For further evidence of the porous borders that lie between classical, contemporary, folk, pop and non-Western musics, look no further than Tallā Rouge’s debut album ‘Shapes in Collective Space’. Formed by American viola players Aria Cheregosha and Lauren Spaulding in 2020, Tallā Rouge (which means ‘the Red-Gold’ in Farsi and French), takes the duo’s Persian and Cajun heritage as a starting point for a musical journey that travels far and wide across what the performers have called ‘genre-defying compositions’.

Folk and non-Western influences are present in the four-movement Navazi by Iranian composer Kian Ravaei, where haunting arabesque-like improvisatory melodies circle around a set of static drones, at times evoking the kamancheh string instrument, or in the luminous pentatonic lines and unison passages of Akshaya Avril Tucker’s Breathing Sunlight. While such pieces could have merited inclusion in Gramophone’s sister music magazine Songlines, other works draw on contemporary classical elements in more obvious ways, as heard in the bold exchanges in Karl Mitze’s breathless Seesaw or Gemma Peacocke’s Fluorescein, where circulating lines and flowing patterns mimic the fluorescent compound that gives the work its title. The album’s best moments nevertheless lie with compositions that seem less preoccupied with exploring cultural reference points than developing a more distinct sense of their own sonic identity. silhouette, mirror by 2022 Pulitzer Prize finalist Leilehua Lanzilotti does this especially well, evolving a spectral-like sound world through combining string techniques such as ricochet alongside natural and artificial harmonics, sustained notes and various kinds of tremolando.

Benefiting from a well-judged and balanced recording where the two instruments are placed slightly to either side of the stereo image, these performances also gain much from Cheregosha and Spaulding’s contrasting playing styles. Cheregosha’s poised and balanced ‘classical’ approach acts as a foil to Spaulding’s more gestural, dramatic qualities. However, there are times – such as in the album’s intriguing title-track by Inti Figgis-Vizueta – where the instruments become indistinguishable, like a single super viola gliding effortlessly in a highly integrated sound space.