Icebreaker’s new release, Philip Glass’s Music with Changing Parts is representative of a new generation’s interest in one of the most important composers of our time. The 1970 score has been part of the group’s touring repertoire for years and this recording brings a vivid re-imagining and fresh interpretation to one of Glass’ greatest scores.

 

Music with Changing Parts marked a turning point in Glass career, a composition that contains many characteristics of the composer’s breakthrough works of the 1970s including Music in 12 Parts and Einstein on the Beach.  Glass comments: “It was very important to my development. I proved to myself that the music I was making could sustain attention over a prolonged period of time - an hour or more. And that led directly to Music in Twelve Parts and then on to the operas.”

 

“Important both as a milestone in the history of a major musical movement and a reminder of style that the composer has long since abandoned.” - David Hurwitz

 

Icebreaker’s performance can be firmly placed in the virtuoso chamber tradition established by the original Philip Glass Ensemble – who took Music With Changing Parts on tour throughout the United States and Europe in the early 1970s.

 

Founded by James Poke and John Godfrey in 1989 to play at a festival in York, Icebreaker is a 13-piece group consisting of pan-pipes, saxes, electric violin and cello, guitars, percussion, accordion and keyboards. Icebreaker have established themselves as one of the UK's leading contemporary music interpreters. As a group of musicians that always plays amplified, they boast an exciting repertoire which encompasses some of the best known and most influential names in contemporary music today, such as Louis Andriessen, David Lang, Michael Gordon, Yannis Kyriakides and Philip Glass. Icebreaker are not easy to pigeonhole in any musical sense, performing music that appeals to contemporary classical, rock and alternative music audiences.