The California Duets are aimed at the intermediate bassist, bringing together three suites for Double Bass, Duet, each comprising four movements, and all connected in some way to the state of California, where Armand Russell now lives. The music is inventive and rhythmic, offering musical and technical challenges in equal measure, and music which offers much to performers and audiences alike. Written in a modern but lyrical and accessible idiom, each suite is carefully crafted to create short mood pictures or musical landscapes of this beautiful part of America.

“The Bodega Set is one of the series that I composed in what I think of as a California series. The name Bodega is the name of a bay on the edge of the Pacific Ocean near where I reside. There are some historical connections to the early Spanish explorers who stopped there long ago but now there are new villages and homes on the coast of this bay. So too this piece has a mix of traditional genres in the middle movements and less common ones for the first and last movements of this composition.

The Rincon Suite is named after the valley near where I live. This area has a rather mild but often cool temperature and marked 6 month divisions of the weather each year in rainy and dry times. No snow ever and no scorching summers. One might hear such features reflected in the music: no harsh extremes but recognizable changes of mood.

The Sonoma Divertimento is inspired by Sonoma, the name of a county, a town, and a region in Northern California where I reside. This area has a rather mild but often cool temperature and there are often changes of climate and mood which are reflected in the different musical styles and idioms.”
[Programme notes by Armand Russell]