The goal of our debut album is to present an anthology of twentieth- century Eastern-European music. Music that has a strong connection to its place of origin and local folk music. The latter is remarkable in a century in which radically new musical directions were explored. Composers such as Janáček, Bartók and Enescu were explorative in their own ways. Janáček, for example, developed a unique harmonic language and an improvisatory style within a late Romantic context. Bartók, on the other hand, often engaged with Expressionism, while Enescu was more influenced by the French Impressionists. And yet these innovations are not incomprehensible,even to inexperienced listeners. The fertile soil and humanity in which this music is rooted makes it universal and accords each new innovation a place within an organic whole. Tim Mulleman’s work was written specifically for this CD. He reveals a contemporary perspective on our programme with the occasional nod to Enescu.