Tom Johnson: Rational melodies / Bedtime stories

"I have worked extensively over a twenty-year period with the New York minimalist composer Tom Johnson, who has lived in Paris for many years, commissioning a number of new works from him and giving many first performances at European festivals. This collaborative CD, which was to be recorded in the presence of the composer but prevented by his illness, is a culmination of our work together. The Rational Melodies are conventionally notated in terms of pitch, but tempo and dynamics are left to the player. The recording sessions allowed time to experiment and to record multiple versions of the twenty-one short pieces leaving the final choice of versions to later editing sessions. The texts of the Bedtime Stories were read by me and recorded live with the playing, rather than overdubbing separately. These are first recordings of the Bedtime Stories and of the Rational Melodies in the version for clarinet."- Roger Heaton.