I. Daedalus 9:40

II. Mercury 8:43

III. Ephemera 8:55

IV. Narcissus 11:32

V. Ananke 15:11

Recording Engineers: Kristaps Auster & Christoph Walder

Editing, mixing & mastering: Joel Gordon

Recorded at Tonzauber Recording Studio in Wiener Konzerthaus, Vienna, Austria, November 28th, 29th and 30th, 2020

Design: Marc Wolf, marcjwolf.com

Cover Image: Aylward, Roberta. Nightlight. 2015

Acrylic on birch panel. In the collection of the artist

Back cover image: Aylward, Roberta. Flare. 2015. Acrylic on birch panel. In the collection of the artist

John Aylward photo: Kate Soper

Klangforum member photographs: Tina Herzl

Finnegan Downie Dear photo: Frank Bloedhorn

• Klangforum Wien

• Bernhard Zachhuber, clarinet & bass clarinet

• Olivier Vivarès, clarinet & bass clarinet

• Sophie Schafleitner, violin

• Dimitrios Polisoidis, viola

• Andreas Lindenbaum, cello

• Markus Deuter, oboe

• Florian Müller, piano,

• Björn Wilker, percussion

• Finnegan Downie Dear, conductor

John Aylward’s Celestial Forms and Stories is a musical exploration of myth filtered through literary analysis. Rather than depicting Greek figures like Narcissus or Mercury directly, Aylward engages with Italo Calvino’s study of Ovid’s Metamorphoses, focusing on Ovid’s tendency to explain phenomena through “elementary properties.” The result is not a retelling of myths but a reanimation, probing how stories evolve across generations and remain alive through reinterpretation.

The album, performed by Klangforum Wien, opens with Daedalus and Mercury for quartet. Distinct characters emerge immediately: anxious flute gestures, elastic violin glissandi, and sustained pitches that later expand into extended passages. Mercury revels in instability, with fragile string harmonics and shifting wind lines that highlight unpredictability. Ephemera, the earliest work, sets clarinet bursts against cello tremolo, growing into ecstatic dialogue that intensifies with momentum.

The final works, Narcissus and Ananke, are scored for septet. In Narcissus, imitation drives the texture as voices interrupt and enclose one another. Ananke obsessively examines gestures from multiple angles, colored by Aylward’s polychromatic palette. Stravinsky‑like chords, oscillating low figures, and a dramatic piano solo culminate in a repeated viola figure that closes the album with ambiguity.

This unresolved ending underscores Aylward’s vision: myths are living organisms, continually reshaped by analysis and imagination, and his music situates itself within that ongoing lineage.