Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh

Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh/Garth Knox: All Soundings Are True

by Ian Patterson
December 31, 2017

Unlike notated music, where one wrongly sounded note can jar terribly, improvised music obeys no stringent laws. It can jar but it's never wrong. Indeed, the concept of what constitutes music--our appreciation or tolerance for some sounds but not others--is frequently challenged by improvisers, for whom all sounds are valid. Fiddler Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh (This Is How We Fly, The Gloaming) and violist Garth Knox (the Arditti Quartet, Ensemble Intercontemporain, Saltarello Trio), have long applied such a free-spirited philosophy to ...