By David Weininger, Globe Correspondent

Ambitious aims, skillful execution made 2006 sing

By Steve Langendorf

Critics' Picks 2006

By Michael Markowitz

Classical CD Highlights: December

Cedille Records, an enterprising non-profit label based in Chicago, has a few interesting new releases. On one disc, titled Strange Imaginary Animals, the electrifying new-music sextet eighth blackbird performs a selection of world premieres…

By Peter Grahame Woolf

This CD of innovative new music by a Chicago-based group which had brought us fine accounts of Rzewski's Fred (Pocket Symphony, Les Moutons de Panurge & Coming Together) is a delight.

The Want List 2006 — William Zagorski
Fanfare Magazine
November/December 2006

The six-person ensemble, Eighth Blackbird, masterfully realizes three of Frederic Rzewski’s works.

By Ethan Iverson

On fred, three Fredric Rzweski chamber compositions get persuasive performances by the Chicago group eighth blackbird. “Les Moutons de Parnurge” (1969) is a game piece. The score is simply a 65-note unison melody, which is for any number of players playing any kind of instrument. The directions are this: play the first note, play the first two notes, play the first three notes, and so on until you reach all 65, at which point you start subtracting a note each time you go through.