Pre-Order: Heather Roche - David Wallace: Cliff Edge [CD]

September 2026, Metier Records presents Cliff Edge from Irish-born composer David Wallace: astriking new album of six works that illuminate his distinctive approach to material-ledcomposition. Scored for forces ranging from solo bass clarinet to mixed chamber ensemble, thealbum presents a world where musical ideas behave like living organisms - shifting, resisting, andrevealing themselves through pressure and transformation. The performers include HeatherRoche, Chenyin LI, Jean Kelly (harp), James Widden (violin/viola), HeatherHolford, and other leading UK and international soloists and chamber musicians.Wallace's compositional style blends classical elegance with modern innovation, often includingelements of traditional Irish music, at times also featuring extended techniques or electronics. Hismusic takes shape organically, instinctively allowing the music to go where it wants emotionally,balancing tradition with a fresh, contemporary perspective to create a unique voice.The pieces on Cliff Edge were written between 2006 and 2025 for different performers andcircumstances, yet they share a common thread: each begins with a musical material that finds it'sown path throughout the piece. These materials can be as simple as a grain of an instrument, theweight of a harmony, the friction between two lines, or the memory of a place. Some are intimategifts; others are studies in instability or quiet acts of devotion. What unites them is a belief thatmusic has it's own agency - that if you listen closely, the material will show you how it wants tounfold.At the heart of the album is the title work, Cliff Edge, a turbulent and finely etched piano piece thatexplores instability as a structural force. Surrounding it are five contrasting but deeply connectedworks: the fragile, breath-driven L'Oiseau mis en cage for bass clarinet; the ritualised, keeningenergy of Banshee for harp and voice; and H.B.J.W., a theme and five variations for violin and cello,written as a 50th birthday gift.The album also features Five Vignettes from the River Avon, a set of distilled landscape impressionsfor clarinet and basset horn, and Canticles, a luminous triptych for harp, flute, clarinet, and stringquartet that closes the disc with a sense of quiet devotion.'These works are not stories,' Wallace writes. 'They are environments. Each one begins with amaterial that behaves in a particular way, and the piece grows from listening to that behaviour.'David Wallace studied at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama with Richard Baker and in Irelandwith Rhona Clarke, and his music has received international recognition, including awards fromBoston Metro Opera and the Tracey Chadwell Memorial Prize. Residencies at the Guildhall School,the Cork School of Music, and Clapham Chamber Concerts have shaped his distinctive voice, andhis works are performed widely in the UK and abroad. He is Head of Junior Music Courses at theGuildhall School.