This recording features chamber works written expressly for these performers. Among the Tarnished Stars was composed for The Burdocks, a now legendary Toronto ensemble which performed new works; Through the Low Hills was composed for the composer’s brother, the American cellist Andrew Smith; Knotted Silk and Moi Qui Tremblais were created for a dance / music collaboration between the Arraymusic ensemble and Dancemakers, of Toronto, and StudioGrame of Lyon, France; With Their Shadows Long was written for virtuoso violin / piano duo Sabat / Clarke. Embedded within these chamber pieces is the orchestral work Memory Forms, performed here by the CBC Radio Orchestra, Owen Underhill, conductor.

« These works share a certain compositional point of view, in their sense of time, their approach to form, maybe even mood, or atmosphere. They show my ongoing interest in harmony, or what I prefer to think of as harmonic colour – harmony (non-functional harmony) intertwined with orchestration, the one not separated from the other. I tend to work in what I think of as expansive, or expanded time. I want to make time larger than it is, as though the listener is examining something up close, closer than a usual perspective… an intimate perspective. »

~ Linda Catlin Smith

« beautiful sonorities…sensuous, in an understated way ». ~ The Globe and Mail

1. Among the Tarnished Stars

2. Through the Low Hills

3. Knotted Silk

4. With their Shadows Long

5. Memory Forms

6. Moi qui tremblais