"One of the early releases from this contemporary music label dedicated to surround-sound recordings, Niwa features the London Sinfonietta playing chamber works by Ramon Humet, a Catalan composer with a Japanese influence. The percussion suite "Four Zen Gardens" features bell and bamboo timbres in perfect equilibrium, sustaining the poise suggested by the title, while modulating from Yamash'ta-esque industry to resonant high-register tones. "Garden of Haikus" offers 10 short movements picked out in cryptic collusions, while the three sections of "Petals" represent individual lines from a Bankoku haiku performed by violin, cello and piano with a sombre grace. Exquisitely simple, but endlessly deep.” THE INDEPENDENT "The recording is spectacularly vivid, and it's easy to appreciate the exotic soundworlds Humet invents in Quatre Jardins Zen (for three percussionists) and the crisp imagery of the 10 miniatures of Jardin de Haikus.” THE GUARDIAN "Meditative atmospheres, a sobre design, harmonic refinement, transfigured echoes of traditional Japanese music (especially of the bamboo Shakuhachi flute), and an equilibrium between sound, resonance and silence are elements that demonstrate obvious parallels to the aesthetic of Toru Takemitsu. The silhouette of Japanese music can be perceived above all in Four Zen Gardens, in which the image of the Japanese garden does not act in a descriptive sense but as a metaphor for the fleeting, the impalpable and the tenuous. The poetic genre of the haiku stands as the structural principle of a musical form articulated in short sections. The result is not so much a succession of autonomous episodes as a fluid succession of musical figures. While Humet’s music obviously comprises the chief attraction of Niwa, further elements contribute to the excellence of the final product. Such is the case of the publisher’s exquisite presentation. Worthy of note, too, are the superb performances by London Sinfonietta, one of the most highly renowned groups devoted to the contemporary repertoire. And, finally, the extraordinary sound recording, which benefits from the latest technological innovations: high definition and surround sound. This is a great success in all its aspects." Rate: 5 / 5 ABC CULTURAL "A high quality product made with exquisite care (...) This disc both augments the pleasure of listening and reinvents the concept of sound recording (...) Ramon Humet’s work has the makings of great music. His personal world immediately goes beyond Cagean and orientalist dividends and dives into a world of resonances, timbres and meditative silences.” DIVERDI MAGAZINE "(...) expressive poetics charged with resonances from far away, filtered by an extremely contemplative, idiosyncratic voice which turns the music’s temporal material into a fresco of subtly graded inks and brushstrokes. Its rhythmic development of inter-cutting, spontaneous lines, which has little to do with the usual rigidity and dispersion of western music, concentrates the rhythmic energy of these pieces with an air that combines expressive warmth and harmonic resonance. The relationship with spectralism - which Humet recognises -, above all in the model represented by the English composer Jonathan Harvey, is perceptible here as a kind of background vibration, diluted, but flavouring even the smallest details. Humet’s art resembles the art of calligraphy, an art of gesture of the most precise kind, rigorous, and at the same time free, unfettered by any kind of categorisation." SONOGRAMA MAGAZINE "A disc of the highest order, completely in tune with the intention of Humet’s music, which is, in large part, to make contact with the heavens. The extremely careful production by Neu Records, together with London Sinfonietta’s impeccable performance immerse the listener, literally –through the use of surround sound 5.1, for which the right system is required– in a fascinating world. A world of perceptive fineness which runs though each of the disc’s three works from beginning to end, between which a track of silence has been recorded so that one’s body can internalise the musical experience just lived." REVISTA MUSICAL CATALANA "Forward-looking Spanish label Neu Records’ second release explores the music of Barcelona-born Ramon Humet, a composer (&, says his bio, engineer) with a strong interest in Japanese philosophy & thought. The album explores three substantial works of Humet’s, including his remarkable Quatre jardins zen, a large-scale meditation for bright, resonant percussion (favourable comparisons with Claude Vivier’s Cinq chansons come to mind). Alongside the miniature Jardi de haikus they vividly enunciate Humet’s evocative compositional voice.” 5AGAINST4.COM "Exquisite presentation and attractive design are evident qualities of this new work by the record label Neu Records. (…) The English group give an excellent interpretation, both in terms of beauty, and for its transparency, eloquence and sinuousity of timbre. (…) It is the product of a jeweller -almost an act of devotion- which catapults Neu Records into the sphere of today’s most attractive record labels. A revelation and fully recommended." SEGARRA MAGAZINE "These three works portray the creative stamp of Humet, for whom music is "a metaphor for life". Many of his scores are musical landscapes; detailed X-rays, subtle and transparent, of space and time." ABC "The chamber works brought together in Niwa represent Humet’s most recent words, perhaps the most subtle given the material worked on, in which he shows the importance of resonance and of silence as generative forces. A highly significant silence marks the breaks between Four Zen Gardens (a subtle percussion piece), Garden of Haikus, and Petals." CULTURAS. LA VANGUARDIA