US composer Derek Bermel is in Bavaria this month, where he is composer-in-residence at the prestigious Classix-Kempten festival of chamber music

‘This duet is genuinely strange – and from me that’s a compliment. The two instruments moan and wail throughout, with extensive use of glissando. The result is a keening of two voices, truly human and something beyond at the same time, funny and eerie.’ Fanfare Magazine (Robert Carl), February 2003