Out with a bang Trios for clarinet, with BASIL RAMSEY dacapo    8.224122

Here are four Danish composers born in the twenty years from 1946 to 1966, broadly speaking mid-century. The musical sluice gates were open, and composers anxiously searching for the right boat to sweep them towards aspects of a musical haven, from which they might compose music relevant to periods of change and decay following the century's second devastating world conflict.

Of styles, or ways to communicate, these composers are fairly representative. None becomes hopelessly entangled in unproductive tasks: all choose aspects of musical language capable of sustaining ideas and various developments with such creative methods that are not remote nor confusing to a listener familiar with the century's musical progress. There is variety and worthwhile answers to the basic challenge of combining three instruments in dialogue.

My personal choice of Karsten Fundal for The Ways of Lightness and Falling relies entirely on my satisfaction with what I hear [listen -- track 2, 0:00-1:07]. Of the other three, Wayne Siegel has Sound Patterns, which really tells you what to expect. Then comes the crunch deciding if there's more to it. The other two are denser in texture and thought. Svend Hvidtfelt Nielsen and Pierre Dørge give our ears adventures which may turn out well depending on one's reaction. It's fair to say that the last piece goes out with a bang [listen -- track 6, 3:22-4:21].

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Record Box is Music & Vision's regular Wednesday series of shorter CD reviews