Dreamcatcher James McVinnie

• Gabriella Smith (b. 1991):
• 1 Smith: Imaginary Pancake 08:11
• Nico Muhly (b. 1961):
• 2 Muhly: Patterns: Move along 03:54
• 3 Muhly: Patterns: Palindromes 02:40
• 4 Muhly: Patterns: Similar 03:26
• 5 Muhly: Patterns: Very Fast Music 05:30
• Laurie Spiegel (b. 1945):
• 6 Spiegel: The Unquestioned Answer (Arr. for Organ by James McVinnie) 09:18
• Meredith Monk (b. 1942):
• 7 Monk: Ellis Island (Arr. for Organ by James McVinnie) 03:13
• inti figgis-vizueta (b. 1993):
• 8 figgis-vizueta: build-it-yourself 02:49
• Marcos Balter (b. 1974):
• 9 Balter: Dreamcatcher 03:11
• John Adams (1735 - 1826):
• 10 Adams: China Gates 05:04
• Giles Swanye (b. 1946):
• 11 Swanye: Riff-raff 17:40
• Bryce Dessner (b. 1976):
• 12 Dessner: Song for Octave 03:37
• Total Runtime 01:08:33

Info for Dreamcatcher

Organist and pianist James McVinnie makes his PENTATONE debut with Dreamcatcher, an intimate sequence of contemporary classical music centred around the act of imagining. The recording features the organ of St Albans Cathedral—an epoch-making instrument closely associated with legendary organists Peter Hurford and Ralph Downes.

The piano segments of the album were recorded on a Steinway D of exceptional beauty at Studio Richter Mahr, co-founded by composer Max Richter and visual artist Yulia Mahr. A mesmerising sonic trip, Dreamcatcher reflects the unique artistic persona of McVinnie, whose mastery of core organ repertoire extends to an extensive body of work written for him by leading contemporary classical composers, as well as collaborations in the world of electronic and experimental music.

The album features works by Nico Muhly, Meredith Monk, Laurie Spiegel, John Adams, inti figgis-vizeuta, Gabriella Smith, Glies Swayne, Bryce Dessner & Marcos Balter. The album's title is taken from Marcos Balter’s work of the same name, written in response to the child separation crisis at the US-Mexico border in 2018— “dreamers” being the name given to children separated from their families by the Trump administration’s immigration policy. This record also presents the first ever recording of Giles Swayne's Riff-raff made on the St Albans organ for which the work was written in 1983— McVinnie’s rendition embodying a perfect synergy between the piece’s minimalist roots and the modernist tonal philosophy of this instrument.

Through his boundless approach to music making, innovative programming and captivating musicianship, James McVinnie has carved out a unique career as an organist and keyboard player.

James McVinnie, piano, organ St. Albans Cathedral

Please Note: We offer this album in its native sampling rate of 48 kHz, 24-bit. The provided 96 kHz version was up-sampled and offers no audible value!

James McVinnies
Through his boundless approach to music making, his collaborations with a vast array of artists from many different walks of musical life, his innovative programming and captivating musicianship of the highest order, James McVinnie has carved out a unique career as an organist and keyboard player.

McVinnie has had major concerto and solo works written for him by Sam Adams, David Chalmin, artist Martin Creed, Bryce Dessner, Hildur Guðnadóttir, David Lang, Tom Jenkinson/Squarepusher, Nico Muhly, Richard Reed Parry, Tristan Perich, and Gabriella Smith among many others.

He directs the James McVinnie Ensemble, a collective of virtuoso keyboardists dedicated to exploring work often preoccupied with political themes by contemporary and emerging composers. The ensemble’s roots go back to 2017 with a performance at London’s Barbican Centre of Music in Twelve Parts by Philip Glass, the only performance in the piece’s history given by anyone other than the Philip Glass Ensemble.

He is a member of Icelandic collective and record label Bedroom Community, on which he has released three albums: "Cycles" (2013, works by Nico Muhly), "Cycles_1" (2016, a remix album), and "Counterpoint" (2021) which pairs music of J.S. Bach and Philip Glass. "The Grid" (2018) is a studio album of music by Philip Glass using organ samples on Orange Mountain Music. "All Night Chroma," featuring music by Tom Jenkinson/Squarepusher and recorded on the Royal Festival Hall organ in London, was released on Warp Records in 2019.

McVinnie recently completed a year-long residency at London’s Southbank Centre during which he gave three separate solo performances on the Royal Festival Hall’s organ, two as part of the RFH's "Organ at 70" celebrations, for which he performed Buxtehude, Bach, Tristan Perich’s Infinity Gradient, an hour long work written for McVinnie for organ and 100 speakers in 1bit audio; Fantasias centring around Liszt’s Ad nos ad salutarem undam; as well as a James McVinnie Ensemble program of American Minimalism at RFH. His fifth and final residency concert — an all-Bach program for piano and organ in the Queen Elizabeth Hall — was postponed owing to illness and will be rescheduled in 2025-26 season.

"Dreamcatcher," an album of contemporary American music by composers closely associated with McVinnie, who plays both organ and piano, was released on Pentatone in January 2025. The recording features the organ of St. Albans Cathedral, an epoch-making instrument closely associated with legendary organists Peter Hurford and Ralph Downes. The piano segments of the album were recorded at Studio Richter Mahr, co-founded by composer Max Richter and visual artist Yulia Mahr.

Booklet for Dreamcatcher