New from Ravello Records comes composer James O'Callaghan's ALONE AND UNALONE, a scintillating dance between reality and abstraction that is sure to spark the listener's imagination and unearth their most primal misgivings. Montréal-based O'Callaghan has been laurelled with innumerable awards and prizes for his work-and rightfully so. Marrying traditional instruments, ambient sounds, and the incomparable power of the human voice, ALONE AND UNALONE dares the listener to grapple with solitude. The album opens with subject / object, where an eruption of piercing woodwinds, rhythmic punctuations, and metallic screeches are overcome at intervals by immersive silence. The piece is entropy in stereo, a kaleidoscope of dissonance sputtering and disintegrating from dystopian havoc into unearthly calm. On notes to selves follows, with an industrial hum serving as backdrop for hydraulic flourishes and silvery shrieks. Then, a flutter of deep flute tones introduces a contrasting texture. Soon, human voices cryptically repeat "notes to themselves" before receding into darkness. AMONG AM A, with it's disconcerting knocks, snapping wires, and rushing winds, introduces new questions. Suddenly, an unmistakable human cough elicits our primeval empathy. Far off voices in another room converse-maybe even argue-but are too remote for straining ears. Finally, alone and unalone portrays the solipsism of a broken psyche left to it's own devices. Whispers trigger in the listener a tingling autonomous ATTENTION: please remember that all Blu-Rays are Region A USA and all DVDs Region 1 USA and you will need a multi region Blu-Ray/DVD player to play them.