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AMN Reviews: Francesca Gaza, Kugelförmigkeit Ensemble – Crown Shyness (2026; New Amsterdam)
With a band name like the "Kugelförmigkeit Ensemble," Francesca Gaza practically demands that we start with definitions. "Kugelförmigkeit" means something like "sphere-shapedness," and it carries musico-philosophical baggage. It echoes composer Bernd Alois Zimmermann's concept of "Kugelgestalt der Zeit"--"sphericality of time." Zimmermann saw time as non-linear, going so far as to conceptualize his opera, Die Soldaten, with twelve sometimes-overlapping stages.