The critically acclaimed brass quintet Onyx Brass will be celebrated its 30th anniversary later this year with the release of their second CD on the NMC recording label.

Musical outlook

To be released in June, 'the sun is free to flow with the sea' further enhances Onyx's musical outlook, containing a series of new music written specially for them by renowned composers Errollyn Wallen, Emily Hall, Simon Dobson, Mark-Anthony Turnage, Yshani Perinpanayagam, Roxanna Panufnik, Zoë Martlew, Charlotte Harding and Bobbie-Jane Gardner.

Some of the works on the album have roots in conversations that took place more than a decade ago, such as Mark-Anthony Turnage's groovy 'ONYX30', and Errollyn Wallen's angular 'ONYX'.

Others meanwhile owe their inception to much more recent events, like Roxanna Panufnik's early lockdown project, 'Fanfare for Broadway Tower', commissioned by Onyx trumpeter Alan Thomas.

Kiss, Kiss

Elsewhere, Charlotte Harding takes inspiration from architecture for her jagged 'Rhombus', while Emily Hall found stimuli in the poems of Arthur Rimbaud. Other were inspired by more personal happenings, such as Yshani Perinpanayagam whose emotive 'Music for My Stolen Breath' is built from transcriptions made of her breathing rhythms whilst experiencing trauma in response to a racist attack in her place of work.

Zoe Martlew's mischievous 'Kiss, Kiss' has the players doing just that as they play with assorted percussive and vocal effects.

The composers were given a free brief as to content and we are thrilled by the freedom with which they have expressed themselvesAmos Miller, Onyx Brass

Free brief

Amos Miller, trombonist and founding member of Onyx Brass told 4BR: "The composers were given a free brief as to content and we are thrilled by the freedom with which they have expressed themselves.

They all have a sensational empathy and understanding as to the physical/technical challenges we face as brass players and have also all imbued their works with a scintillating sense of themselves."