 2 Awards

Keeril Makan's "Target" CD on Starkland has been nominated for the 2012 Independent Music Awards both for Best Contemporary Classical Album and for Thomas Steenland for Best Album Art. Judges for the Final Winners will include Keith Richards, Tom Waits, Suzanne Vega, Joshua Redman, Tori Amos, and Ozzy Osbourne. Winners will be announced in April.

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The rising-star Makan has been described as “an arrestingly gifted young American composer” by The New Yorker. The Pulitzer-winning composer David Lang has remarked that when he first heard Makan’s music he was “blown away” by works that were “so strong and so smart.”

The CD has received some impressive reviews:

"Approachable and mesmerizing... 
captivating and engrossing."
- Sequenza21

"A sound world in which music emerges unexpectedly 
out of violent textures, gestures and cries."
- Gramophone

"Delivers a whollop of powerful emotional content... 
the recording is of excellent quality."
- New Music Box

"A composer that is destined for greatness, 
and this recording is proof of that."
- Chamber Musician Today

The "one-man army" Tom Steenland serves as Executive Director of Starkland, has designed most of the label's booklets and packaging, and has mastered many of the releases as well.

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Independent Music Award Nominees Thomas Steenland (L) and Keeril Makan

Starkland's full catalog can be found here.

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