Andrew Dietzel’s new review of violist/composer Jessica Pavone’s latest recording, Songs of Synastry and Solitude (Tzadik), is now posted at PopMatters.com.

“Pavone, with the help of the Toomai String Quintet, has crafted something sullenly beautiful, jarring and ominous in its minimalism,” he writes. “Comprised of 11 well-measured pieces, Songs of Synastry and Solitude sends the listener on a journey through a wintry landscape that is as desolate as the title suggests…as deeply personal and idiosyncratic as a series of journal entries. Each song is an invitation, and each title a linguistic starting point, for the listener to construct their own story via the transference of individual experience. Gloomy and forceful, Songs of Synastry and Solitude is as much about the space between the notes as it is the notes themselves, and as much about Pavone’s own story as it is yours.”

The Toomai String Quintet will be performing this music live at The Stone in New York on Thursday, and again at The Issue Project Room in Brooklyn on March 17th as part of a program featuring various composers.