NEW ALBUMS
JESSICA MOSS
Phosphenes CONSTELLATION
Starkly beautiful tone poems from Canadian composer-violinist
8/10
On her fourth album, Jessica Moss reaches deep into the heart of her song; it’s some of the most involving and exhausting composition she’s yet released. Phosphenes succeeds thanks to these pieces’ emotional strength and structural fortitude; the three-part “Contemplation”, for example, uses permutations of a simple four-note phrase to evoke arctic minimalism and liturgical plainsong. This piece takes up one half of the album; the other half feels more dramatic somehow, but maintains the poise and elegance fundamental to Moss’s writing. Phosphenes makes a meal of the cheaply emotional compositions that pass for much “neo-classical” these days.