Various Artists - All Water Has a Perfect Memory (2019)

The title of this collection of David Dzubays recent solo, chamber, and ensemble music comes from Toni Morrison: You know, they straightened out the Mississippi River in places, to make room for houses and livable acreage. Occasionally the river floods these places. Floods is the word they use, but in fact it is not flooding; it is remembering All water has a perfect memory and is forever trying to get back to where it was. Writers are like that: remembering where we were It is emotional memorywhat the nerves and the skin remember as well as how it appeared. And a rush of imagination is our flooding. The first part of this double album presents recordings by professionals Dzubay has worked with over the years, including the Orian String Quartet and the Voices of Change. The second part features the student ensemble Dzubay leads at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, the IU New Music Ensemble. Though the personnel for this ensemble shifts semester to semester, the performance level is consistently high thanks to the exceptional student performers at IU. Faculty members Simin Ganatra and trumpeter John Rommel join the ensemble for the Chamber Concerto.