Painted Lights, a new album of compositions by Prof. Kui Dong released on Kairos Music, is now available in the Other Minds webstore. The record features performances by Juliet Petrus, Deirdre Brenner, Third Coast Percussion, Arditti Quartet, Koehne Quartett, Volti, Piedmont East Bay Children's Choir, Robert Geary, and Raphael Schlüsselberg. It includes four pieces of chamber and choral music written by Prof. Dong between 2009 and 2017: California Shoreline (2017) for soprano, string quartet and prepared piano opens the album, Scattered Ladder (2009) for two marimbas and four percussionists, Differences within Oneness (2009) for string quartet, and Painted Lights (2010) for double chorus (mixed chorus and children's chorus).

For more information about the album, the 39-page digital booklet (PDF download) featuring score excerpts, high-quality photographs, and liner notes from Frank J. Oteri is available for free on the Kairos website.

“…un caso di artista-equilibrista intenta a camminare su un immaginario filo steso a connettere Oriente e Occidente….La title track, per un doppio coro di adulti e bambini, vive di opposizioni timbriche e magnifiche note “lunghe" capaci di dilatare la normale fisicità delle voci. Rimarchevoli sono anche Scattered Ladder, per due marimba e quattro percussionisti, e Differences Within Oneness (ribaltate il titolo e avrete la perfetta definizione di ciò che si ascolta nel disco), reso dagli archi sempiterni dell' Arditti Quartet."

“…an equilibrist artist intent on walking an imaginary thread that connects East and West….The title track, for a double choir of adults and children, thrives on timbral contrasts and magnificent “long" notes capable of dilating the normal physicality of the voices. Also remarkable are Scattered Ladder, for two marimba and four percussionists, and Differences Within Oneness (reverse the title and you will have the perfect definition of what you hear on the record), rendered by the eternal strings of the Arditti Quartet."

Blow Up., August 2022. Album Review.