WINNER: EDISON AWARD, BEST DEBUT

“A memorable, effortlessly polished album” Erica Jeal, The Guardian

“Regards sur l’Infini is impressively elegant and thoughtful” Geoff Brown, The Times

“..these two fine performers will clearly go far.” Roger Nichols, BBC Music Magazine

Katharine Dain (soprano) and Sam Armstrong (piano) released an album together in November 2020: Regards sur l’Infini, available on 7 Mountain Records.

At the beginning of the Covid-19 lockdown in mid-March 2020, Katharine and Sam, longtime friends and collaborators, decided to quarantine together. The period of lockdown lasted much longer than anyone anticipated, and the enforced months of isolation at home allowed for unusually deep and slow exploration of repertoire for voice and piano. Eventually this work led to the development of a song program centred on a theme—human restlessness in the face of intense experience—that is highly relevant to the troubled circumstances of the world in the grip of a pandemic. The centrepiece of the disc is Messiaen’s extraordinary Poèmes pour Mi, composed in the early years of his marriage to Claire Delbos. The album also includes Debussy’s complete Proses lyriques as well as infrequently-performed but mesmerising songs by Delbos (also a composer), Henri Dutilleux and Kaija Saariaho.

Some articles/press reviews/programmes featuring the album:

Review: The Guardian: Erica Jeal’s Classical Album of the Week

Review: The Times: Geoff Brown PDF of review

Review: Gramophone: Mark Pullinger PDF of review

Review: De Standaard: Anna Vermeulen (English version)

Review: De Volkskrant (in Dutch) (English version)

Review: Trouw newspaper (in Dutch) (English version)

Review: Het Parool newspaper (in Dutch) (English version)

Review: NRC newspaper (in Dutch) (English version)

Review: Opera Nederland (CD of the month) (English version)

Review: Music Web International “Recommended”

Review: Arts Muse London

Best of 2020: Het Parool

Interview and playing of tracks on BBC Radio 3 “In Tune”

Album featured on NPO Radio 4’s Diskotabel programme https://www.nporadio4.nl/diskotabel/ (Dutch language)

Featured on France Musique’s “En piste, les contemporains” programme (French language)

Blog: Gramophone “that time I decided to quarantine with a pianist” (written by Katharine Dain)

Interview of Katharine by Claire Seymour for Opera Today

Interview/chat with Jon Jacob on his “Thoroughly Good” Podcast

Interview/chat with David Taylor on his podcast

Also, the album is available on the following platforms:  

Bol.com (Netherlands)

La Boite à Musique (English-language shop shipping worldwide from Belgium)

directly from the artists

Apple Music (digital)

Amazon Music (digital)

Spotify (digital)

Qobuz (digital)