On the water Music by Anthony Iannaccone, heard by BASIL RAMSEY Albany    TROY486

The range of American composers ploughing a fruitful plot of musical soil is always wide but never less than slightly dizzying in notion to us in Europe. (That could be just my bizarre view and is unimportant.)

Music by Anthony Iannaccone (born New York City, 1943) has been in my CD player these last few days, a composer with no determination to shock the nation. His music has the strong sense of colour and texture which is crucial for most ears, and conjures atmosphere that is sufficient to suspend time for most of us whilst in performance. Should the result be less than your requirement there's a simple cure.

Content is collected from various professional recordings, all of which pay genuine respect. My special regard goes for Waiting for Sunrise on the Sound [listen -- track 1, 2:59-4:02], a powerful 'sea' poem that is highly effective. Both the Janácek and Bohuslav Martinu Philharmonic Orchestras are involved in this project, and the composer conducts.

For help listening to the sound extracts here, please refer to our questions & answers page.

Record Box is Music & Vision's regular Saturday series of shorter CD reviews