Arkora – Transfigured Light

Spanning multiple seasons and development phases, Transfigured Light (“the standout event of Vancouver’s spring music season” The Vancouver Observer), is an album of commissions by Canadian, American, and Chinese composers exploring dichotomies of transformation: death, rebirth, light and darkness. Stemming initially from concerts which paired Renaissance motets with newly-commissioned work, Transfigured Light aims to bridge the gap between past and present, bringing Arkora’s sound into a new version of the grand motet, albeit one imbued with microtonality, electric instrumentation, and the integration of post-rock, jazz, and ambient music into its foundations of choral/contemporary classical.

TRACKS
1. Curtis Andrews: Shantaleela Namostute (music and text) 7:21
2. Fay Kueen Wang: Hypnotist (music and text) 7:00
3. Dorothy Chang: Blue (text: Tang Dynasty fragments) 10:02
4. Noah Meites: Le Splendide Hotel (text: Arthur Rimbaud, trans. John Ashbery) 12:14

Benton Roark: DY5T0PIΛ L05T
5. i. Where Endless Ages Roll (text: Sacred Harp, anonymous) 11:17
6. ii. A Thousand Faceless Moons (text: Roark) 7:08
7. iii. The Range of Light (text: John Muir) 7:10
8. iv. Elegia (text: Percy Shelley) 7:50

CREDITS
Produced by Benton Roark
Artistic Director: Benton Roark
Music Director: Kathleen Allan
Mixed by Stephen Lilly
Mastered by Guillermo Subauste

Tracks 1, 3, 5, 6, 8
Sopranos: Jane Long, Kathleen Allan
Altos: Hilary Ison, Abra Whitney
Tenors: Noah Horn, Asitha Tennekoon
Basses: Jonathon Adams, David McCune
Electric Guitar: Brendon Randall-Myers
Piano: Krista Vincent, Noah Horn
Violin: Jae-won Bang
Cello: Vernon Regehr
Synth, Bass Guitar: Benton Roark
Percussion (lumiphone, vibraphone, shakers, Tibetan bowls and cymbals): Dan Morphy
Percussion (mridangam, kit): Curtis Andrews
Conducted by Kathleen Allan
Recorded at First Light in St. John’s, NL by Stephen Lilly

Tracks 2, 4, 7
Guest artist, Kaleidoscope Vocal Ensemble (Arianne Abela, Artistic Director)
featuring soloists Cecilia Duarte (2) and Dashon Burton (7)
Sopranos: Sherezade Pantaki, Adrianna Tam, Michele Kennedy
Altos: Cecilia Duarte, Michael Walker
Tenors: Haitham Hadar, Noah Horn
Basses: Enrico Lagasca, Will Doreza
Electric guitar: Brendon Randall-Myers
Piano & Fender Rhodes: Wesley Shen
Violin: Bijan Sepanji (2, 4) and Jae-won Bang (7)
Cello: Emma Schmiedecke (2) and Vernon Regehr (7)
Synthesizer: Benton Roark
Percussion (vibraphone, wood blocks, toms, bowls): Daniel Morphy
Conducted by Kathleen Allan
Soprano Jane Long appears on track 4
Recorded at Revolution Recording in Toronto, ON by Luke Schindler

The texts for every track are on the individual tracks on Bandcamp.

We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council, with whose generous support this album has been made possible.

arkoramusic.com

Transfigured Light is available from:

ABOUT ARKORA

Arkora is a Toronto-based polyphonic fusion ensemble dedicated to bending and blending genres, styles, and disciplines, with a focus on contemporary vocal music. With previous projects described as “the standout event of Vancouver’s spring music season” (The Vancouver Observer) and “an experience of deep and darkling beauty” (The Austin Chronicle), Arkora has consistently delivered next-level concert experiences throughout its ten-year history. The concept for Arkora was born in 2012 in Vancouver at the premiere of the song cycle Songs from the Rainshadow’s Edge, a production involving co-founders and Co-Artistic Directors Kathleen Allan and Benton Roark. Arkora’s official debut took place at Newfoundland’s Sound Symposium festival in 2014, and the following decade continued with performances at Roulette in Brooklyn (presented by Ear Heart Music), the Salvage Vanguard in Austin (Church of the Friendly Ghost), Studio 16 (Fugue Theatre), Mountain View Cemetery (Redshift Music) in Vancouver, Open Ears Festival in Kitchener-Waterloo, Sound Symposium again, Ottawa Chamberfest, and Early Music Vancouver Bach Festival. Since moving to Toronto, Arkora has performed at Array Music (2023) and Hugh’s Room (2024), and has co-produced experimental music theatre works, The Sign of Jonas (a folk oratorio by Benton Roark and Luke Hathaway, 2023), and Eurydice Fragments (a neo-Baroque cyberpunk Transgendered re-imagining of the Orphean myth in collaboration with re:Naissance Opera).

THANKS

We are deeply grateful to the many, many people and organizations that made Transfigured Light possible, including the funding organizations who offered generous support for this recording:
The Canada Council for the Arts
The Ontario Arts Council

The organizations that supported us with commissioning, touring, development, presentation, production, and research funding and support:
The British Columbia Arts Council
The City of Vancouver
The Toronto Arts Council
The Canada Council for the Arts
Mitacs
The Banff Centre
Redshift Music Society
Sound Arts Inc./Sound Symposium
Ottawa Chamberfest
Early Music Vancouver

And the individuals who generously gave of their time, artistry, expertise, and love: the composers, performers, artists, producers, and engineers listed in these pages, in addition to (in no particular order) Galen Felde, Jonathan Wild, Tova Kardonne, Brendon Randall-Myers, Jordan Nobles, Kathy Clark Wherry, Michelle LaCour, Matthew White, Carissa Klopushak, Becky Wenham, Debi Wong, Tyler Simpson, Alicia Hansen, Taka Shimojima, Ian Bannerman, Kim Bartczak, Erik Kallo, Jonny Allen and Miranda Wong.

Special thanks to Arianne Abela and Kaleidoscope Vocal Ensemble, featuring Dashon Burton and Cecilia Duarte.