Osso Exótico - VI: Church Organ Works (Sonoris, 1998)

On this Osso Exótico outing, David Maranha, André Maranha, and Patricia Machás find them at the helm of a pair of church organs. The disc is divided in half according to organ, beginning on a catherdral organ in Lisbon and concluding with a church organ in Marvila. Each organ is given a number of solo treatments along with a duet by D. Maranha and Machás. The pieces are slow and methodical, often softly drifting across the organ's registers or settling into careful periods of repetition. The conclusion is a fourteen minute, six-handed hydra of a work that explores the full range of the organ rather that the implied dexterity of three simultaneous players. Shades of Descending Moonshine Dervishes or Schlingen Blängen emerge, although the three find their own way through these exercises and seem to maintain an overall ethos of simplicity.

Church Organ Works