- Ramon Lazkano, Neue Vocalsolisten Stuttgart, L’Instant Donnée, Johanna Zimmer, Manuel Nawri: “Diptyque Jabès” (Odradek)
- Les Siècles, François Xavier Roth, et. al.: ”Pelléas et Mélisande” (Harmonia Mundi)
- Kate Soper: “The Understanding of All Things” (New Focus Recordings)
The Syrian poet and diplomat Nizar Qabbani wrote that words are like sparrows: they don’t require travel visas. I was reminded of that line while listening to “Diptyque Jabès,” two settings of poems by French-Egyptian poet Edmond Jabès by Basque composer Ramon Lazkano. Born 12 miles from the French border in San Sebastián, Spain, Lazkano grew up between two states and three languages—“polyhedral as crossborder people are”—and shaped by the individual layers of his identity, and by how those layers interact with one another.