A bassist of exploratory zeal, Stefano Scodanibbio is little recognized as a composer. As is made plain in his booklet note, composition has never been a career option as such – occurring ‘whenever and wherever the fancy took me’. Conversely, the demands he encourages others to place upon him as performer are those that he utilizes in his own music: in the process, drawing musician and listener into that intense inner space which has long been the preserve of ‘chamber music’.

An intensity evident in Quando le montagne si colorano di rosa (1986), where polytonal strumming for two guitars alternates with dense chordal interplay and rapid-fire exchanges. Speculative, gestural music refined in the breathless harmonics and fractious arpeggios of My New Address (1992) – which violinists looking for repertoire in the lineage of Sciarrino’s Caprices should investigate post-haste – and the delicately-wrought textures of Delle più alte torri (1984/2003), modified by live electronics so the sound gently diffuses in a myriad images of itself. The longest item here, Dos abismos (1992) is equally uncompromising in its recourse to present-day guitar practice – albeit infused with a character that calls to mind the Shakespearian vignettes of Henze’s Royal Winter Music as much as more overtly avant-garde compositions. Of the two most recent works (both 2001), Only Connect puts piano through a taxing sequence of toccata-like passagework and registral contrasts, while Ritorno e Cartagena draws on the range of extended techniques to create a percussion ensemble out of the acoustical properties of the bass flute: a test-piece and display vehicle in one.

A glance at the list of musicians confirms the formidable expertise on hand, and the performances are indeed as authoritative as one might expect – with those by Mario Caroli and Rohan de Saram especially impressive in the way that they invoke a tangible sense of evolving as one listens. Brief background notes on the composer and a select list of other works, leaving listeners free to find their own way through the aural subtleties and literary allusions of Scodanibbio’s music.