Including a diverse selection of Sicilian cellist Giovanni Sollima's compositions spanning 2000 to 2004, Works is a worthy introduction to the wide range of Sollima's artistry. The album begins with the four-part "Terra" suite, commissioned for a dance performance at the 2001 Venice Biennale and featuring Sollima multi-tracked on at least four cellos, with Maurizio Curcio added on djembe ("Terra Acqua") and on stick bass and sampling ("Terra Fuoco"). The opening "Terra Aria" might be Sollima's best-known piece thanks to Norwegian video artist Lasse Gjertsen's Daydream video, which matches the music to fantastical imagery from expansive skies down to the molecular level, including an introductory sequence in which Sollima sprouts extra arms to play all the parts on a single cello and another in which the viewer glides along a mountain stream in a seamless montage of nearly psychedelic naturalism. As amazing as those visuals are, "Terra Aria" stands on its own here as mesmerizing music. Sollima's foundation of ostinatos holds back from harmonic resolution to achieve maximum tension and release; over this, the cellist plays long vibrato-laden melodic lines that ebb and flow until finally breaking away to join the insistently rhythmic bowed and plucked strings underneath. The folkish tinges and tribal percussive midsection (using only cello, apparently) of "Terra Danza" and the electro-world music flavorings of "Terra Fuoco" are also beautiful in their own right, although "Terra Acqua" sounds like Sollima and Curcio merely having fun with a digital delay unit -- like the more abstract album-closer, "Notte," it's still a good example of Sollima's experimental side.

1		Terra Aria
2		Terra Acqua
3		Terra Danza
4		Terra Fuoco
5		Zobeide
6		Byron
7		Hell I
8		Hell VI (Ugolino)
9		La Spera Ottava
10		Inversion Recovery
11		Trio
12		Notte

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