Starkland’s re-issue of Guy Klucevsek’s “Citrus, My Love” album, out of print for over 25 years, replaces a gaping hole in this master accordionist’s discography. The release offers two substantial works composed for dance, Citrus, My Love (1990) and Passage North (1990), separated by another piece Patience and Thyme (1991). Listening today, Klucevsek finds the music is “solemn, introspective, and incredibly personal.”

“It broke my heart when the ‘Citrus, My Love’ recording went out of print” Klucevsek wistfully recalls. Originally released in 1993, the CD was abandoned just two years later when the RecRec Swiss label disappeared. Starkland’s re-issue presents all of the original notes, along with new, updated materials.

In addition to a standard digital album (the music and a thorough 10-page booklet), there is a special Bonus package consisting of the standard album and exclusive access to 13 new videos, during which Klucevsek discusses each track, the release as a whole, his compositional techniques, and influences ranging from choreographers he’s worked with to various composers, including Morton Feldman, Steve Reich, and Philip Glass.

In Mark Dery’s original Introduction, he comments that the title piece “evinces a rare gift for harmonizing sumptuous textures and unvarnished simplicity.” Regarding both Citrus, My Love and Passage North, Dery writes they “conjure the austere beauty of Shaker furniture; the artless honesty of William Billings’s fuguing tunes; the bear-hug lustiness of Walt Whitman’s verse. They are sturdy works with iron in their bones, no less handsome for their lack of adornment, no less profound for their plainspoken manner.”

Klucevsek’s Patience and Thyme “is a love note to my wife, Jan.” He composed the work while in residence at the Yellow Springs Institute in Pennsylvania, which coincided with his 22nd wedding anniversary.

Klucevsek’s hand-picked Bantam Orchestra adds three distinguished string players to his accordion: Mary Rowell (violin/viola); Erik Friedlander (cello); and Jonathan Storck (double bass). In addition to a standard digital album (the music and a thorough 10-page booklet), Starkland also offers a special Bonus package consisting of the standard album and private access to 13 new videos, in which Klucevsek discusses each track, the release as a whole, compositional techniques, and influences ranging from choreographers he’s worked with to various composers, such as Morton Feldman, Steve Reich, and Philip Glass.

Other Klucevsek releases on Starkland include:

• “Transylvanian Softwear” with works by William Duckworth, Fred Frith, Klucevsek, and John Zorn. Awarded a “Recording of Special Merit” by Stereo Review.
• “Free Range Accordion” with works by Burt Bacharach, Lars Hollmer, Aaron Jay Kernis, Jerome Kitzke, Klucevsek, Stephen Montague, Somei Satoh, and Lois V Vierk. “A rebel with an accordion … Klucevsek combines poker-faced wit and imagination with command of his instrument, forcing you to re-think the accordion’s limitations” (Downbeat).
• “Polka From The Fringe” A double-CD re-release presenting the most comprehensive edition of this major project conceived and shepherded by Klucevsek. Works by Mary Ellen Childs, Anthony Coleman, Dick Connette, William Duckworth, Carl Finch (of Brave Combo), Fred Frith, David Garland, Peter Garland, Phillip Johnston, Aaron Jay Kernis, John King, Mary Jane Leach, Bobby Previte, Elliott Sharp, Carl Stone, Lois V Vierk, William Obrecht, more. “A long-overdue reissue.” (John Schaefer, WNYC New Sounds). “A two-CD collection of new polkas he got from a wide range of classical new music, jazz and indie pop composers. It’s a riot, and an addictive one at that” (Los Angeles Times).
• “Teetering on the Verge of Normalcy” with works exclusively by Klucevsek. With violinist Todd Reynolds, soprano Kamala Sankaram, and pianist Alan Bern. “This heartfelt album has an especially elegiac quality” (Sarah Cahill).