MORITZ EGGERT (b.1965): The Son of the Daughter of Dracula versus the Incredible Frankenstein Monster (from Outer Space) for 2 Theremins, Piano Trio and Percussion, OLGA BOCHIHINA (b.1980): Canto Ostinato for 2 Theremins, Piano and Percussion, CASPAR JOHANNES WALTER (b.1964): Vakuum-Halluzinationen for 2 Theremins, Violin and Cello, NICOLAUS RICHTER DE VROE (b.1955): Theremin Islands for 2 Theremins, Piano and Percussion, MICHAEL HIRSCH (b.1958): Recitative and Aria for 2 Theremins, Piano Trio and Percussion, JULIANE KLEIN (b.1966): Se vuoi for Theremin, Piano Trio and Percussion, VLADIMIR NIKOLAYEV (b.1953): Black-and-White Music for 2 Theremins, Piano Trio and Percussion, IRAIDA YUSUPOVA (b.1962): Kitezh-19 for Theremin and Tape.

Description: Lovers of the exotic in general and of this unearthly-sounding instrument in particular will want this disc solely after seeing the first title listed above (everything you expect it to be, even using samples from old horror film soundtracks). Each work is between six and nine minutes, never overstaying its welcome, and eight composers provide eight personal ways of using the weird electronic instrument, styles ranging from Eggert's just-mentioned whole-hearted embrace of the theremin's ancestry to pointillistic atonality (Hirsch) to Bochihina's flirtation with pop music to Yusupova's very Russian "meditation on hopeless loneliness" (life in one of the USSR's secret cities which were used for atomic weapons research), in which the theremin plays only one note almost throughout, letting one hear the instrument's varieties of vibrato and dynamic range. Lydia Kavina, Barbara Buchholz (theremins), Neue Musik Berlin Chamber Ensemble.