Quotes
“It’s really one of the major, spectacular pieces that has ever been written for Kronos, I would say—and I think it’s a breakthrough piece for Derek Charke, too,” “It’s fun to play; I think there’s kind of an elemental quality to the music, and to the collaboration. It feels really great, to me.”
– David Harrington, Kronos Quartet on "Tundra Songs" from an article by Alexander Varty of the Georgia Straight
“Tundra Songs is a complex and ambitious piece of work, but the audience felt its impact on an emotional level and replied with an exuberant standing ovation”
– Alexander Varty Georgia Straight
"The admirable simplicity of the concept kept the audience riveted on catching the tiniest details."
– Stephen Pedersen, The Chronicle Herald
"Among four newer pieces, only Derek Charke’s “What Do the Birds Think?” could be said to extend the modernist tradition... While physical separation was impossible here, the layered sounds still proved fascinating."
– Steve Smith, The New York Times
"Charke's style is not far out. He has a command of likable post-Minimalist techniques. He creates grooves. He matches string textures, through devices such as circular bowing, with atmospheric sounds.... “Tundra Songs” is the 600-and-somethingth piece written for Kronos over more than three decades – and another keeper. "
– Mark Swed, LA Times
"The three-hour concert began with a few non-Indian works, including arrangements of short pieces by the Icelandic rock band Sigur Ros and an Ethiopian composer, Getatchew Mekurya, as well as "Cercle du Nord III," an inventive, rich-textured score for quartet and electronic sound by the Canadian composer Derek Charke."
– Allan Kozinn, The New York Times
“I can really feel my home in the piece,” she adds. “He nailed it on the head. ”
– Tanya Tagaq, Throat Singer on "Tundra Songs" from an article by Alexander Varty of the Georgia Straight
"Structure is important to Derek Charke... Although his description of What Do the Birds Think? is almost impossibly complex, the results would be engaging no matter how they were created."
– Bruce Hodges, Seen and Heard International Concert Review
"Elsewhere on the program, Canadian composer Derek Charke's "Cercle du Nord III" wove Inuit throat-singing and barking sled dogs into a taped rhythm track that chugged along under toe-tapping minimalist writing for the quartet."
– Joe Banno, Washington Post
"The quartet began the night with perhaps one of the strongest arrangements, Derek Charke's "Cercle du Nord III." ..."
– Matt Sedlar, The DCist
"More satisfying were Juliet Palmer's Starving Poetry for violin and marimba, whose structural clarity intensified the ache in its melancholy; Louis Andriessen's Dubbelspoor for harpsichord, piano, celesta and glockenspiel, which chimed patiently toward a grand melodic ending; and Derek Charke's Breakup, which came out of Charke's experience in the north. Charke wisely avoided the windswept cliches of northern soundscape and wrote about the dance in his heart in a well-formed work full of colour, drama and rhythmic vitality."
– John Lehr, Toronto Star