Still Life: Patterson/Sutton Duo CD

Stephen Goss composer

Kimberly Patterson cello

Patrick Sutton guitar

The trailblazing duo of Kimberly Patterson and Patrick Sutton are champions of the budding cello & guitar genre of chamber music. The Patterson/Sutton Duo and composer Stephen Goss have worked together over many years and this album represents the fruits of their musical collaboration. This collection of Goss’s complete works for cello and guitar is a kaleidoscopic journey through the evocative sound world of this instrumental pairing. It represents a substantial contribution to the standard cello and guitar repertoire by one of the guitar world’s most sought after composers.

Borrowing heavily from a cadre of virtuosic avant-garde rock and jazz guitar legends, Park of Idols gets the album off to a boisterous start. Motherlands takes us on a nostalgic and highly contrasting tour of Jewish, Arabic, Russian and American folk music. This is followed by the premiere recording of the original version of Goss’s The Autumn Song, a languid meditation on the nature of loss based on ancient Chinese poetry. Goss’s beautiful Welsh Folk Songs are already a well-loved piece of chamber music and are heard here for the first time on cello and guitar. They are a haunting highlight of this recording. Commissioned by the Patterson/Sutton Duo in 2018, the album finishes with Still Life, a suite that celebrates the life, work, and inspirations of the American abstract expressionist painter, Clyfford Still.

Featuring multiple world premieres and a diverse array of styles, STILL LIFE: Collected Music for Cello & Guitar by Stephen Goss attempts to push the medium of cello and guitar to its limits.

Please see the liner-notes, written by Stephen Goss for further information.

COVER ART: Clyfford Still, PH-960, 1960. Oil on canvas, 112 x 144 inches. Clyfford Still Museum, Denver, CO. © City and County of Denver / ARS, NY