American Record Guide
On a Ground
Michala Petri, rec; Marie Nishiyama, hp
OUR 8226927—76 minutes
This is a program of music more old than new, starting with Spanish composer and music theorist Diego Ortiz (around 1510–76), who spent most of his career in the boot-shaped peninsula serving the Spanish Neapolitan Court, extending through Danish guitarist, lutenist, and composer Lars Hannibal (b 1951). Along the way we encounter Carr, Farinel, Tollett, Bach, Marcello, Gluck, Gounod, and Satie. Everything includes an aspect of repetition. Most pieces tend to be slower and contemplative. The text suggests this program as balm providing sonic restoration from the events going on, especially that you might wish undone or to hear less about.
Nishiyama accompanies from an 18th Century harp while Petri is playing several instruments in the alto to tenor range. The playing is certainly good enough, but something less palpable is important too. The intimacy and simple respite of two people making music like this certainly indicates the kind of association our societies have lost almost entirely but don’t need to, whether one participates or appreciates.
The 23-page booklet, entirely in color, includes notes by Joshua Cheek and suggestions for other albums from the OUR label with a guide to 16 categories.
Inside the booklet is an oil painting by Danish violinist Elisabeth Zeuthen Schneider dated 2025. It shows an impressionist view of a path that zig-zags through a hilly meadow with lots of flowers among the grass. What grows from the ground? One response sampling the centuries comes by hearing this album. GORMAN, October 16, 2025