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Unknown Ground has been well described as ‘one of the most passionately unequivocal works in the Finnissy catalogue’. With the peerless Richard Jackson … subtly inflected melodic writing … These fine, lucidly recorded performances have been worth the wait.

” —Arnold Whittall

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The first piece on the record, Kritik der Urteilskraft (Critique of Judgement), is a direct refer­ence to the work of Kant. The harmonies are certainly not tonal, but neither are they dodecaphonic. One could hardly call this music over-written, but it is also far from a minimalist kind of aesthet­ic. It feels as though there is a mature restraint. [A Propos de Nice] has an anti-narrative struc­ture, fragmented and unnerving sometimes. One must come to terms with a moment-to-moment style of listening to appreciate its beauty. The title piece, Unknown Ground, is the high point of the album. It is a power­ful work by the English composer, played and sung with dedication. AMERICAN RECORD GUIDE CRITICS’ CHOICE 2013

” —George Adams

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Unknown Ground, completed in 1990, is as brutally down-to-earth as a song cycle can be… concerned with the anguish and suffering of gay men, with the spectre of AIDS a dreadful, Damoclean omnipresence. Even for Finnissy, always a fearless composer, it’s brave to explore musically words that are not merely tragic, but defeated. Yet their quietness intimates an all-powerful, boundless rage and fury that’s heartrendingly real and immediate and authentic and true. Richard Jackson’s performance is simply astonishing; the occasional resemblance of his voice to Peter Pears only adds extra emotional weight to the multiple layers of exposed, open wounds; and the New Music Players are impeccable in their understanding of when, and to what extent, to keep their distance. The other two works on the disc are non-vocal but equally substantial. it took ten years for this CD to see light of day, but it was worth the wait, a disc demonstrating both the rawness and convolution of Finnissy’s musical language.

” —Simon Cummings

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Michael Finnissy has been served well by Divine Art. His sometimes simplistic, sometimes ultra-complex music tackles serious issues. Performances from the New Music Players under director Ed Hughes are all any composer could desire.

” —Michael Round

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Kritik der Urteilskraft is all restraint and fabulously beautiful long textures,.Unknown Ground is a moving setting, the emphasis always on the text Aprpos de Nice provides an often-jaunty contrast to the other two pieces. It is not easy music to get to know, but it is worth the effort. For those unfamiliar with [Finnissy’s] language, the disc is a good place to start.

” —Christian Morris